Thread by @msuriar

Operational Excellence in April Fool's pranks, by @yesthattom #srecon

2015, April 1, 1023 UTC: stackoverflow enabled an easter egg.
#srecon

But we rolled back, and it was fine. Let's talk about reliable easter egg/April fool's features.
#srecon

What makes April Fool's pranks funny?
1. Topical
2. Absurdist (not silly for silly's sake)
3. Surprise
#srecon

The Mustache Story
- Managers trying to write a joke by committee.
- Then call in @yesthattom
#srecon

What's in the news? Face recognition! "Didn't we just buy a company with face recognition? Let's put a mustache on everyone in the corporate directory!"

#srecon

Next: Stackoverflow 2FA video.


#srecon

What shouldn't you do?
- Hurt people
- Punch down
- Inside jokes

#srecon

Top 5 best practices:
1. Feature flags
- Protect feature behind a flag. Rollout and rollback is easier.
2. Load tests (the flossing of IT)
- A/B test with and without prank
3. Dark launches
- Launch the feature, but hide it from users (CSS display:hidden).
#srecon

3. Dark launches
- Find bottlenecks before launch. (6 month dark launch for Facebook messenger)
- Google IPv6 javascript experiments
#srecon

Bad examples with no dark launch:
- StackEgg
- Apple livestream for iPhone 6/Apple Watch launch.
#srecon

4. Involve all silos
- Marketing
- PR
- Sales
- Engineering
- Support
- Execs

(Principle of least surprise). #srecon

5. Do a retrospective
- Make sure you learn from it, whether it went well or less well.
#srecon

Now: The lazy way!
1. Use someone else's resources. - Dance dance authentication - blog post and a youtube video.
2. Creatively describe something that already exists.
3. Troll people. (go 3.0 with generics --> Java)
#srecon

3. is actually: misleading your audience. #srecon

And we're done!