How release notices are helping me in CS Ops
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel all the time.
Sometimes all it takes is taking your head off the ground and looking around (I’m rhyming 😂).
Reserve some time of your week to attend webinars, read industry-related stuff, or network with other folks around you.
So, why am I stating this in this article? Well, because I’ve just done that when I was trying to find a nice way to communicate CS Ops related stuff with my team.
I saw a product release notice and thought, “damn, that’s exactly what I need in CS Ops,” a monthly release notice telling and explaining every new thing I’ve been working on.
How was I doing before this epiphany?
Well, I didn’t have any specific process to communicate new processes, and sometimes the chosen path was utterly random.
I was scheduling meetings to present a new dashboard, sending a message with the new process description, or posting a Loom on our Workplace mural.
Besides, because it was an ad-hoc process, I spent time writing everything for the first time. So it was time-consuming and not fun.
The release notice
I’ve changed a few things on my CS Ops day-to-day before sending release notices.
As I told you before, I’m using Notion to organize the “features” I need to work on.
I first added a new stage to my pipeline called “Ready for release notice”, where I moved every new finished feature.
This way, I control what things are yet to be posted or not.
The second thing I changed was, I started describing every new feature from the beginning.
Stating why I was doing it (what problem it will solve) and every step I made to develop the feature, with screenshots and videos if needed.
This helped me have everything I needed to post the new feature on the release notice once finished.
Plus, because I’m describing what I’m doing while developing/building/creating, it’s easy not to forget details or essential mentions. Efficient and time-saving.
At the end of the month, all it takes is to copy every content from Notion feature cards to a Workplace document, add a few memes and GIFs, and share it with the whole company.
It would be the same thing for a Slack channel, a Basecamp project, or another internal tool you use to communicate.
Yes, I share it with the whole company.
Despite the direct impact of my job is at the CS dept, we @Infraspeak believe that sharing with every Infraspeaker adds value.
It aligns with one of our core values, transparency, and promotes feedback from folks outside these processes to contribute with a different perspective.
Please tell me what you think about my release notices. What would you change?
Do you have different ways to share your CS Ops job internally? Bring them on.
