Why We Are Introducing a Realease Readiness Meeting

I've worked at a number of companies, big and small. There's a unique thrill and, admittedly, a certain amount of chaos, that accompanies working at a startup. Some of my favourite parts of the startup life are the rapid speed of execution and blissful lack of meetings. At Released, we don’t take adding meetings to our calendar lightly. Yet, we’ve added one this week.

Every week we roll out new features, enhancements, and improvements. There's a rush in pushing out updates. Delivering what our users have been asking for. Our degree of productivity, while gratifying, comes with its set of challenges. There have been instances where a feature just scraped through under our strict timelines and, in all frankness, our confidence levels about its quality weren't what they usually are. Despite our hustle and good intentions, we’ve had moments of last-minute halts—important features held back to let them simmer and solidify.

Introducing the Release Readiness Meeting

These experiences led us to rethink our approach; The core principle is simple: we will continue shipping weekly, keeping that momentum rolling. However, we’ve now implemented a 'Release Readiness Meeting' on Wednesday mornings. We will review everything set to be shipped on Thursday. The big rule is quality over speed - if we're even a smidgen doubtful about a feature, we'll delay it without batting an eyelid. After all, the next release is only a week away.

Now, you might be thinking “what are you going to announce that week?”. In addition to the "big rocks" (major features) we also add a flurry of small improvements and features from our backlog to our weekly sprints. These minor improvements are less flashy, often even considered lower-priority, but they are significant in enhancing usability and boosting the overall user experience.

These smaller improvements also act as a safety net. They ensure something new and valuable is consistently delivered to users every week without the pressure of having to ship larger, more complex features before we believe they're up to our standards.

So sit back, and enjoy the continued enhancements that we'll be rolling out week after week. And remember, whether they're big rocks or small improvements, they're making your journey on our app smoother. And remember, every release post is an opportunity to engage your customers and grow their passion for your product.