How to create & publish a release note?

📌 A release note is a document that is published along with your product releases to explain to your users the changes that have been made to the product.

Why is it important?

This enables the customers to better understand the changes and how to go about using them in their use case. Internal teams can also stay on track with product developments and will be better able to serve customers when they understand the product.

How to Create & Publish a release note from Zeda.io?

👉 Head over to the Release note section from the left navigation menu.

👉 This is where you will be able to create and view all published Release notes.

👉 Click on Add Release Notes to begin writing about your latest release.

The process is divided into three steps:

Create Release Notes: You will get a popup to select the template, where you be able to Use a Template out of the four choices provided, or you can choose to Create from scratch.
From there, you will be taken to a new screen where you will be able to add specific details, such as the
1. Title - Main heading of your release note. It can be anything.
  Examples: Recent upgrades we shipped in July!, Fixed major bugs for payment transactions with this week's release!
2. Description - This s where the main content goes. Use the slash command, it is powered by the Zeda-editor which has lots of interesting styling and options to make release notes editing not a typical note taker.
3. (Optional) Categories - Differentiate context using various categories. This basically enables the readers to quickly gauge what the team has been working on in that particular release. By default, we provide the categories as New features, Improvements, and Bug fixes. However, you can easily edit these and set them up according to your preference from Workspace settings > Modules > Release notes > Categories.
4. (Optional) Tags - Map your release notes with different tags which can be used for the search purpose in the Release notes list.
5. (Optional) Published On - Published on a date can be either the present date or a past date. This will help users keep a consistent release frequency for their customer's understanding.
6. (Optional) Add Author - Any creator or admin can be made an author.
  Only authors can edit the release note. This can be used to add different product owners to collaborate better for release notes. There will always be at least 1 author in a release note.
7. (Optional) Cover image - This is where you add an image that captures the essence of this release. This will appear as the first image on the release note.
Select Users & Channel
1. Slack: If your slack is integrated, you can share release notes with internal team members on any slack channel.
2. Zapier: You can automatically send a message to your internal communication tool, and notify when a release note is published.
3. Email: You can share release updates with your team members and external stakeholders using email. This option allows you to send it to:
  1. All Users = workspace members + Users (under Customers)
  2. Select Audience
    Workspace members
    External users (Customers)
    All Customers
    Custom
    Select segments - select users basis their organization segment, useful to select multiple users directly through segment tag
    Select users - select users directly from the list, useful to ensure important users receive the email
4. Customer Portal and widget: If the customer portal and widget are enabled, then the release note will be visible on these channels respectively. This can be switched on-off after publishing as well.
Preview & Publish
1. After details are added and users are selected, check the Preview to get the look and feel once published.
2. Once everything is set, hit Publish.

Sharing options:

After a release note is published it can be shared by clicking on the Share icon:

- Workspace members will always have the list available in the Release Notes section (under execution)

- Other stakeholders can be shared via public link in the sharing options

- Also, particular release notes can be enabled and disabled in the Public portal or widget

Edit and delete options:

Release notes can be edited and deleted using the 3-dot option in the published release note.

1. Edit - It will allow for updating the content, categories, tags, published on date, and authors.

2. Delete - It will be removed from the system and is a permanent action. Deleted release note can't be recovered.