Release notes
What changed, shown rather than described, with a written summary for the people who will never watch a video. One recording produces both.
Record it in this order
Lead with the one thing that matters
Not chronological, not alphabetical. The change that affects the most people, first, in the first fifteen seconds.
Show it working
Actually use the new thing on screen. A described feature and a demonstrated feature land completely differently, and this is the whole reason to record rather than write.
Cover what broke or moved
Anything people had a habit around. Moved buttons generate more support load than missing features, and this is where you get ahead of it.
Say what is next, briefly
One sentence. It is the difference between a changelog people read and one they ignore.
Why this format works
- The video reaches people who would not read a bullet list.
- The auto-generated written guide reaches the people who would never watch, from the same recording.
- Both can be embedded in a help center or an internal page, and both update together when you re-record.
What to annotate afterwards
- Trim the dead air at the start. You will have one.
- Add a box annotation on each changed control, since "it moved" is hard to see in a screenshot.
- Blur any real customer data in the demo account.
Cadence beats polish
A four-minute recording shipped every week beats a produced one shipped quarterly. Do not re-record for an "um", because that is how a fifteen-minute task becomes an hour and then stops happening.
Related: async video updates, and our own changelog.