A Missing Treasure for PMs
Leveraging Product Release Notes for Learning and Inspiration
Have you ever, whether as a product manager or not, taken the time to read any release notes? How many product managers consider writing release notes a mandatory task, while doubting if anyone actually reads them?
Before stepping into the role of a product manager, I shared this sentiment. However, once I was tasked with preparing app release notes myself, I began exploring others’ notes for inspiration. This experience opened my eyes to the wealth of knowledge and insights that can be gained from this often-overlooked resource.
A Missing Treasure — Release Notes
One insightful way to learn as a product manager is to study the release notes of other products. These notes, primarily intended for end-users and customers, offer a direct communication channel from the product team to the users. They assume the role of introducing new features that are expected to add value both for the user and the business.
As fellow PMs, we can collect insights into how other product managers think about their products and the features they release. This is a kind of reverse engineering of product discovery, especially beneficial when you are familiar with product principles and various approaches.
Learning from Notion — Uncovering Their Metrics for Success Through Release Notes
Notion, renowned for its product excellence, offers a prime example.
Their release notes are immersive and informative, providing valuable lessons in product thinking.
For instance, a release note dated 15–03–2022 introduces Quick filters. In that update, Notion introduced Quick Filters.
The release notes break down this feature into three key points, quickly highlighting its value. Delving into each point reveals their methods for validating claims.
Take, for instance, the claim that filters are now easier to use.
How is ‘easier’ defined here? Their approach is twofold:
First, by limiting the visible items in a database view for simplicity (effectively filtering out the unnecessary),
Second, by reducing the number of clicks required to create a filter — from over eight to just two or three. This significant reduction in effort is the core highlight.
It’s a clear, straightforward example of how they quantify ‘simplicity’ and the tangible outcomes of these enhancements.
Insight from Slack’s Playbook: the Art of Introducing New Products in Release Notes
Slack, a leader in product-led growth, introduced a feature called “huddle” during the COVID-19 pandemic. I found this feature to be a game-changer for workplace communication, simulating impromptu, in-office discussions.
While some questioned how it differed from a standard online call, as an avid Slack user (once ranking in the top 10 for message sending in my company), I found excessive typing to be tedious and felt it often lost the nuance of spoken words. Face-to-face calls seemed preferable, yet setting them up on platforms like Teams or Slack involved a lot of administrative effort — scheduling with a title, date, time, and duration, which felt like a waste of time on trivial details.
My instinct told me that Huddle was an ingenious solution, simulating the ease of walking up to a colleague’s desk for a quick, informal chat.
Having developed a habit of reading release notes, I eagerly delved into Slack’s release notes for Huddle to see if the product managers shared my perspective or had other considerations in mind.
The first subtitle immediately grabbed my attention:
“Slack Huddles, a new way to recreate the informal office discussions, facilitating quicker decision-making and fostering team culture.”
This clear positioning around informal discussions, speeding up decisions, and enhancing team culture resonated with me.
As I read on, I was thrilled to see a section that aligned perfectly with my thoughts:
“Similar to the way you might drop by a colleague’s desk to solve a thorny problem or grab a few teammates on the way out of a meeting and debrief, huddles create a space to talk through work on the fly.”
Unlike Notion’s focus on enhancing an existing feature, Slack’s release notes centred on introducing a completely new feature.
They invested considerable effort in advocating for Huddle, showcasing its application through real-world scenarios from their pilot clients. The release notes concluded with a link to more detailed use-case instructions, covering a range of possible scenarios.
In each scenario, they applied the STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) framework, describing real-life situations for specific user groups like managers and developers. They presented a problem, followed by an action — how a Huddle could address the issue — and concluded with the results. This approach helped articulate how Huddle could be a practical solution in various contexts.
My Takes on Reading Release Notes
As product managers, we sometimes need to step out of our context to see how others approach their work. Reading release notes offers a virtual experience of working alongside some of the best PMs in the industry. This practice can spark inspiration and provide a fresh perspective on our own product delivery processes.
If you’re responsible for writing release notes, cherish this opportunity. Write as if someone who genuinely cares will read them. It not only helps refine your product sense but also prompts you to think deeply about your product.
Release Notes Worth Reading
Here are some products whose release notes I frequently read, where it’s evident that the PMs or PMMs put considerable effort into them:
- Miro
- Notion
- Slack (I recommend to read either from their app directly, or you read the major feature release notes in their Solutions section on their website.)
- Figma (especially their new feature introductions and first-time user experience flows.)
- FORM (It is my favourite triathlon gear among everything I have now. I love their release notes especially for their major updates and features, as they offer both physical products and digital apps — a great study for PMs dealing with both product types.)
In conclusion, product release notes are more than just updates; they’re a learning tool and a source of inspiration, offering a window into the minds of other product managers and their approach to solving problems and enhancing user experience.
