Roadmap and release notes

Promote feedback to roadmap items, move them through the pipeline, and publish a changelog that notifies the people who asked.

5 min read

From post to roadmap item

When you decide to build something, promote the post to a roadmap item. The item keeps a link back to every post that fed it — so when it ships, SignlOS already knows the full list of people to tell. You never maintain that list yourself.

  1. 1

    Open the post and choose Add to roadmap.

  2. 2

    Pick the column.

    Planned, In progress, or Shipped. Moving between columns notifies the linked voters.

  3. 3

    Link the other posts that asked for the same thing.

    One roadmap item can carry many posts. This is where the merged duplicates pay off.

Publish statuses, not dates

A public roadmap that says 'In progress' ages gracefully. One that says 'March' becomes a broken promise on 1 April, and customers remember the miss far longer than they remember the feature.

Writing a release note

The changelog editor takes a title, a body, and a category. Link the roadmap items or posts the release delivers; that link is what turns publishing into a notification.

  • Lead with what the reader can now do, not with what you built.
  • Name the thing the way the UI names it, so search inside your product finds it.
  • One release note per shipped change beats a monthly digest — the digest arrives too late to be the answer to anyone's question.

Who gets told

AudienceHow they were subscribed
Voters on linked postsThey voted. No further action needed.
Changelog subscribersThey subscribed on your public changelog.
Post subscribersThey followed a specific post without voting.
NextStatus pages and incidents

Common questions

Does publishing a release note notify customers automatically?
Yes. Publishing notifies everyone who voted on the feedback posts linked to that release, plus anyone subscribed to the changelog. There is no separate mailing list to maintain.
Should a product roadmap be public?
A public roadmap with statuses and no dates is safe and useful: it answers 'are you working on this' without committing to a delivery date you may miss. Dated public roadmaps are where teams get into trouble.

Something unclear or wrong? Tell us — or post it on our board.