How To Rollout Features for Selected Users in a Web App

With just an if statement and some planning

Image by @derstudi on Unsplash

Most of us have witnessed applications where some new features are initially made available to only a portion of the user base and then gradually rolled out to the rest of the users.

Some applications release new features to all users in a given location, some might release it to the most active users, and some might release it for a random selection of their users. Some applications even ask users if they are willing to try the new feature. However, only some users might actually be presented with the opportunity to opt-in.

The process of releasing features gradually in this way is called a Feature Rollout.

The Why

Being able to release some feature to only a subset of the user base is a very powerful ability and is not limited only to being able to do gradual feature rollouts. Some other advantages are:

• This allows us to pilot or test new features by targeting certain users without affecting the rest of the user base. For example, we might want to target some features to those users who are more likely to give feedback and report bugs.
• We might also release different variations of a feature or design to some users and…