How to Write Release Notes When You Don't Have a QA Process

Let's be honest: most early-stage teams don't have a formal QA process.

You're a 5-person startup. Your "QA process" is:

1. Developer tests on localhost
2. Push to production
3. Check if it works
4. Hope nothing breaks

And that's okay. You'rerunning lean, moving fast, and prioritizing shipping over process.

But here's the question: how do you write release notes when you're not 100% sure what you shipped worked perfectly?

The answer isn't "don't write them." It's "write them differently."

The Problem with Traditional Release Notes at Early Stage

Traditional release notes assume:

• Comprehensive testing before release
• Known and documented changes
• Confidence everything works as intended
• Clear separation between fixed and unfixed bugs

Early-stage reality:

• Testing happened on one developer's machine
• Some changes weren't documented
• Confidence is "probably works for most people"
• You're learning about bugs from user reports

The mismatch: Release notes that say "Fixed login bug" when you're not entirely sure you fixed it, or might have introduced a new one.

The Honest Approach: Transparency Builds Trust

Early adopters chose your product knowing you're early-stage. They don't expect perfection. They expect honesty.

Principle 1: State Your Confidence Level

Instead of pretending certainty, communicate honestly:

❌ Traditional (False Confidence):

🐛 Fixed: Login timeout issue
Resolved authentication bug affecting some users.

✅ Honest (Appropriate Confidence):

🐛 Fixed: Login timeout issue (we think!)
We identified and fixed what we believe was causing auth
timeouts for some users. Let us know if you still see this.

Report issues: support@yourcompany.com

Why it works:

• Sets realistic expectations
• Invites feedback
• Shows you're responsive
• Builds trust through transparency

Principle 2: Acknowledge Rough Edges

Early products have rough edges. Hiding them doesn't help.

❌ Traditional:

🎨 New: Dark mode
Switch themes in Settings > Appearance

✅ Honest:

🎨 New: Dark mode (beta)
Switch themes in Settings > Appearance

Known issues:
- Some icons still show light mode colors
- Charts may look weird in dark mode
- Working on polish!

Feedback welcome: feedback@yourcompany.com

Why it works:

• Prevents disappointment
• Reduces "is this a bug?" support tickets
• Shows you're aware and working on it
• Early adopters often help improve it

Principle 3: Invite Bug Reports

Without formal QA, your users ARE your QA. Make that explicit.

❌ Traditional:

⚡ Improved: Dashboard performance
Loading times reduced by 50%

✅ Honest:

⚡ Improved: Dashboard performance
We optimized query logic and initial load should be ~50%
faster. Tested on small-medium datasets.

If your dashboard feels slower (or if something broke!),
please let us know: bugs@yourcompany.com

We're learning what works at scale and your feedback helps!

Why it works:

• Explicitly asks for feedback
• Shows humility
• Gives users a direct line to report issues
• Turns users into partners, not critics

The Gathering Problem: You Don't Know What You Shipped

Traditional release note advice: "Review your ticketing system for what was completed this sprint."

Your reality: What ticketing system? You pushed 23 commits to main this week across 3 repos and half of them were "fix that thing" messages.

Solution 1: The Friday Retrospective

Every Friday at 4pm (15 minutes):

Team huddle (or async Slack thread):

Prompt: "What did we ship this week that users might notice?"

Responses:

• "Fixed the signup flow bug"
• "Added export to CSV"
• "Made the dashboard way faster"
• "That weird mobile thing is fixed"

That's your release note draft. Polish it, publish it.

Time: 15 minutes Cost: Free Benefit: You actually know what you shipped

Solution 2: The Git Commit Archaeology

Friday morning (10 minutes):

1. Open GitHub (or GitLab)
2. Look at merged PRs from the past week
3. Filter out: dependencies updates, refactoring, internal stuff
4. What remains: user-facing changes

Example commits:

• ❌ "refactor UserService" → Not user-facing, skip
• ✅ "add dark mode toggle" → User-facing, include
• ❌ "update typescript to 5.3" → Not user-facing, skip
• ✅ "fix mobile menu not closing" → User-facing, include
• ❌ "improve test coverage" → Not user-facing, skip
• ✅ "speed up dashboard queries" → User-facing, include

Your release note: The 3 user-facing items, written for humans.

Solution 3: The "What Did We Fix Today?" Log

Ongoing (0 extra time):

Create #shipped channel in Slack.

Rule: When you merge something user-facing, drop a one-liner in #shipped.

[Monday] Added CSV export button
[Tuesday] Fixed that mobile menu bug
[Wednesday] Made dashboard load faster
[Thursday] Tweaked onboarding copy
[Friday] Fixed signup error message

Friday at 4pm: Scroll #shipped channel. That's your release note.

Time: 30 seconds per ship = 3 minutes/week Benefit: No Friday archaeology, everything's already captured

The Writing Problem: You're Not Sure It Works Everywhere

You tested on your machine. Maybe on staging. But you're a 3-person team shipping to 200 users across different browsers, devices, and use cases.

You can't test everything. So how do you write release notes honestly?

Template 1: The "We Think We Fixed It" Update

Use when: You fixed a bug but aren't 100% certain it's fully resolved.

🐛 Attempted Fix: [Bug Description]

We've addressed what we believe was causing [issue].

What we changed:
- [Technical change, briefly]

What you should see:
- [Expected user experience]

Still seeing issues? Please email us: support@yourco.com
Include your browser/device and we'll investigate.

We're committed to getting this right!

Example:

🐛 Attempted Fix: File upload failures

We've addressed what we believe was causing upload
failures for files over 5MB.

What we changed:
- Increased server timeout from 30s to 60s
- Added retry logic for failed chunks

What you should see:
- Larger files should now upload successfully
- Better error messages if something goes wrong

Still seeing upload issues? Please email support@acme.com
with your file size and browser. We'll investigate immediately.

We're committed to getting this right!

Template 2: The "New Thing (Probably Works!)" Update

Use when: Shipping a new feature without exhaustive testing.

🎨 New: [Feature Name] (Beta)

[What it does and why it's useful]

Known limitations:
- [Thing you haven't tested/built yet]
- [Edge case you're aware of]

We'd love your feedback: feedback@yourco.com

This is v1. We'll improve it based on how you use it!

Example:

🎨 New: Bulk Edit (Beta)

Select multiple items and edit properties all at once.
Saves tons of time when updating many items.

Known limitations:
- Only works on first 50 items (performance reasons)
- Can't bulk-edit custom fields yet
- Undo is per-item, not per-batch

We'd love your feedback: feedback@acme.com

This is v1. We'll improve it based on how you use it!

Template 3: The "We Broke Something, Here's What We're Doing" Update

Use when: You shipped something that broke something else (it happens!).

⚠️ Issue Alert: [What Broke]

Yesterday's update introduced a bug affecting [scope].

What happened:
- [Honest explanation of what went wrong]

Current status:
- [What you're doing to fix it]
- [Timeline if known]

Workaround (if applicable):
- [Temporary way to avoid the issue]

We're sorry for the disruption. We're on it.

Updates: [status page or email us]

Example:

⚠️ Issue Alert: Dashboard Loading Issues

Yesterday's performance update introduced a bug
affecting dashboards with over 1,000 items.

What happened:
- New caching logic didn't account for large datasets
- Causes infinite loading spinner for some users

Current status:
- Fix deployed 30 minutes ago
- Monitoring to ensure it's resolved
- Should be working for everyone now

Workaround (if needed):
- Refresh your dashboard
- If still broken, email support@acme.com

We're sorry for the disruption. We tested on our datasets
but missed this edge case. Adding better test coverage.

Why this works:

• Radical transparency
• Shows you care and are responsive
• Turns a negative into trust-building moment
• Early adopters appreciate honesty over spin

The Positioning Problem: Sounding Professional While Being Scrappy

You're a startup. You're moving fast. Things break. How do you write release notes that acknowledge this without sounding unprofessional or reckless?

Tone Principle 1: Confident Humility

❌ Apologetic/Weak: "Sorry, we're a small team and this might not work perfectly..."

❌ Overconfident/Arrogant: "We've completely solved [problem] once and for all!"

✅ Confident Humility: "We've significantly improved [problem]. We're confident this works well, and we're here to help if you hit issues."

Tone Principle 2: Partnership Language

❌ Vendor/Customer: "We've deployed new features for your convenience."

✅ Partner/Partner: "We built this based on your feedback. Let us know how it works for you!"

Why: Early adopters are partners in building the product. Treat them that way.

Tone Principle 3: Progress, Not Perfection

❌ Perfectionist: Don't announce anything until it's 100% perfect (you'll never ship)

✅ Progressive: "V1 is here. It handles the core use case. We'll expand it based on your needs."

Why: Shows velocity and willingness to iterate

Real Example: Early-Stage Release Note Done Right

Company: 5-person SaaS startup, no dedicated QA

Release Notes - January 2, 2025

Hey team! Here's what we shipped this week.

🎨 New: Export to CSV (Beta)
You can now export your data! Click the export button
on any table view.

Known limitations:
- Exports first 1,000 rows only (for now)
- Custom fields aren't included yet (coming soon!)
- Takes ~10 seconds for large exports

Let us know what fields you need most: hello@acme.com

⚡ Improved: Dashboard Loading
We rewrote our query logic and dashboards should load
2-3x faster, especially if you have lots of data.

We tested on our own datasets. If yours is still slow,
email us your dashboard size and we'll investigate.

🐛 Fixed: Mobile Menu Bug (Finally!)
The menu should now close properly on mobile. We tested
on iOS Safari and Android Chrome.

If you still see weirdness on your device, send us a
screenshot: bugs@acme.com - we'll prioritize it.

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As always, we're learning what works and what needs work.
Your feedback shapes what we build next.

Questions or issues? Reply to this email.

Thanks for building with us!
- The Acme Team

Why this works:

• Honest about limitations
• Invites feedback explicitly
• Shows testing scope
• Friendly, approachable tone
• Acknowledges partnership
• Provides direct contact methods

Tools That Help When You Don't Have QA

For tracking what you shipped:

• GitHub PR history (free)
• Linear minimal issue tracking (has free tier)
• #shipped Slack channel (free)

For user feedback/bug reports:

• Intercom (pricey but good)
• Plain (simpler, cheaper)
• Email (free, actually works fine at early stage)

For monitoring production:

• Sentry for error tracking (free tier)
• LogRocket for session replay (free tier)
• Vercel Analytics if on Vercel (free)

For release notes:

• Google Docs (free, manual)
• Notion (nice formatting)
• ReleaseNotes.pm (built for teams like yours)

Join the waitlist

Common Early-Stage Mistakes

Mistake 1: Trying to Sound Like a Big Company

Bad: Corporate-speak and false confidence "We are pleased to announce the general availability of our enterprise-grade dashboard optimization solution..."

Good: Honest and human "We made the dashboard way faster. Let us know if it works for you!"

Mistake 2: Not Announcing Because "It's Not Perfect"

Bad: Ship features but don't announce because they have rough edges

Good: Announce with honest caveats "New feature is here! It's v1 and rough around the edges, but it works. Feedback welcome!"

Mistake 3: Overpromising

Bad: "This completely solves [problem]!"

Good: "This should help with [problem]. Let us know if it works for your use case."

Mistake 4: Hiding Bugs

Bad: Ship a bug fix quietly, hope no one noticed the bug

Good: "We broke [thing] yesterday, fixed it this morning, sorry about that!"

The Early-Stage Advantage

Here's the secret: early adopters want scrappiness and honesty.

They're not choosing you because you're polished. They're choosing you because:

• You move fast
• You listen to feedback
• You're willing to improve
• They can influence the product

Your release notes should reflect those values:

• Fast shipping (even if imperfect)
• Open to feedback
• Transparent about limitations
• Collaborative partnership

Don't try to sound like Salesforce. Sound like yourself.

Graduation Path: From Scrappy to Structured

As you grow, your release notes will evolve:

Stage 1: 0-5 people

• Weekly Friday retros
• "Here's what we think we shipped"
• Direct email addresses for feedback
• Very casual tone

Stage 2: 5-15 people

• Dedicated #shipped Slack channel
• Basic categorization (New/Improved/Fixed)
• Support email instead of personal
• Semi-formal tone

Stage 3: 15-50 people

• Structured changelog page
• Screenshots for major features
• Multiple distribution channels
• Professional but friendly tone

Stage 4: 50+ people

• Formal QA process
• Comprehensive testing
• Multi-stakeholder approval
• Professional tone throughout

You'll get there. But don't pretend you're Stage 4 when you're Stage 1.

Start This Week

This Friday:

1. Ask your team: "What did we ship this week?"
2. Write 3-5 bullets (be honest about rough edges)
3. Send to your users (email or Slack community)
4. Include your email for feedback
5. Repeat next week

That's it. Ship, announce, iterate.

Or use ReleaseNotes.pm to make this easier:

• Capture updates throughout the week
• Templates for honest communication
• One-click publishing

Join the waitlist

Conclusion

You don't need a QA process to write good release notes.

You need:

• Honesty about what you shipped
• Transparency about limitations
• Openness to feedback
• Consistency in communication

Your early adopters will respect the honesty far more than polished perfection.

Be scrappy. Be honest. Be consistent.

That's the foundation for great release communication as you grow.

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How does your early-stage team handle release notes? We'd love to hear your approach.