A Concrete Release Management Process is the Key to Product Excellence

To say that that product releases are important would be an understatement. So much of a user’s perception of your product is determined in those first few hours of engagement. It’s your first impression—you have to get it right.

And you have to get it right quickly. Studies show that it takes seven seconds for someone to make up their mind about something. If the initial experience isn’t a good one, you’ll have a rough time getting someone back on board. That’s why having a defined and easily accessible release management process is so important.

The product release process helps you plan for and address all the potential issues that can ruin a product launch—from internal delivery dates to launch day and beyond. When every member of your team has a clear path to follow, it is easier for them to execute all the different tasks required to bring your product to market. And that makes building something of value for customers simple.

Release Management Boosts Engagement with Product Strategy

Product releases are the culmination of all your team’s hard work and dedication throughout the product development lifecycle. It’s easy to lose sight of this when you’re busy working through daily tasks and responsibilities. The release management process connects every launch to your overall product strategy and outlines how you’ll present all that work to the market.

There are a lot of moving parts throughout product development that can lead to bottlenecks and delays, each contributing to your product launch’s overall success. Defining your team’s release management process aligns key stakeholders throughout the organization around your strategic business goals. It’s easy to lose sight of these goals when you’re working through individual tasks, so being able to refer back to them at any time helps teams maintain a high-level view of how their work impacts your target audience.

Getting a handle on everything that needs to get done prior to release also makes your overall project planning more manageable. Documenting release timelines and dates forces you to think further into the future to gain an understanding of how each piece of the puzzle fits together to bring your product release to a successful conclusion. Project management tools like a Gantt chart are great ways to visualize these connections.

Connecting the release management plan back to your product strategy also helps you gauge the overall impact on your business and the market after everything is live. Use it to track changes to the important metrics defined in your product strategy and highlight where your team could focus their efforts better in the future.

This connection to broader company and project goals reminds every team member of the real-world impact their work has on your target audience. It helps them build empathy with the problems these people face every day, which translates to a better overall experience developing solutions that really work.

Release Management Reduces Risk of Launch-Day Delays

With a well-defined release management process, each member of your team can see what they’re individually responsible for delivering at every stage of product development. This cuts down on confusion, helps prevent bottlenecks, and mitigates the risk of delay-causing mistakes before the day of your product launch.

Documenting the release management process brings people from otherwise disconnected parts of the organization together as a team. Product, development, marketing, sales—each department can track their progress toward release day and stay aligned around both company and project goals. Increasing visibility in this way ensures that their individual work is completed and ready to go on time.

A good release management process will also outline contingencies for when the work isn’t completed on time. Taking a product from idea all the way to release isn’t always easy—and unforeseen issues will always occur. Mapping out your plan B, C, or D makes it easy for everyone involved in the project to pivot as required.

Outlining these contingencies also makes it easier for each team member to see the impact their work has on other people. It shows them where delays can cause issues, exacerbate timelines, and generally gum up the works. This visibility breeds accountability, both within teams and across them, especially when you identify key stakeholders who are responsible for ensuring the work is done on time.

Use the release management process to outline how you’ll manage each release from a technical standpoint as well. A phased rollout using feature flags is a great way to mitigate risk for your company, decrease the strain on your infrastructure, and ensure a seamless experience for your first users.

That seamless experience is at the core of your product’s first impression and has a lasting impact on customers’ perceptions of your product’s value.

Release Management Refines Vital Team Workflows

The release management process provides visibility into the impact different workflows have on the product development process as a whole. Increased team visibility makes it easier to identify areas of opportunity to increase efficiency and build a better overall product launch experience for your team.

When you document the release management process, it gives every member of your team a single source of truth to reference for every release. This documentation makes it easier to communicate your goals, streamlines the onboarding process for new hires, and provides visibility into critical points in active development.

Let’s say you’ve just brought on a few new product managers, and this is their first release. Creating a single document that maps out your plan for launch day keeps everyone on the same page. It acts as a guide, giving them something to reference when they have questions without having to spend the time reaching out directly to chat.

Keeping a running log for each release also helps to highlight potential areas for improvement in subsequent releases. Your team can easily refer back to previous launches, identify the areas of friction for your team, and make changes to your process the next time around. Documenting these events makes the following product release a better overall experience by refining the way they work based on the specific needs of your team.

Documenting the release management process in a central, visible location makes inviting feedback from the team much less complicated. And being able to give that feedback directly makes everyone feel like they’re a part of the process, which boosts engagement and builds autonomy throughout the team.

When every member of your team can execute their day-to-day tasks with an understanding of how their work adds value to the project as a whole, it’s easy to address potential blockers at the organizational level and create more realistic deadlines. This ease-of-execution boosts engagement with the product experience and helps everyone work together to build more valuable products as a team.

Building a Release Management Process Helps Your Team Thrive

Product releases are how you add continual value to the customer experience and showcase your understanding of customer wants and needs. When you define a release management process for your team, it helps everyone see how their work adds value to that experience, which boosts engagement with each release and helps you build truly valuable products for customers. Use this process to level up your next release and give your team the tools they need to build faster and more effectively.