In this insightful talk from UnleashCon, Eric Jost, VP of Platform Engineering at Medidata, shares how his team successfully implemented Unleash—a feature flag management tool—in a highly regulated industry. Medidata, a leader in clinical trial management, faced unique challenges due to stringent compliance requirements that hindered innovation and slowed down software delivery. Eric discusses the strategies his team employed to overcome these obstacles, transform their development processes, and foster a culture of innovation.
What You'll Learn:
Challenges of Operating in a Highly Regulated Industry:
Understanding the limitations imposed by strict compliance and regulatory requirements.
The impact of rigid processes on developer productivity and innovation.
The drawbacks of a "build perfect" mindset and how it stifles progress.
Building the Business Case for Change:
Strategies for justifying the need for new tools and processes.
Measuring developer experience, release frequency, and cost savings.
Introducing the concept of "safer releases" to minimize risk through gradual rollouts.
Why Unleash Was the Right Choice:
Focusing on incremental innovation over perfection.
Leveraging Unleash's feature flag management capabilities to drive change.
Establishing a strong partnership with Unleash to address unique challenges and requirements.
Rolling Out Unleash Across the Organization:
Starting small with proof of concept and gradually expanding adoption.
Overcoming cultural resistance and changing long-standing processes.
Implementing change requests to meet auditability and access control needs in a regulated environment.
Outcomes and Future Plans:
Doubling release frequency while maintaining or reducing headcount.
Expanding Unleash adoption to more teams and legacy products.
Exploring FedRAMP certification and self-hosted options for enhanced compliance.
Continuing the journey toward transforming development practices in a large organization.
About the Speaker:
Eric Jost is the Vice President of Platform Engineering at Medidata, where he leads the development of tooling that drives the company's ecosystem—from services to UIs and everything in between. With over two and a half years at Medidata and a background in software engineering, Eric is passionate about fostering innovation and improving developer experience. Based in Denver, Colorado, he balances his professional life with family time and a love for golf.
