At Equal Experts, we often explain and advocate the benefits of continuous delivery or product thinking and look to embed this mindset into the teams and organisations that we work with. 

Here in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve taken this one step further, working closely with SaaS provider LaunchDarkly to share our joint continuous delivery expertise in the Asia Pacific region. 

We’re proud to announce that Equal Experts has recently gained Platinum Partner Accreditation with LaunchDarkly, the only organisation in AUNZ to reach this milestone. 

What is LaunchDarkly?

LaunchDarkly is a feature management provider that enables engineers to use features as a control point to improve every aspect of software releases.

Established in 2014, the platform aims to improve the process of connecting code to good customer experience. It supports developers to improve development cycles, de-risk and release software faster, reduce costly service outages and ensure users get a better software experience. 

Feature toggles give developers a safety valve to instantly rewind if things go wrong, providing greater flexibility to test and roll back any errors in new features quickly and without impacting the rest of the product or service. It also gives product managers a chance to run experiments on new features with small groups of real users and test performance before rolling out widely.  Managers can also target product experiences to any customer segment and maximise the business impact of every feature.

Accreditation process

As a LaunchDarkly accredited partner, I have recently undertaken the required training and development within LaunchDarkly’s online academy, moving through the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels.

This involved a series of online training sessions and exams which focused not only on using the LaunchDarkly product but also included a lot of useful information on some of the wider fundamentals of product delivery. 

During the course, I supplemented my existing knowledge base with a deeper background understanding of the concepts and scientific theory behind product experimentation and the link between software and business performance. LaunchDarkly’s training and tests include fundamental guidance on designing, running, and analysing experiments and avoiding bias. This level of understanding is critically important to developers and the way the information is presented is transferable to other tools and clients beyond LaunchDarkly. 

Demonstrating the benefit and value of continuous delivery, avoiding bias and understanding data reliability can often be the biggest challenges we face when starting a new client engagement. Having this grounding in the fundamentals and concepts is incredibly useful. 

Shared values and leaving a lasting legacy

One of Equal Expert’s core values is all about delivering business outcomes, as opposed to just building working software and this is a value shared by LaunchDarkly. Building the right product, over building the product right, fits perfectly with how LaunchDarkly advises its customers. 

A desire to upskill our customers and leave behind a lasting legacy of knowledge and skills is also shared by both Equal Experts and LaunchDarkly, clearly demonstrated by the provision of a training course which focuses as much on building background knowledge on core continuous delivery concepts as how to use the LaunchDarkly platform itself.

Equal Experts Australia and New Zealand are delighted to have gained a Platinum Partner Accreditation with LaunchDarkly and we are looking forward to supporting clients across the Asia Pacific region on their digital transformation journeys. 

If you want to find out more get in touch with Equal Experts now. Or you can also find out more about LaunchDarkly in our recent Expert Talks session, available on YouTube now Move faster, be safer: The impact of release velocity and psychological safety – YouTube .