In today's tech landscape, canary deployments are more accessible than ever before. With modern tooling, it's simple to direct a portion of traffic to the latest code iteration. However, the conventional approach of traffic percentage allocation may overlook crucial considerations regarding user experience.

Canary deployments offer a robust strategy for minimizing deployment risks, but engineering teams encounter various challenges in their implementation:

- Ensuring backward compatibility in code and database modifications.
- Determining optimal timing for scaling up traffic exposure.
- Understanding the broader user impact when only a subset receives new features.
- Addressing post-deployment issues effectively.

This session delves into a user-centric perspective on canary deployments, aiming to achieve deployment objectives while mitigating user confusion. Attendees will gain insights into adaptable strategies applicable to diverse applications. Key takeaways include:

- Recognizing the limitations of traffic percentage-based strategies.
- Leveraging user segmentation by factors such as location, team affiliation, or job role.
- Implementing release rings tailored for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.
- Offering opt-in mechanisms for users to trial new features.
- Embracing the expand and contract pattern for seamless database alterations.