LaunchDarkly on LaunchDarkly: How we build better web experiences with fast, code-free experimentation

Before

• Setting up experiments and managing traffic took weeks of effort to ensure diverse user segments were included.
• Website changes required significant engineering resources, delaying implementation by days or weeks.
• Limited visibility into the effect of external variables on metrics after website changes.

After

• Quick, efficient experimentation across user segments without complex traffic management.
• Experiments can run instantly, enabling faster, data-informed decisions with rapid user feedback.
• Demo request conversion increased by 3x, due to optimized page elements like copy, form placement, and design.

At LaunchDarkly, we don’t just build experimentation tools—we rely on them to improve our own website performance. Our website team, led by Justin Coons, Website Project Manager, uses LaunchDarkly Experimentation to refine SEO, boost conversion rates, and enhance the overall user experience.

The team can iterate quickly by testing page elements such as copy, call-to-action buttons (CTAs), layouts, and more. This results in faster website changes, more personalized content, and data-driven improvements for conversion and user experience.

Challenge

The website team at LaunchDarkly needed a way to refine user experience and conversions—particularly on high-impact pages like pricing and landing pages. Traditional A/B testing tools, which rely on DOM-based JavaScript injection, were slow and unreliable, leading to poor experiment execution and inaccurate results. Managing variations manually across devices and regions was time-consuming, making it difficult to quickly pinpoint actionable results from experiments and creating inefficiencies for multiple teams.

“Where many experimentation platforms fall short is relying on DOM-based JavaScript injections style A/B testing, which causes inefficiencies and poor user experiences. LaunchDarkly gives us the best of both worlds by combining speed with robust capabilities,” explains Justin Coons.

One of the biggest challenges was engineering bottlenecks. Every test required significant developer involvement, delaying critical improvements.

LaunchDarkly Experimentation uses feature flags, improving performance by eliminating the need for DOM-based JavaScript injection. This approach results in faster load times, more reliable experiments, and a better overall user experience compared to traditional client-side platforms. 

Solution

Experimentation capabilities in the LaunchDarkly platform have transformed how the team improves the website. Using feature flags, they eliminated slow DOM-based JavaScript injection style of A/B testing, expanded experiment capacity, and refined audiences and metrics in their experiments for more accurate results. Engineering resources to run experiments are no longer a bottleneck, and now the team can build high-impact tests instead of manually managing traffic and user segments.

“One of the biggest wins has been reducing the engineering effort required for experimentation. We’ve freed up our team to focus on strategic initiatives while still running robust, effective tests on the website,” says Justin.

Unlike traditional A/B testing tools, the LaunchDarkly feature flags eliminated performance issues, enabling instant experiment rollouts without slowing down the site. With fewer engineering resources required to build experiments, the website team can now launch tests autonomously and more frequently.

Results

Since implementing LaunchDarkly on the website, the team has been able to run 5+ experiments simultaneously—a dramatic increase in testing velocity. Over the last four months, we’ve executed 12 high-impact tests, leading to:

• 3x increase in conversions of website visitors to demo requests
• 3x reduction in cost per lead, freeing up resources to invest in other marketing initiatives
• Faster iterations, giving engineers more time to focus on other strategic initiatives and enabling autonomy for the website team to control their own testing roadmap

With faster test execution, real-time results on experiments, and less engineering friction to set up experiments, the LaunchDarkly website team built a culture of continuous improvement.