Aha! Roadmaps | Draft release notes with AI

Release notes enhance transparency and communication with your stakeholders and your customers. They provide valuable information to both internal teams and users, letting everyone know about new functionality and issue resolution. If you offer a full suite of products, release notes can be a time-consuming undertaking. But with the support of AI, you can create a first draft of release notes that you can refine for your target audience — providing you with more time to do more impactful work.

Your account data will not be used to train the AI model.

Click any of the following links to skip ahead:

• Overview

• Enable or disable AI drafting

• Draft release notes

• Refine release notes

• Best practices

Overview

Use AI to create a first draft of release notes from an individual release or from a list report of records from multiple releases or workspaces. You can include features, epics, or requirements in your release notes. AI uses a record's name and description to draft a summary of the record — so it is important to note that a record's summary will only be as thorough and accurate as the description included on an individual record.

Once drafted, you can save your release notes as a note in your workspace or copy and paste them wherever you choose to further refine them. When you save AI-drafted release notes as a note in your workspace, the note will be linked to the records included in your draft automatically so you can easily reference them, making it easy to check their accuracy before refining and publishing them for users.

Publish your release notes as a webpage, in a presentation, or as a custom page in your ideas portal (Ideas Advanced) to share them publicly. You can also copy your draft and paste it into your CMS to publish on your website or public-facing knowledge base.

If your release notes are for internal use and you have set up a product information hub or wiki in your workspace's Knowledge tab, save them as a note in your workspace so everyone with access can easily find and view them to stay informed.

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Enable or disable AI drafting

If you have enabled AI drafts in text editor, the option to draft release notes with AI is enabled in your account by default. If you are an account administrator, you can disable it for all users in your account in account settings. Navigate to Settings ⚙️ Account Security and single sign-on AI control to enable or disable AI release notes drafts. With AI release notes drafts disabled, the option to draft release notes with AI will not appear in your account, and the wand icon will not appear in your text editor toolbar.

Ideas Advanced plan users have access to another AI feature: AI-powered ideas exploration.

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Draft release notes

There are two ways to draft release notes: from an single release or from a list report.

Access a release's More options menu to draft release notes from a single release. You can access it from your features board or from the release's details view. Then select Draft release notes to begin.

Create a list report to draft release notes that includes records from multiple releases or workspaces, using filters to narrow in on the records you want to include. Then select one or more records from the list report to reveal the Draft release notes option, which will appear at the top of the report. Click Draft release notes to begin.

After clicking Draft release notes, a new modal will open:

• Records in a Shipped or Ready to ship status will be preselected for you — but you can check or uncheck the boxes next to any record you want to include or exclude from release notes.

  AI will assume that records included in release notes are completed, regardless of their status.

• Once you have selected the records you want to include, click Next.

• On the next screen, you can watch as your release notes appear on the screen.

When drafting is complete, you have several options:

• Select Copy notes if you would like to paste the AI draft elsewhere to make your own adjustments.

• Select Redraft notes if you would like AI to draft an alternative version of your release notes.

• Select Next to add the AI draft to a new workspace note. When you select Next, you will select a workspace where the note will be created. Only workspaces that the person who prompted the AI-drafted release notes has access to will appear in the dropdown. Click Save release notes to create the new note.

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Refine release notes

Whether you have saved your AI-drafted release notes as a workspace note or have copied and pasted them into your CMS outside of Aha! Roadmaps, they are not yet ready to publish — you will need to check them for accuracy and refine them first.

Edit your AI-generated release notes draft before sharing it broadly. Check that each record included is accurately summarized and make changes as necessary. We recommend following best practices outlined in the section below for best results.

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Best practices

It may take several tries to get the results you want from AI. The quality of the AI output is highly dependent on its input — so if your record descriptions are ambiguous, AI will have to make choices that are not necessarily accurate. AI will not apply brand guidelines or create images for your release notes. It is not intended to produce results you can publish without applying a human touch. Follow these best practices for refining your AI-drafted release notes so they will inform and delight your audience.

Check for accuracy

AI is not a product expert — but you are. Always check the AI draft against your own knowledge and the information provided in the records included in your release notes. If you have questions or something is unclear, consult with your product or engineering teams.

Apply your brand voice

Your brand has a unique voice and tone that is consistent across your content. Your release notes should be no different. Apply stylistic edits that are consistent with the brand your customers know and love.

Cater to your audience

Internal teams and customers have different levels of product knowledge. Likewise, they do not need the same information. Ensure your release notes include the records, details, and tone that is appropriate for the audience that will be reading them.

Add links

When you announce new functionality in your release notes, link to additional resources so your customers can read more. This helps foster feature adoption, which helps with customer satisfaction and retention.

Add screenshots

Highly technical products often have highly technical release notes. Adding images and screenshots provides context and makes your release notes more digestible.

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