Disposable-First Architecture: Build Fast, Kill Faster
summary
Presents a Disposable-First Architecture approach that isolates experimental features as separate microservices with feature flags, a kill switch, outbox/events, independent storage and product-facing metrics so experiments can be removed quickly. Describes a quick MVP called Secret Boxes that exceeded expected sales (~10×), forcing core tuning, and reports tradeoffs: manual support, missing admin tooling, lingering dead code and increased coupling when shortcuts are taken; gives a 20%/80% hit rate and a ~1,000-box/month success threshold.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:50Architecture problems
- 4:22Restaurant analogies
- 7:14Tight coupling
- 13:00Legacy code removal
- 17:40Feature success stats
- 20:30Disposable-First principle
- 24:51Feature metrics
- 28:49Flags vs Kill Switch
- 31:19Secret boxes launch
- 34:11Summary
- 36:22Q&A
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