Here's how Github uses their developers to write better changelogs

Including customer quotes is a top tier changelog technique.

Why? Because it's always better to have someone else say something nice about you, especially when that person actively pays for your product. Think of it as a micro testimonial.

However this introduces two problems. First, you need to loop a customer into your changelog release cycle, which means slowing down the process. Second, you can't rely on your customers to transfer all the necessary technical details, especially if you have a product with a technical ICP.

To learn how to solve both of these problems at once we can take a look at how our friends at GitHub handle it. Their secret technique is to have a staff developer write a quote the same way an end user would.

This works especially well for them because Github sells primarily to developers, so they can capture this "customer language" in the form of quotes from their development team.

Let's review an example from their update titled “GitHub Copilot Chat now generally available for organizations and individuals.”

Below is an example of one of these quotes from GitHub's Principal Solutions Engineer, David Losert. You don't need to read it word for word, but take a quick skim to see how a pro level developer quote looks:

This is a serious quote! Two full paragraphs from a very senior engineer at Github, with a specific real world scenario.

Since Github sells to and is used by engineers, this stands in for a customer quote in a pretty compelling way.

Of the 1,000 words in the update, almost 600 are directly from their developers.

This is specifically a good approach for Github, but also generally good to get a quote from your development team.

It’s like when the chef of a fancy restaurant comes out to talk to you.

For some bonus points Github also embraces being multimedia by including a video of the update as well since this was announced at their conference, they smartly included a 10 minute clip during the announcement:

While adding video adds a considerable amount of work to the update, I do like providing the option for the people who prefer video, and for the distribution. This video is on YouTube with 81k views, and comments are open allowing them to get messages like this:

They could farm these comments for customer quotes, and since it’s YouTube there’s also plenty of complaints they could use to make some improvements.‍

Two more positive notes on Github's updates:

• When talking about tech they increase clarity by addressing the common questions up front. For example, they specify that copilot chat is powered by GPT-4, which is a phrase likely everyone who’s familiar with copilot will understand, and, one that most people would be happy with. (of course with consideration to the wide array of opinions on AI technologies, no one is happy about everything.)
• Github is on a schedule with customer updates, constantly updating their blog with product updates and developments from the field, averaging 3-4 updates a month!

For a bit of constructive criticism I was surprised they weren’t explicit on customer benefits. AI tools for developers are prime to say “your company will save X money, Y time, and get through your backlog X00% faster.” They hit on it in the video “Even adding a small feature can take hours out of your day.”

This last point of not taking the final step to customer benefit is extremely common and drives me a bit crazy. I think to myself as companies release feature updates “what was the point of building this? How does this make our business stronger? Why are we here?”

Perhaps Github specifically avoids this language because developers hate being “sold” to, but there’s plenty of room for Github to walk up to that line.

The next time you're writing an update consider if a quick note from the head chef wouldn't help communicate the benefits in a fast and effective way.