In this episode of The Programming Podcast, Danny Thompson and Leon Noel dive deep into the world of feature flags—what they are, why they matter, and how to use them to ship faster and smarter. They cover real-world examples of rolling out new features in production, the debate around staging environments vs. testing in production, and the pros and cons of unit testing. They also tackle freelance pitfalls—especially those 50/50 payment splits—and share practical tips on ensuring you always get paid. Whether you’re a startup engineer or working at a Fortune 500, you’ll find valuable insights on scaling, testing, and collaborating in modern software development.

Listen to The Programming Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts!

Spotify link

https://open.spotify.com/show/6d59PZ138KeoKfq5hoVvyQ

Danny's GitHub demo

https://github.com/TheDThompsonDev/featureFlagDemo

📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?

Email us at dannyandleonpodcast@gmail.com!

Learn about the huge software developer mistakes that could cost you job opportunities in the hiring process. Don't make these critical errors!

Join Leon Noel and Danny Thompson as they discuss how to get a job in today's market as a software developer!

Danny Thompson

https://x.com/DThompsonDev

https://www.linkedin.com/in/DThompsonDev

CommitYourCode.Com

Leon Noel

https://x.com/leonnoel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonnoel/

https://100devs.org/

📧 Have ideas or questions for the show? Or are you a business that wants to talk business?

Email us at dannyandleonpodcast@gmail.com!

Chapters & Timestamps

0:00 Intro & Catching Up

1:22 Leon’s Updates: 100 Devs & Job Hunt

2:40 Danny’s Updates: Building a Conference

4:05 Chasing Yeses (4,000 Emails!)

6:00 Introducing Feature Flags

9:00 Enterprise Use Cases for Feature Flags

13:00 Testing in Production vs. Staging

18:00 The Debate: Staging Environments

20:00 Edge Cases, QA, & Best Practices

23:00 Unit Testing Pros & Cons

28:00 Best Tools for Feature Flag Management

31:00 Freelance Question: 50/50 Payouts

34:50 Ensuring You Get Paid as a Subcontractor

37:10 Outro & Next Steps

Feature Flags, Start ups vs Enterprise Level Organizations

The Programming Podcast