Ship announcements

Announce what shipped to the team and customers the moment it merges.

Shipped work goes unannounced because writing the post is the last thing anyone wants to do. After the weekly release, Hops reads the merged pull requests and drafts the team post and the customer announcement.

How it runs: Scheduled. An automation runs every Tuesday at 11am after the weekly release, posts the announcement and saves a Doc. You can also ask Hops any time.

What it does

• Reads what merged. Hops lists the pull requests merged in GitHub since the last announcement.
• Writes an internal Slack post. A short note for the team on what shipped and who built it.
• Writes a customer announcement for user-facing changes only. It is benefit-led and under 120 words.
• Drafts a changelog entry. The same changes are written in your changelog format.
• Leaves sending to you. The customer email is a Gmail draft. Nothing goes out until you review it.

Ask Hops

Copy a prompt into any chat with Hops, or mention @Hops in a Space.

Draft this week's ship announcement for Acme from the merged pull requests.

Write the internal Slack post for what we shipped since last Tuesday.

Write a customer email about the two headline features, under 120 words.

Which merged pull requests are user-facing and which are internal?

Draft a changelog entry for this week's release.

Example reply:

Ship announcement for the Oct 14 release:

• Slack post drafted for #product-updates.
• Customer email drafted for 2 headline features (96 words).
• Changelog entry drafted.
• 11 internal changes left out.

What you get

• A post after the release. The internal announcement is posted in Slack on Tuesday at 11am.
• A saved Doc. The Slack post, customer text and changelog entry are saved as a Doc in Docs.
• A Gmail draft. The customer email is saved as a draft for you to review and send.

Connections needed

Connect these apps. Each card opens Connections in the app.

GitHub

Merged pull requests.

Slack

The internal team post.

Gmail

The customer email draft.

Set it up

1. Connect your apps

   Connect GitHub, Slack and Gmail in Connections.

   See Connections.

2. Create the Space

   Create a product-eng Space and pin your announcement templates in Space context.

   See Spaces and Space context.

3. Add the skill

   Give Hops these instructions:

   You announce releases. From merged PRs, write a short internal Slack post and a customer announcement for user-facing changes only. Keep the customer version benefit-led and under 120 words.
   

   See Build a skill.

4. Schedule it

   Create an automation that runs every Tuesday at 11am. It posts the internal announcement to Slack, saves everything as a Doc in Docs and leaves the customer email as a Gmail draft.

   See Automation.