← LaunchDarkly
LaunchDarkly role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
Software that lets engineering teams turn features on or off with feature flags, so releases are safer and faster.
Who you'd be calling
VPs and Directors of Engineering, Heads of Product, DevOps and Platform leads at software companies shipping frequent releases.
Your opener
“Hi [Name], this is [You] from LaunchDarkly. I know I'm catching you cold. I talk to engineering leaders about how they release new features without risking an outage. How do you handle it today when a release goes wrong?”
Problems you solve for them
- Risky releases that can break things for all users
- Slow rollbacks when a bad feature goes live
- Hard to test new features with a small group first
Discovery questions to ask
- How does your team release a new feature to customers today?
- If a release causes problems, how quickly can you turn it off?
- Do you test features with a small group of users before a full launch?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ Got it, I'll be fast. I just want to know how you handle bad releases. Can I ask you one question?
“Not interested.”
→ That's fine. Most teams don't think about this until a release breaks something. When was the last time that happened for you?
“We already built our own feature flags.”
→ That's very common, and it works well early on. Who maintains it now, and does it take engineering time away from the product? That's usually when teams start looking.
“Just send me an email.”
→ Sure. Who on your team owns releases? I'll send a short note aimed at that person, then check back in a week.
Competitors worth knowing
Optimizely, Harness, Unleash
Interview tips for this company
- Learn what a feature flag is and explain it with a light switch analogy.
- Know that your buyers are engineers and engineering managers who dislike fluff, so keep your answers short and direct.
- Be ready for 'we built it ourselves' as a main objection, since it's common in this market.
Written from public information about LaunchDarkly to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.