From Slack Thread to Published: The Modern PM's Release Flow

Let's talk about how release notes actually get written in 2024.

Not the idealized process from your project management textbook. The real one. The messy one that starts with a Slack thread at 4pm on Thursday and ends with you frantically copying screenshots into a Google Doc at 9am on Friday.

Sound familiar?

The Theory vs. Reality Gap

What your PM onboarding said:

1. Engineers update tickets with detailed release notes
2. PM reviews and approves
3. Release notes auto-populate from ticket metadata
4. Published to changelog with one click

What actually happens:

1. Someone ships something and mentions it in #engineering
2. PM sees it 6 hours later while scrolling Slack
3. "Wait, what else shipped this week?"
4. PM frantically DMs 5 people asking what changed
5. Cobbles together notes from memory and screenshots
6. Posts to 3 different places manually
7. Realizes they forgot something important on Monday

The reality: Most product updates are communicated first in Slack, then formalized later (if at all).

Why Slack Became the Source of Truth

Modern product teams don't wait for tickets to close to talk about what they built. They share:

• Quick wins in #wins channel
• Bug fixes in #support
• Feature launches in #product-updates
• Performance improvements in #engineering
• UI changes in #design
• Customer feedback in #customer-success

The result: The real story of what shipped is scattered across 6+ channels, 20+ threads, and dozens of messages.

Your project management tool says one thing. Slack tells the real story.

The Typical PM's Release Note Workflow (Painful Edition)

Let's trace the actual journey from "we shipped something" to "users know about it."

Thursday 4pm: The Realization

PM realizes Friday is release day. Time to gather updates.

The archaeology begins:

• Scroll through #engineering (127 unread)
• Check #product-updates (mostly memes)
• Search Slack for "shipped" (284 results, mostly noise)
• Look at Jira closed tickets (half have no details)
• Check git commits (unintelligible to non-engineers)
• Ask in #general: "What shipped this week?"

Responses:

• "The thing with the modal"
• "Fixed that bug from Tuesday"
• "Deployed the performance stuff"
• "Check with Sarah, she knows"

Time elapsed: 35 minutes Useful information gathered: 40%

Thursday 5:30pm: The Investigation

PM starts DMing people directly.

PM → Engineer: "Hey! What was that modal thing?"

Engineer: "Oh, the new onboarding flow. Didn't I mention it?"

PM: "In Slack?"

Engineer: "Yeah, in that thread about the redesign"

PM: [Searches for "redesign" - 89 results]

PM: "Which thread?"

Engineer: "The one from... Tuesday? Or Wednesday? With the screenshots."

Time elapsed: 15 minutes per person × 4 people = 60 minutes Emotional state: Increasing frustration

Friday 9am: The Writing

PM finally has all the pieces. Now to write it up.

Opens Google Doc. Stares at blank page.

Release Notes - Dec 27

[what format did we use last time?]
[finds previous release notes]
[copies format]
[starts filling in]

New Features
- ??? [what's the user benefit of that modal thing?]

Switches to Slack. Finds the thread. Reads 47 messages. Screenshots. Back to Doc.

New Features
- New onboarding flow makes getting started faster
  [is it actually faster? or just different?]
  [should I mention the skip button?]
  [do I need a screenshot?]

Time for one feature: 12 minutes Features to write about: 7 Math: Not good.

Friday 11am: The Approval Loop

Draft done. Time for reviews.

PM → Engineering lead: "Can you review these release notes?"

[30 minutes later]

Engineering lead: "The thing about the API isn't quite right. We didn't change the endpoint, we added a parameter."

PM: [Fixes it]

PM → Design: "Can you review the UI stuff?"

[45 minutes later]

Design: "The dark mode isn't fully released yet, just beta."

PM: [Fixes it]

PM → Support: "Anything missing?"

[60 minutes later]

Support: "What about the login timeout fix? That was huge for customers."

PM: "...we fixed that? When?"

Support: "Last Tuesday. Check #bugs-fixed."

Time elapsed: 2.5 hours (mostly waiting) Number of edits: 8 Things discovered after "final" draft: 3

Friday 2pm: The Publishing Nightmare

Notes are approved. Time to publish.

The checklist:

• Update changelog page (Markdown file in git)
• Post in Slack #product-updates
• Send email to customers (Mailchimp)
• Update in-app notification (admin panel)
• Post on Twitter
• Update help docs if needed
• Notify sales team

Reality:

• Changelog: Push to git, wait for deploy, check if it worked
• Slack: Copy, paste, format breaks, fix formatting
• Email: Copy, paste into Mailchimp template, send test, fix broken images, send
• In-app: Copy, paste, realize character limit, rewrite shorter version
• Twitter: Realize you need to rewrite for 280 characters, debate tone
• Help docs: "I'll do that next week" (you won't)
• Sales team: Forget entirely, remember on Monday, send belated email

Time elapsed: 45 minutes Places information is slightly different: 5 Energy remaining: Minimal

Total Time Investment

• Thursday gathering: 95 minutes
• Friday writing: 84 minutes
• Friday approvals: 150 minutes
• Friday publishing: 45 minutes

Total: 6 hours and 14 minutes

For a weekly release note.

No wonder PMs resist doing it.

Why This Workflow is Broken

The Slack-first approach isn't the problem. It's actually how modern teams SHOULD work—fast, informal, collaborative.

The problem is the manual translation from scattered Slack conversations to polished release notes.

Every week, you:

1. Reconstruct history from fragments
2. Translate technical details to user benefits
3. Gather context that was never written down
4. Format the same information 5 different ways
5. Manually copy-paste to multiple platforms

It's like being a translator, archaeologist, and publisher all at once.

What High-Velocity Teams Do Differently

Teams that ship weekly without burning out have a different approach.

Pattern 1: Capture in the Moment

Instead of reconstructing what happened, they capture it when it happens.

Bad: Engineer ships something, mentions it in passing, information gets lost

Good: Team has a lightweight way to say "this is release-note-worthy" in real-time

Example:

[In #engineering Slack channel]

Dev: "Just shipped the onboarding modal redesign 🚀"

PM: [Reacts with :release-note: emoji]

[Bot automatically captures it to release notes draft]

Why it works: No archaeology required. Captured when context is fresh.

Pattern 2: Collaborative Drafting

Instead of PM writing everything, engineers contribute their own descriptions.

Bad: PM has to interpret technical changes and guess at user benefits

Good: Engineers write first draft, PM refines for clarity

Example:

Engineer's draft:
"Refactored onboarding flow to use progressive disclosure pattern"

PM's refinement:
"New onboarding guides you step-by-step instead of overwhelming you with options upfront"

Why it works: Engineers know what changed, PMs know how to communicate value.

Pattern 3: Single Source, Multiple Outputs

Instead of manually copying to 5 places, they write once and syndicate.

Bad: Maintain separate versions for changelog, email, Slack, in-app

Good: One canonical version, automatically formatted for each channel

Example:

Master version (Markdown):
## New: Dark mode
Switch between light and dark themes in Settings.

Auto-generated outputs:
- Changelog: Full version with screenshots
- Email: Same content, email template
- Slack: Same content, Slack formatting
- In-app: Truncated to 100 chars + "Read more" link
- Twitter: "Dark mode is here! [link]"

Why it works: Write once, publish everywhere. Consistency guaranteed.

The Ideal Workflow: Slack-Native Release Notes

What if you could keep the informal, real-time communication in Slack but skip the manual reconstruction?

The vision:

1. Capture: Team mentions updates in Slack with simple tagging
2. Organize: Updates automatically categorize into New/Improved/Fixed
3. Refine: PM reviews and polishes language in one place
4. Publish: One click to push to changelog, email, in-app, etc.

Time saved:

• No gathering (captured automatically)
• No reformatting (templates applied)
• No manual publishing (automated syndication)

From 6 hours to 15 minutes.

Real-World Example: Before/After

Company: Series B SaaS, 25-person product team

Before: Traditional workflow

Thursday-Friday routine:

• PM spends 4-6 hours gathering and writing release notes
• Engineers interrupt their work answering "what shipped?"
• Release notes are inconsistent (sometimes detailed, sometimes "various bug fixes")
• Published to 3 places manually (often forgetting one)
• Shipped every 2 weeks because it was too painful to do weekly

After: Slack-native workflow

Ongoing throughout the week:

• Engineers tag updates in Slack with /release-note command
• Bot captures and categorizes automatically
• Draft populates in real-time

Friday 9am:

• PM reviews draft (already 80% complete)
• Refines language for clarity (15 minutes)
• Clicks "Publish" (syndicates to all channels)

Results:

• Release note time: 15 minutes (down from 4-6 hours)
• Consistency: Every single week, same format
• Completeness: Nothing gets forgotten (captured in real-time)
• Engineer interruptions: Minimal (context already documented)
• Publishing errors: None (automated)

Behavioral change:

• Team now ships weekly instead of bi-weekly
• Updates feel more frequent to customers
• Sales team always knows what's new
• Support team can reference release notes in tickets

The Tools That Enable This

You need three capabilities:

1. Capture from Slack

Options:

• Slack workflows + Google Sheets (free, manual)
• Custom Slack bot (requires engineering)
• ReleaseNotes.pm (built for this exact workflow)

2. Format and Organize

Options:

• Google Docs with templates (manual)
• Notion or Coda (semi-automated)
• Dedicated changelog tools (automated)

3. Publish Everywhere

Options:

• Manual copy-paste (don't do this)
• Zapier automation (connects multiple tools)
• Integrated publishing (one-click to all channels)

The gap: Most tools solve one of these. Few solve all three.

That's why we built ReleaseNotes.pm—specifically for Slack-first teams who want to skip the manual translation work.

How to Transition Your Team

Don't try to change everything at once. Start small:

Week 1: Add a Slack channel

Create #release-notes channel.

Rule: When you ship something user-facing, drop a quick note here.

Just shipped: Dark mode toggle in settings

That's it. Build the habit first.

Week 2: Add structure

Introduce emoji reactions for categorization:

• 🎨 = New feature
• ⚡ = Improvement
• 🐛 = Bug fix

Now the channel becomes organized without extra effort.

Week 3: Write from Slack

Instead of gathering from multiple channels, just scroll #release-notes.

Everything's already there. Copy the bullets. Polish the language. Publish.

Already better than before: 50% time savings.

Week 4: Automate

Pick a tool to automate the capture, formatting, and publishing.

ReleaseNotes.pm does this in one package:

• Captures from Slack automatically
• Organizes and drafts release notes
• Publishes to changelog, email, and in-app

Join the waitlist

Common Objections

"Our team won't remember to tag updates in Slack"

Response: Make it stupid simple. One emoji reaction. No commands to remember.

Start with just one person (you). Model the behavior. Others will follow.

"Slack is too informal for release notes"

Response: Slack is for capture, not publishing.

The informal Slack message becomes the structured release note after PM review.

"We need approvals from multiple stakeholders"

Response: Build review into the workflow.

Draft auto-populates from Slack → PM reviews → Send for approval → Publish after approval.

The approval step stays. The manual gathering goes away.

"What if we forget to tag something important?"

Response: Same risk as now, but easier to catch.

Weekly review of #release-notes channel takes 2 minutes. Scanning all of Slack takes an hour.

The Future of Release Notes

Product teams communicate in real-time. Release notes are written in batches.

That gap creates friction.

The future is continuous release notes—where the communication happens once (in Slack) and the formalization is automatic.

Today: Slack → Manual gathering → Writing → Formatting → Publishing

Tomorrow: Slack → Automatic draft → Quick review → One-click publish

The savings:

• 80% time reduction
• 100% consistency improvement
• 0% chance of forgetting something

Start This Friday

You can improve your workflow today:

1. Create #release-notes in Slack
2. Ask your team to mention what they shipped there
3. This Friday, write your release notes from that channel
4. Next week, add emoji categorization
5. Week after, consider automation

Or skip the manual setup and use ReleaseNotes.pm to do it all automatically.

Join the waitlist

Conclusion

The Slack-first workflow isn't a bug. It's a feature.

Modern product teams move fast. They communicate in threads, not tickets.

The solution isn't to force them back into rigid tools. It's to build release note workflows that match how they already work.

Stop spending 6 hours reconstructing history. Start capturing it in real-time.

Your Fridays will thank you.

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How does your team currently gather release notes? We're building exactly this workflow.