How to write a feature release announcement

This document outlines how to write a release announcement and release tweets for a feature. These are used at the release day in our release newsletter and Twitter.

Each Product Manager is responsible for writing a release announcement for every feature, integration, or announcement they want included in the release newsletter.

Here is an example of a previously completed release announcement.

Overview

It's important to think of the release announcement as a press release. We're communicating changes to our current and prospective customers so we want it to be exciting as well as informative. The release announcement is a coordinated document, with each Product Manager contributing their own features as sub-headings. The headline and first paragraph will be written by PM leads and the CPO after all other features have been provided.

Note: Consider using this information in productboard for your features to validate the messaging and to keep consistency across channels.

Timeline

A release announcement for each feature should be started early in the product planning process. Each Product Manager is directly responsible for writing the announcement for each of their features. For large product features or new products, a PRFAQ should be completed. For smaller features, a “mini-PRFAQ” should be completed in the form of a blog post. Below are the expected deadlines ("T-X" dates don't include holidays/weekends):

A. (T-minus 14 working days) Outline

• Release Manager provides an outline of the release announcement and deadlines for Product Managers, along with a heads-up for Director of Product Marketing that the blog post is coming. Release Manager also adds deadlines to the PM Weekly Sync Agenda.

B. (T-minus 9 working days) First draft

• A draft of the release announcement and tweets are completed by Product Managers. Product Managers prepare the release announcement from their 2-pager documents. Product Managers are reminded of the deadline in the weekly Monday PM Sync meeting. The T-9 deadline should be the 1st Monday of the month for our Roadmap call (this will either be T-9 or the first Monday of the month, whichever comes earlier).

C. (T-minus 8 working days) Lead Product Managers' Review

• Product Management leads do a final review on the release announcement and prepare the headline and byline content.

D. (T-minus 7 working days) Product Marketing Director and Communications Director Reviews

• The PM-approved draft will be provided for review to the Director of Product Marketing and to the Director of Communications. Katie Wiersgalla (@wiersgallak) provides the release announcement copy for review and relays edits back to the Product Management team via the Product Manager's internal channel.

E. (T-minus 2 working days) Marketing Preparation

• Katie provides the final and approved release announcement copy for Amy Blais (@amy.blais) to give to the marketing team.

F. (T-minus 0 working days) Release

• The release announcement is published. T-0 is based on the Release Day in the Mattermost Release Dates calendar.

Feature Headline

The headline for your feature should start with a verb and describe what the feature allows customer to do and the edition it's provided in.

Example: Sync Office 365 Calendar status with Mattermost (E20 edition)

Feature Benefit

A quick summary sentence should follow with the benefit the feature provides.

Example: Enable your users to get more control over their schedule without leaving Mattermost.

Feature Details

Next, describe in more detail how the feature works and what functionality is included. This could take the form of a bulleted list or a few more sentences.

Example:

With the new two-way Microsoft Office 365 Calendar integration feature, your users can now:
 - See a daily summary of their calendar events
 - Sync their Office 365 Calendar status automatically into Mattermost (e.g., “Away” if you have a meeting on your calendar)
 - Accept or decline calendar event invites from within Mattermost

Feature Image

Then, add actual screenshots or GIFs of the feature. Abide by our guidelines for screenshots provided here.

Feature Resources

Finally, add a link to the documentation, forum post, or repository as appropriate for the user to get more information on the feature. Also, be sure to provide a line to thank the contributors who helped provide the feature.

How to Write a Release Tweet

Product Managers are also responsible for drafting the tweets that correspond to your features.

Each tweet should start with Mattermost Release vx.xx now… or Mattermost mobile app release vx.xx now… and should describe the action the new feature allows them to do. This should be very similar to the headline written in the release announcement. Tweets should include the relevant hashtags: #mm524m, #opensource, #sre, #devops, #mattermost (where #mm524 is the release number).

Example Tweet: Mattermost Release v5.24 now lets you view and manage your team or channel members from the System Console. #mm524 #opensource #sre #devops #mattermost