Guess I am not understanding the target of your work if you do not do any release of it to an actual working environment (i.e., production) even if the “releases” are very frequent small pieces of what your client wishes. You must deliver something to a client, right?

And what you describe is what I am used to an active PO and UX people doing as “look ahead” while the build team works on what was already defined in prior “look ahead” sessions.