template · release brief to client

Release brief to client

Copy-paste skeleton. One page. Sent before the flag flips, not after. CS-signed handoff so Tier-1 is not surprised by the first call.

How to use

Three audiences read this brief: the named client, the CS team, and the team's own future-on-call. Each section has one job. If you cannot write Watching in the first 48 hours with a specific metric and threshold, the release is not ready.

text

# Release brief — [feature name] · [cycle date]

## What is shipping
[Two sentences, in the named person's language. What changes
 in their experience. Not "we have refactored the…" — "Gal
 will see Hebrew names rendered inline."]

## Who sees it, and when
- [Cohort 1 — first wave]: [date · how it enables]
- [Cohort 2]: [date · gating criterion]
- [Cohort 3 — full rollout]: [date]

## What does NOT change
[Specific things that are out-of-scope this release. Pre-empts
 the "I expected this to also change…" support thread.]

## What to watch in the first 48 hours
- Signal:    [metric · expected range · what would be alarming]
- Risk:      [the QA-named risk · the mitigation in place]
- Page if:   [the alert condition · who pages]

## If something feels wrong
- Client: [contact name, channel, expected response time]
- CS:     [escalation path to L2 / engineering]
- Rollback path: [what flips the flag back · who can do it]

## Linked artefacts
- Feature Brief:        [link]
- Technical Design Brief: [link]
- Runbook (operational): [link]

## Sign-off
PO:        [Name] · [date]
Tech Lead: [Name] · [date]
CS Lead:   [Name] · [date]

Worked example — Grading Shortcut release brief

markdown

# Release Brief — Grading Shortcut (cycle 5)

Release date:  2026-05-25 (Wednesday, 12:00 local)
Cohorts:       Pilot 5 schools → 1% all → 5% → 25% → 100%
Author:        Alex (PO) · 2026-05-22

## What is shipping
When Gal grades an exam and presses ⌘+Enter, the system submits
the current exam and advances to the next one in her queue. She
no longer has to lift her hands from the keyboard to navigate
between exams. The change applies to single-section grading on
desktop; multi-section and tablet support are deferred to cycle 6.

## Who sees it, and when
- Pilot schools (5):       enabled at 12:00 on Wed 2026-05-25
- 1% sample of all users:  enabled on Thu 2026-05-26
- 5% sample:               Fri 2026-05-27
- 25% sample:              Mon 2026-06-02
- 100%:                    Wed 2026-06-04 (after the 24h soak
                            at 25% confirms the dashboards)

## What does NOT change
- Multi-section grading still requires the older flow
- Tablet grading is unchanged (deferred to cycle 6)
- The grading rubric and scoring system are untouched
- The grade-history view is unchanged

## What to watch in the first 48 hours
- Adoption: how many graders use ⌘+Enter on their first session
- Completion: do sessions still close cleanly?
- Error rate at submit (SLO: <0.5% p95)
- Language-pack timing on Hebrew-default users (early signal)

## If something feels wrong
The flag `grading.shortcut-submit` is one click off. Esti (TL)
is on-call. Runbook: /runbooks/grading-shortcut.md. Rollback
rehearsed 2026-05-20 in staging — verified 2 minutes from
decision to recovered state.

## Linked artefacts
- Feature Brief:           /briefs/grading-shortcut.md
- Technical Design Brief:  /briefs/grading-shortcut-tdb.md
- Runbook:                 /runbooks/grading-shortcut.md
- Release gate signed:     /releases/2026-05-25-gate.md

## Sign-off
PO:        Alex · 2026-05-22
Tech Lead: Esti · 2026-05-22
CS Lead:   Maya (CS) · 2026-05-22

Where this lives in your project

The release brief is sent to the client (named contact at the customer) and pinned in the team's support channel. It is the artefact that protects the no-surprises rule — the client does not first hear of the release in the bi-weekly sync, and CS Tier-1 is not surprised by the first call.

What to do if a section resists

Resistance	What it means	Where to go
Cannot write in the named person's language	The Feature Brief drifted into solution language	Practice · Writing Feature Briefs
Rollout cohorts are "everyone at once"	Gradual rollout has not been designed	Canon · Gradual Rollout
Watching in the first 48 hours is empty	Observability hooks were not in the TDB	Practice · Writing TDBs · Step 4
CS Lead refuses to sign	The handoff is not honest — Tier-1 will be surprised	Skill · CS Lead foundations · Step 6
Rollback path is "we'll figure it out"	Runbook is missing	Template · Runbook

Release brief to client ​

Worked example — Grading Shortcut release brief ​

Where this lives in your project ​

What to do if a section resists ​

See also ​

Release brief to client

Worked example — Grading Shortcut release brief

Where this lives in your project

What to do if a section resists

See also