Users don't know you ship new features every week
A small notification badge on a "What's new" button keeps users aware of improvements without sending more emails.
When to use
You ship regular updates and want users to know without sending more emails.
Hypothesis template
If we add an in-app changelog with [update frequency], feature awareness will increase by [target]% and users will feel the product is actively improving.
Method
The problem: You ship improvements weekly but users think the product hasn't changed since they signed up. Your email changelog goes to spam.
What Linear did: A "What's new" button in the app with a notification badge when there are updates. Users click it when they're curious — no email interruption needed.
The result: In-app changelogs increase feature awareness by 3-5x compared to email changelogs. Users who check the changelog have higher retention because they see the product improving.
How to do it:
- Add a "What's new" button in your app navigation with a notification dot
- Write brief updates for each feature: one sentence + screenshot/gif
- Group by week or month
- Mark updates as read when viewed
- Highlight the ones most relevant to each user if possible
- Track: changelog views, feature adoption after announcement
Key insight: Users who feel the product is improving retain better. The changelog isn't about features — it's about confidence that they picked a living product.
Success metrics
- •Changelog view rate
- •Feature adoption from changelog
- •Retention rate (changelog viewers vs non-viewers)
- •Notification badge click rate
Prerequisites
- Regular product updates to share
- A changelog UI component
- Brief descriptions and visuals for each update
Common pitfalls
- •Writing developer-focused release notes instead of user benefits
- •Updating too infrequently (feels abandoned)
- •Making entries too long
- •Not including visuals
Source: Linear, Notion, Figma. In-app changelogs increase feature awareness 3-5x vs email announcements.
Suggested ICE scores
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