Testing in production… sounds crazy, right? It turns out that testing in production (when done right!) offers huge advantages. It’s not for every team or every feature, but it’s a powerful tool in the right hands.

The traditional cycle of dev, test, staging, then prod is slow and often inaccurate. Test environments are never a perfect replica of production, leading to surprises after release. Testing in prod gives you invaluable real-world feedback, faster.

Here’s why you might consider it:

✅ Real Traffic, Real Data: Forget synthetic tests – get genuine user behavior
✅ Rapid Feedback: Iterate quickly based on real-world use
✅ Cost Effective: No need for expensive, mirrored environments
✅ Faster Rollouts: Feature toggles enable instant activation/deactivation

Of course, there are risks. Use feature toggles to easily disable new features. Monitor aggressively for errors. Start with a small subset of users (A/B testing, canary releases). Have a rollback plan ready.

Are you brave enough to test in prod? Or does it sound like utter madness? Is it worth to risk production availability? What’s your experience?