←back to thread

How to Write Compelling Release Announcements

(refactoringenglish.com)
69 points mtlynch | 1 comments | 25 Jun 25 14:22 UTC | HN request time: 0.205s | source
Show context
ukuina ◴[25 Jun 25 15:38 UTC] No.44378536[source]▶
> I was embarrassed that the release primarily made life better for our developers rather than for our users. Given the tasks I planned for a sprint, I identified the ones that would be exciting and valuable enough to the user to include in the release announcement.

> I thankfully avoided ever writing another uncomfortable explanation of a release that offers nothing to the user.

Seems short-sighted?

This is marketing-driven development where you have "learned the lesson" that thankless maintenance and stabilization tasks should be avoided.

replies(2): >>44378907 #>>44378938 #
1. miningape ◴[25 Jun 25 16:10 UTC] No.44378907[source]▶
I got the same impression, not having a snappy marketing tag line is nothing to be embarrassed about.

Sometimes users just don't get it - and never will. Sometimes things are too technical to be useful to a user (the author touches on this themselves). Let the results speak for themselves - and be proud of your achievements, it sounds like this was a success.

Focussing too heavily on user facing issues is a kind of myopia that actually leads to a worse user experience over time, and, ironically, a slower turnaround for those user facing issues.