Release Management, Reimagined
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Context:
Our engineering, program and product teams had finally aligned our release cadence and paid down critical technical debt, creating room to deliver visible, high-impact product enhancements. But even the most valuable updates wouldn’t drive outcomes if they never reached end users or motivated customers to act.
Problem:
symplr’s core products were on-premise, meaning every upgrade required effort from hospital IT teams. Without a clear reason to prioritize updates, adoption lagged. Internally, teams also struggled to stay engaged with a release process that lacked visibility and urgency.
Key Actions: I adjusted our internal schedule to make releases an event and built communication infrastructure around it.
Cadence: Instead of trying to release as many times a year as possible (our previous goal) I scheduled releases twice a year and staggered them between products. This helped my teams spend less time releasing and more time coding, testing, and communicating. It helped Customer Success and Support teams proactively plan times their Strategic accounts would take big releases.
Communication: my product owners and I used a new multi-channel communication plan. Each release came with a video that showed new features live in the system and could be watched in 15 minutes. Customers were invited to write or comment if they had questions unique to their configuration.
Confirmation: My team partnered with the Learning team to embed video content into our new Learning Management System, helping internal managers track their teams’ progress and integrate product updates into their team meetings.
Result: Engagement and action. Not only did customers respond in surveys that they loved the videos that could update them as they drank their morning coffee, they were more comfortable moving forward with releases planned with Support and Customer Success. Internal stakeholders reported feeling more prepared when releases were available and better equipped to advocate and plan with strategic accounts.
Relevant Skills
Product Roadmap & Release Strategy
Customer Engagement & Communication
Cross-functional Collaboration & Leadership
Change & Project Management
I don’t just build features—I build understanding, stories and business sense into processes that matter. If that is a skill set that matters to your team - lets connect.