{"id":111840,"date":"2020-11-23T15:39:25","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T15:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.wingify.com\/blog\/progressive-rollout-guide\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:12:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:42:37","slug":"progressive-rollout-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wingify.com\/blog\/progressive-rollout-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"The Step-by-Step Guide to Progressive Rollout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You\u2019ve heard all about the surface-level benefits of rapid product releases. They let you explore,\u00a0experiment\u00a0with, and test features faster. They create a more collaborative development process. And they let you run an efficient high-output team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of these benefits are true, but the biggest benefits you\u2019ll enjoy from driving rapid releases lie even deeper than is commonly acknowledged\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid releases do create better products.<\/strong>\u00a0Rapid releases create a short feedback loop between you and your users. You learn very quickly what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t, and you can quickly adjust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even more important, rapid releases get you and your team out of your own heads.\u00a0Rapid releases force you to get your product and feature ideas out of the lab and into the real world.<\/em>\u00a0This constant contact with reality leads you to create products that simply and directly deliver the actual functions your users need most, while leaving the nice-to-have fluff on the whiteboard.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid releases do create happier users.<\/strong>\u00a0Rapid releases let you provide new features, and fix bugs, as quickly as possible. You constantly give your users a better and better product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on an even deeper level, rapid releases demonstrate that you care about your users. It shows them that you are listening to their feedback, and that you are taking it seriously. It tells your users that you care about them so much that you have structured the heart of your product management strategy around doing whatever it takes to make them happy and loyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid releases do create better businesses.<\/strong>\u00a0Rapid releases\u2014when properly executed\u2014can create a lot of excitement and enthusiasm throughout your entire organization. They create a culture of progress and forward momentum, where everyone feels that they are contributing to real outcomes and not just spinning their wheels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But rapid releases also improve your organization\u2019s culture through an even subtler mechanism. Each release can act as a touchpoint that connects the product team with everyone else in the organization. It gives you a common reason to celebrate, to collaborate, and to realign groups that are too often siloed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, we don\u2019t want to oversell rapid releases here. They are not a cure-all, and they are not even appropriate for every single situation. But if you are operating in a context where you can accelerate your product and feature release cycle, you\u2019ll experience a whole lot of upside with little-to-no downside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you drive rapid releases in your organization, we\u2019ll use this piece to explore why rapid releases can be challenging to pull off (even in an agile product development framework), what is the key ingredient you can adopt to overcome all of these challenges, and how to bring that ingredient to life in your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biggest Challenges to Driving Rapid Releases<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear about one thing\u2014 not every organization is well set up to deliver rapid releases. Product managers at big, legacy corporations tend to have a hard time getting anything out in a timely manner. This is almost never their fault. They just have so many layers of review and approval for everything they do that it can take months to push out a small feature that a smaller, nimbler organization could release in weeks or days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this is your context, then the best thing you can do is attempt to establish the core principles of lean product development in your organization. This will represent a huge win, and speed things up significantly for you, all by itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for the rest of you\u2014 Let\u2019s assume you are working at one of those smaller, nimbler organizations. And you are already following an agile product development process.\u00a0And you still are not releasing new products and features as quickly as you\u2019d like.<\/em>\u00a0Chances are, you\u2019re being bottlenecked by one or more of these subtle challenges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n