Why keep a changelog?

We continue working hard to deliver a great product for our users. Since our launch, we've shipped many new features that make a real difference and improve our product. But releasing new features is only half the story. We also need to notify users about recent product updates so they are fully aware of all Archbee features.

At this point, to fill the communication medium between our users and us, we decided to keep a changelog. It helps us to notify users about changes, improvements that we made. It is a very basic but effective way to communicate with users.

Maintaining a changelog for the Archbee primarily serves to keep a record of the product changes we’ve implemented. We list all updates and improvements in chronological order so any user can follow Archbee’s progress and evolution. It’s among the best ways to let users know what’s new in our product.

Besides this main point, there are also a few more points that we solve with the changelog.

Increase feature awareness#

Since our launch in June 2019, we’ve released tons of new features, made many improvements, and fixed so many bugs. In most cases, users are not aware of these changes. That’s not what we want to happen since we do a lot of work to improve our product and create value. We want users to be aware of these improvements. Keeping a changelog helps us to deliver the value that we create for the users. As we release a new feature, we publish an informative post about it to inform users about the feature. The changelog service that we use offers an eye-catching in-app widget, which helps us display product announcements inside our web application.

Build trust#

Building customer trust is a worthwhile goal for any business and a motivator that drives visitors to become customers. Even if your product offers every feature visitors need, they also want confidence that it won’t be dropped. No one would invest their time and buy a product they don’t trust. People don’t buy features; they buy trust and relationships. Keeping a changelog helps us maintain that trust by showing our product’s progress.

Collect feedback#

Customer feedback is a crucial and fundamental element of sustainable product improvement. Collecting feedback is very tough since no one likes to participate in boring product surveys. The changelog service that we use has an cool feature that lets our users leave feedback right inside our changelog. It’s a great way to discover what your customers need and improve your product in that direction.

Changelog, product updates page, release notes, whatever you call it. Mostly it’s been underestimated, but as you see in our case, it has many benefits and is very important. If you like to create your own changelog, we recommend AnnounceKit. It offers beautifully designed newsfeed powered with in-app notification widgets, email notifications, and feedback collection.