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Nitin Nair
Nitin Nair

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Teaching Feature Flags to a Junior Changed How I Think About Architecture

In a recent sprint, one of my junior developers asked me how *LaunchDarkly * actually fits into our React-Native-Web codebase. Not just the syntax — but the system around it.

It turned into one of my best mentoring sessions this year.

We discussed the fundamentals:

  • LaunchDarkly’s purpose in multi-platform environments
  • Why feature flags matter more than config toggles
  • How variations allow safe experimentation
  • How rules can target specific user segments
  • Why controlled rollouts reduce production anxiety
  • And how our RN-Web setup consumes flags in a unified pattern

What surprised me wasn’t the complexity — it was how powerful these concepts become once a developer truly understands them.

Teaching this reminded me of a simple truth:
Architecture isn’t about writing code. It’s about creating decisions that future developers can trust.

And sometimes, the biggest impact you make isn’t shipping a feature…

It’s helping someone else ship one, safely.

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