Need for accurate metrics
LaunchDarkly, a leader in feature management and experimentation, empowers development teams with real-time control over their production code. As part of its growth strategy, LaunchDarkly created LaunchX, an incubation team tasked with developing and scaling new product offerings.
Managing the entire product lifecycle—from MVP validation to commercial viability—presents unique challenges for LaunchX. One critical issue they faced was the difficulty in effectively tracking and managing their sales pipeline performance. Specifically, they struggled with:
- Resource limitations: Without a dedicated operations specialist, analytics and reporting were slow and overly manual, relying on patched-together Salesforce reports and Looker dashboards.
- Lack of visibility: Salesforce's built-in reporting didn't provide the team with the ability to track historical trends in pipeline performance or to differentiate between existing customers expanding and net new customers acquired through new products.
- Data trust issues: Existing ARR dashboards were unreliable, leading to inaccurate metrics being reported to leadership and slowing down decision-making velocity.
Without a clear view of pipeline performance, the LaunchX team was flying blind with a limited understanding of the GTM traction of their new product offerings. As Joe Ryan, VP of Product & Revenue Strategy, shared, "I needed insight fast, with as little work as possible. Otherwise, I’d have to call up our data team, and that could take three months. I didn’t have three months."
Recognizing the need for a flexible, quick-to-deploy solution that would deliver fast, reliable insights on pipeline performance, Joe turned to Equals.
Salesforce reports without an engineer
The LaunchX team found Equals’ dashboards for CRM analytics to be the perfect starting point. After connecting Equals to their Snowflake and Salesforce data, they partnered with Equals Experts to create a sales pipeline dashboard with historical and current views of deal volume by pipeline stage, deals won, and ARR generated—all tailored to the unique dynamics of LaunchX's business.
“Within a week, we had a pipeline performance dashboard up and running. Two weeks in, it was providing value,” shared Joe. “Equals was plug-and-play—it was fast, efficient, and delivered exactly what we needed.”
For the first time, the team had full visibility into historical pipeline trends, enabling them to answer fundamental questions like:
- How has the pipeline changed week over week?
- Are we on track to meet monthly pipeline goals?
- How are pipeline conversion rates shifting over time?
- How quickly are deals moving through the pipeline?
By automating dashboard reporting and distribution with Equals, LaunchDarkly also avoided the need to purchase additional BI tools. “I didn’t have to beg, borrow, or steal resources to build dashboards,” says Joe. “Equals saved us about three months of Ops implementation time—easily $50K in value.”
One source of truth for the team
The new CRM dashboards became the team’s go-to source of truth. Automatically refreshed daily and distributed via Slack every week, they provided real-time insights that guided decisions and discussions at leadership meetings. These dashboards highlighted trends, risks, and wins—instilling confidence in LaunchX’s data-driven decisions.
Joe notes, “Before Equals, I couldn’t trust the numbers I shared with my leadership team. Now, I know the metrics are accurate, and I can stand behind them."
Along the way, Equals has become an indispensable tool for LaunchDarkly’s GTM efforts. “Building Looker or Tableau reports too early can slow you down—they’re expensive and require data scientists and engineers to maintain,” explains Joe. "With a tool like Equals, revenue leaders are empowered to get into the metrics that matter faster."
LaunchDarkly also leverages Equals dashboards to identify where to prioritize resources for GTM experimentation. For example, after sending their team on a roadshow in EMEA, the company tracked $6M in pipeline generated directly from the event—pipeline that wouldn’t have been attributable without Equals.
Now, the LaunchDarkly team plans to build pipeline performance dashboards to create scalable reporting for future LaunchX product launches, providing real-time visibility into the pipeline and returns on GTM investments as the team works towards incubating and scaling 2-3 new offerings annually.
With Equals, LaunchDarkly has turned their reporting challenges into a competitive advantage.