Why are product release notes so important?

Improve user experience, make users feel valued

By communicating your recent updates, you give an impression to your users that you are always working hard to improve the product. Product release notes also let users know that their feedback is valued and is often used to make meaningful changes to the product. 

Help upselling 

Oftentimes, certain new features that you’ve launched recently might be available to users who are on a certain plan only. By communicating these new features along with their benefits in your product release notes, you can help your users explore new features that they might otherwise not be aware of and increase the chances that your users move to a higher-tier plan.  

Reduce churn

Sharing product release notes regularly also helps to reduce churn. Product release notes help to keep users informed and can help retain frustrated users who might otherwise be not aware of the bug fixes or new features that they have been waiting for. 

So other than simply communicating recent fixes and improvements, it’s also a good idea to include a section to communicate the coming-soon items (of course, you will have to then deliver what you promised). This way, you can avoid situations where some clients thought that something is missing in your product and churned, but in fact, you are going to launch the new feature/improvement very soon. 

Release notes

Version number

• The version number of a release will have 3 parts - Version no A.B.C

Architectural Change (A). A new Feature(B).Every other Release(C)

For Example

• A small issue came up, that was fixed and released. The last release was 2.4.2, now the next release will be named Version no 2.4.3.

• An architectural change was done and now it is supposed to be released, The last release was 2.4.2, now the next release will be named Version no 3.0.0.

• Same way if a new Feature, then it will become Version no 2.5.0.

How to Create Release Notes fromJIRA Software Project?

• Open JIRA Project.

• If the release Feature is not turned on, then open project settings and turn on the Release feature.

• In the left navigation bar, you will be able to see the Release option, Open that and create a release version, Add Start and End Date; add Release goals.

• Now one has to fill the field “Fix Version” in the tickets with the Correct Release Version, that was created from the release tab.

How to Share the Release Notes with the Clients?

• All answers are in the video below