What are Interactive Release Notes? #
Our interactive release notes let you release updates and change logs to keep customers informed of your product’s progress. That’s the obvious part. What makes our Release Notes special however, is the interactive element. Not only can you keep an ongoing log of changes to keep your community fully informed, but you can include all completed tasks directly from your roadmaps. Users can then click on these tasks to see all comments, updates, and other elements that took the task from idea to reality. Furthermore, your community can continue to engage in conversation on a per-feature basis, chatting with your team and other customers about each new feature, and even offering additional feedback in an organized manner.
How to Release an Update to Your Project #
Adding a new release is simple. You’ll first navigate to the “Release Notes” tab while logged into your account. Then, click the “Add Release Notes” button in the top right of the page, as shown here:
On clicking this button, you’ll see the Release Notes input panel. This is where you’ll enter all details on your latest release, including the release title and description. Beneath the description field, you’ll also see the ability to include complete tasks, but we’ll cover that shortly. First, let’s check out an overview of the Release Notes input panel:
On finalizing the details of your release, you can either Save it as a draft (so you can complete it later) or publish it, which will publish the release live on your front-facing pages, as well as sending a notification to those who have subscribed to your product. This will let all of your customers know that you’ve released a new update! Before doing so, let’s cover the most unique feature a bit more in depth: Including tasks/features/ideas within your release notes!
Including Tasks / Features / Ideas Within Your Release Notes #
In addition to informing users of the basics of each release, PathPro allows you to include an interactive element. Any task that has been marked complete in your roadmap can be added directly within the release, providing a granular overview of how the feature went from idea to reality. First, you’ll want to make sure every task that has been completed (those you want to include in the release) are marked as complete in your Product Path / Roadmap. To do so, go to your roadmap, and click the tasks settings icon, as shown below:
This will open the tasks settings/details panel. On the top left portion of this panel, you’ll see an option that says “Mark Task Complete”. You’ll want to make sure this option is selected, as that will officially indicate that the task has been completed and is ready for release:
Any task that is marked complete will be available to include in your release. However you must select them manually when you are entering the details on your actual release. This allows you to include only the items you wish to present to your customers, while omitting others (for example, internal-only tasks).
Publishing Your Release Notes #
Now that you’ve created and published your release notes, let’s take a look at how they are presented to customers. As you’ll see below, Release notes are presented in a chronological list, allow your community to review the overall “path” of your product’s growth.
While interacting with this list, they’ll see detailed notes on each update, but they’ll also be able to browse all tasks included in each release:
All tasks are organized in a “quick glance” view so customers can see exactly what has been included/addressed in each update to your product. Furthermore, a user can click on any of the tasks to get a granular overview of what was involved to bring the task from idea to completion:
Let’s check out some other fun features and benefits of our Interactive Release Notes:
- Viewers will see exactly who contributed to any given idea or feature, and brand loyalty will soar when they see that they’ve been included in a feature’s development!
- Release Notes can be shared on social media to spread the news.
- Customers who contributed to any feature added to your product can be “promoted” via the built-in ranking system.
- Your community and team members can continue to chat about any feature, focusing support tickets and keeping your customers informed!
- Customers can suggest ongoing tweaks and suggestions to any completed task.
- Tech support tickets will be reduced as customers talk amongst themselves to answer questions about any released feature.
This concludes the overview of the Interactive Release Notes feature! To find out more about PathPro’s entire feature set, be sure to check out our entire feature overview.
