If you are a company with a product that goes through many release cycles and updates, you want to keep your audience informed of the changes. Enter the release note.
A release note allows a company to check in with their user base and explain changes such as bug fixes or UX tweaks. It’s an easy way to help users understand how changes you’ve made on the back end affect their product experience. However, not all release notes need to be public. Some companies have internal release notes.
Confused by what the difference is between the two? Let’s break it down.
Internal Release Notes
Internal release notes tend to come with software releases, and their main goal is to inform internal stakeholders (from the CEO to development and marketing) what may have changed. They often include details about bug fixes, new features, UX updates, or even known issues that need to be dealt with. The main goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page internally concerning product changes.
External Release Notes
External release notes tend to summarize information related to updates in easy-to-understand, concise language. Changes that wouldn’t affect the end-user tend to be stripped off an external release note. They may also come out at scheduled intervals (monthly, quarterly), with all information about changes in a given time period lumped together.
The Main Differences Between External and Internal Release Notes
The main difference between an external and internal release note is the audience. While an external release note is intended for end-users of a product, internal release notes are to be read by internal teams in a company. Therefore, the way a release note is communicated might be slightly different, depending on who will ultimately see it.
Who Prepares Internal Release Notes vs External Release Notes?
Who prepares your release notes will depend on the audience.
For example, external release notes are best handled by the marketing team. Why? Because they tend to go out to a public audience and tend to be used as a valuable marketing touchpoint. Allowing the marketing team to massage the language will help ensure effective communication with the intended audience.
Conversely, typically speaking, internal release notes often have more detailed information and convey more granular inside details about the product and changes. Usually, internal release notes are handled by technical writers that can handle laying out the information in the detail required. That said, even for internal release notes, audiences might be a bit different. Whoever writes it will still have to keep in mind that the information will be shared across teams, and each team will have an extra degree of technical understanding.
Why Use Internal Release Notes
- Cuts down on meetings
- Streamlines communication
- Cuts out the middleman when answering questions about changes
- Increased transparency of company direction and priorities
- Helps staff maintain knowledgeability of the products they make and sell
- Show a sense of pride in the product and the company’s accomplishments/direction
How to handle Release Notes Within a Company
Since release notes will be handled internally, it’s good to have some sort of software such as a Google Doc that the proper teams can access easily. Whatever your distribution method, make sure it’s only the relevant internal team member that can gain access.
What an Internal Release Note Should Have
Internal release notes may not have a universal audience. That’s why it’s a good idea to create different release notes for other teams and/or to organize your notes based on what specific audience segments will care about.
For example, you could use various sections, such as:
- New exciting features the team(s) should know about (for sales/marketing purposes)
- Bug fixes
- Feature updates/changes that will affect users
- Features or changes that are on the horizon (but not yet implemented)
- UX/UI changes that customer service may need to understand
Some team members may want or need more technical release notes, while others just need a simple overview. An internal release note’s goal is to provide stakeholders with relevant information. It may be good to segment your notes and display the information pertinent to the relevant stakeholders. Try dividing your internal notes into user segments such as marketing, support, management (CEO), and development, and then cater to those specific groups. While developers may need more detail, for example, marketing will be more interested in how they can spin changes into sales opportunities.
How to Send Internal Release Notes
Unlike external release notes, internal release notes won’t be as widely distributed and shouldn’t necessarily go out via a public blog or social media. The most effective way to distribute an internal release note is to send an email to a specific mailing list. Of course, just like external release notes, keeping a repository of internal release notes that are easy to access is ideal. Whether that’s in a shared internal Google doc or a password-protected part of your website, make sure your employees have access and know where to locate the information.
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