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I had the pleasure of hosting Egil Osthus, CEO and co-founder of Unleash, to talk about how enterprise teams can move away from rigid, high-risk release cycles to safer, faster, and more iterative delivery. Egil shares how he led a 500-person engineering org from quarterly (and even yearly) releases to a deploy-whenever model—despite legal constraints, stakeholder objections, and legacy systems.
We talk through the real-world playbook: how to manage stakeholder expectations, start small, build trust, and keep momentum with early wins. From feature flags to feedback loops, this episode is packed with practical strategies for engineering leaders who want to modernize release processes without triggering chaos.
What you’ll learn
How to shift from long release cycles to frequent, low-risk deployments
Why stakeholder alignment is more important than technical tooling
How to introduce change without triggering resistance
Practical strategies for starting small and building trust across the org
The role of feature management in enabling safer, iterative delivery
How better feedback loops can improve product direction and team focus
Why most developers already know this is the right way—and what’s still blocking them
How to win over skeptics by reframing big changes as small experiments
What leaders often get wrong about risk in modern release strategies
“If you're facing resistance, start with something small. Call it an experiment, not a change. Show early wins, share stories, and make the value obvious. That’s how you build trust—and momentum.” - Egil Osthus, CEO at Unleash
Egil Osthus is the CEO and co-founder of Unleash, an open-source feature management platform used by enterprises to ship software faster and safer. He’s an experienced engineering leader with a background in developer tools, large-scale software delivery, and organizational transformation.
Before starting Unleash, Egil held multiple leadership roles at Visma, one of Europe’s largest SaaS companies, where he led product development across international teams and drove the transition from long release cycles to continuous delivery.
Resources:
Content Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to CTO Insights
01:10 Intro to Egil Osthus, CEO at Unleash
02:50 Challenges in Enterprise Release Processes
04:48 Transitioning to Continuous Delivery
06:01 Stakeholder Management and Communication
11:02 Practical Implementation Strategies
26:00 The Role of Tooling in Modern Release Strategies
27:32 Customer Feedback and Feature Management
32:27 Common Mistakes and Final Advice
