Release Notes
Communicate product updates clearly so users know what changed and what to do next. Try it in Elium.
The Release Notes Template helps you communicate product updates to users in a clear, consistent format. Document what changed, why it matters, and what users need to do, all in a structure your team can follow every release cycle. It's how you turn a changelog into a communication tool your users actually appreciate.
Category
IT & Technology
Who should use this template?
This template is for teams responsible for communicating product and system changes:
-
Product Managers: document feature releases and improvements so internal teams and customers understand each update
-
Engineering Leads: record technical changes, migrations, and deprecations in a format non-technical stakeholders can follow
-
Customer Success Managers: share release updates with customers and highlight features relevant to their use case
-
IT Operations Teams: communicate system updates, patches, and infrastructure changes to internal users
How to create this template in Elium
-
Open the Template Builder: Go to your profile menu and select the Template Builder tab, or click “+ Create” and choose “Create a new template”.
-
Set the scope: Choose an icon, enable the template, and decide whether it applies platform-wide or to specific spaces (e.g. Product or Engineering only).
-
Add structured fields: Click “Field” to add metadata: text fields for product name and version number, a date field for release date, a tag field for release type (pre-populate with “Major”, “Minor”, “Patch”, “Hotfix”), and a tag field for status (pre-populate with “Scheduled”, “Deployed”, “Rolled Back”). Mark version number and release type as mandatory.
-
Build the release structure: Use the “+” button to add content blocks: a text block for summary, then separate sections for new features, improvements, bug fixes, known issues, and migration notes. Use headings to separate each section clearly.
-
Preview and save: Review the template layout, then save. Product and engineering teams can now select it when publishing new releases, and you can apply it to existing content in bulk.
How AI helps
Capture faster. Paste your commit log, Jira tickets, or sprint summary into Elium’s AI. It groups changes into features, improvements, and bug fixes, drafts user-facing descriptions, and formats the release notes, so the product manager reviews and polishes rather than writing from scratch.
Retrieve smarter. A support agent asks Elium’s AI: “When did we fix the CSV export timeout issue?” The AI returns the specific release version, date, and fix description, so the agent gives the customer a precise answer without searching through months of changelogs.
Why teams use Elium for this
Release notes are only useful when the people who need them can find them. When updates are scattered across emails, Slack channels, and Confluence pages, knowledge fragments and teams work from outdated information. Elium centralises release history: structured templates keep every update in the same format, search lets anyone find a specific change instantly, and permissions control who sees internal versus customer-facing notes.
Bouygues Construction, with 53,500 employees across 80 countries, uses Elium to centralise operational knowledge across distributed teams. System updates, process changes, and best practices are documented in a single platform, ensuring every team has access to the latest information.
Common questions about release notes templates
Release notes are structured documents describing what changed in a product or system update. They ensure stakeholders understand new features, bug fixes, and known issues without relying on word of mouth. Without consistent release notes, support teams miss changes, customers discover updates by accident, and knowledge about what was deployed fragments across channels.
Complete release notes include metadata (product name, version, date, release type, status), a summary paragraph, sections for new features, improvements, bug fixes, known issues with workarounds, and migration notes for any actions required after deployment. Each item should describe the change and its user impact clearly.
Consistent release notes improve cross-team alignment because everyone reads the same update. They reduce support tickets because agents and customers understand recent changes. They create an auditable history of what was deployed and when. They accelerate onboarding because new team members can review the product’s evolution quickly.
Lead with the user impact, not the technical implementation. Group changes by type: features, improvements, fixes. Use plain language that non-technical readers can follow. Include ticket or reference numbers so engineers can trace the original issue. Flag known issues honestly and provide workarounds where available.
Release notes are user-facing documents that explain what changed and why it matters, written for a broad audience including customers, support, and sales. A changelog is a technical log of every commit or change, typically maintained in a repository for developers. Release notes summarise and contextualise; changelogs record every detail.
Try this template in Elium
See it on your own knowledge.
Customise it to fit your team's workflow. Get started for free.