Summary

Discover how Imperfect Foods transformed their product development process by scaling experimentation and deploying features quickly, leading to doubled weekly order volumes over the past 6 months. They did it with Split feature management and experimentation (acquired by Harness).

• Experiment-driven development: Imperfect Foods scaled their experimentation process, running controlled A/B tests to optimize product features and drive growth.
• Speedy website changes: Feature flags enabled the team to make fast changes to their website without requiring code pushes or deployments, improving responsiveness.
• Increased revenue and engagement: Experiments on product subscriptions led to higher order volumes, driving significant revenue growth.
• Dynamic configurations for efficiency: Imperfect Foods implemented dynamic configurations, empowering non-technical product managers to make rapid changes, improving developer velocity.

About Imperfect Foods

Imperfect Foods (acquired by Misfits Market) is an online grocery delivery service with a mission to eliminate food waste. 

The company rescues surplus and cosmetically imperfect foods from farms, manufacturers, and suppliers and sells them to customers. With a focus on sustainable food practices, Imperfect Foods provides a subscription-based service where customers can receive a mix of grocery items like produce, dairy, meats, grains, and snacks.

Imperfect Foods uses Split to power its experiment-driven approach to product development, enabling the team to test new features, make dynamic website changes, and optimize the customer experience. This approach has led to notable growth in customer engagement and revenue, including a doubling of weekly order volumes over the past 6 months.

Challenge

Need for experimentation and fast iteration

Imperfect Foods wanted to implement a data-driven approach to product development but faced challenges in creating an effective experimentation framework. While the team initially tried building their own feature flagging system, they weren’t getting the value they expected.

Patti Chan, VP Product at Imperfect Foods, explains: “Split allowed us to establish an 'experiment-driven process' without having to invest the time to build out an extensive framework ourselves.”

The team needed a more efficient way to deploy and test new features across the site without slowing down development or risking negative impacts on user experience.

Solution

Faster experimentation and safer deployments

Imperfect Foods turned to Split to streamline their experimentation and deployment process. With Split’s feature flags, the team could safely test new features, optimize the customer journey, and experiment with dynamic configurations in real-time.

Key benefits with Split:

• Experiment-driven development: Imperfect Foods implemented A/B testing for new features, enabling the team to make data-driven decisions on product changes.
• Fast, low-risk changes: Feature flags allowed the team to rapidly toggle features on and off, minimizing risk while testing new ideas.
• Dynamic configurations: The team used dynamic configurations to make website changes without requiring code pushes, improving efficiency.
• Improved customer engagement: Split’s A/B tests on subscription options and website features led to increased customer satisfaction and higher order volumes.

Patti Chan comments: “Split allowed us to test multiple versions of subscription options and quickly see what worked, without the risk of deploying untested features to all our users.”

Results

Driving revenue growth and operational efficiency

The integration of Split into Imperfect Foods' product development workflow led to measurable improvements in both customer engagement and business operations:

• Doubling weekly order volumes: After experimenting with new subscription features, weekly order volumes doubled within six months.
• Increased conversion rates: Through A/B testing, Imperfect Foods optimized the signup flow, leading to higher customer adoption of grocery add-ons.
• Faster website changes: By leveraging feature flags and dynamic configurations, the team could quickly respond to customer needs without waiting for code deployments.
• Enhanced developer velocity: Non-technical product managers were able to make changes on the website, freeing up engineers to focus on scaling the business.

Patti Chan emphasizes: “Thanks to Split, we were able to make bold bets, test them quickly, and see results almost immediately. The experimentation framework really helped us scale faster.”

Business Impact

Revenue growth and more agile operations

Imperfect Foods saw direct, tangible improvements from their adoption of Split:

• Revenue growth: The experimentation-driven approach led to the doubling of weekly order volumes and an uptick customer satisfaction.
• Agile product development: The ability to quickly test and roll out new features empowered the team to act on insights faster, maintaining momentum even during a high-growth period.
• Improved customer experience: A more refined, data-backed subscription flow ensured that customers found more value, leading to improved retention and loyalty.

“Using Split for experimentation has been a huge benefit. We can make fast changes, test them, and iterate with little risk to our customers.” — Product Manager, Imperfect Foods

Future

Scaling innovation in the grocery industry

As Imperfect Foods continues to innovate in the online grocery market, Split will remain a key partner in enabling the team to experiment at scale. With Split’s feature management and experimentation platform, Imperfect Foods will continue optimizing their product offering and refining their approach to customer engagement.

Patti Chan concludes: “Split gave us the infrastructure we needed to experiment at scale. It’s been integral to our growth, and we look forward to continuing to work with them as we scale.”