Episode 13 - Herald: Changelogs People Actually Read

Short podcast summaryMark and Ryan dig into Herald, Oodle’s developer-native changelog and release notes platform built for teams that ship through GitHub but hate writing product updates from scratch. Ryan explains the gap he found in existing changelog tools, why release notes usually get skipped, and how Herald uses GitHub history plus AI to turn commits and pull requests into editable release drafts. They also cover GitHub sync, nested projects, scheduled releases, customizable widgets, email notifications, and user segmentation — all aimed at making product updates easier to publish and easier for users to discover.YouTube descriptionMost teams ship more than they communicate.In this episode of Not Brothers, Mark and Ryan talk through Herald — Oodle’s changelog and release notes platform for software teams that live in GitHub but hate writing release notes from scratch.Ryan explains why changelogs are usually skipped, why existing tools did not quite fit the workflow he wanted, and how Herald turns GitHub activity into draft release notes using AI. Instead of starting with a blank page, teams can connect a repository, pull in commits and pull requests, draft a release, edit the important parts, and publish across Herald, GitHub, email, and an in-app widget.They also get into two-way GitHub sync, public and private repositories, nested projects for related repos, scheduled releases, customizable changelog widgets, user groups, segmentation, and why discoverability matters just as much as authorship.Herald is built for developers, product teams, indie founders, and small SaaS teams that want to keep users informed without turning release notes into another full-time job.Try Herald: https://sendherald.comChapters00:00 — Why Oodle built Herald 00:44 — What Herald is and the changelog problem it solves 03:02 — Release notes for users, engineers, and bigger feature launches 04:56 — Using AI to turn GitHub activity into draft changelogs 06:21 — Moving from creator to editor of release notes 07:22 — Two-way GitHub sync and avoiding duplicate work 09:31 — Custom categories and tuning the AI import prompt 10:25 — Public/private repos and nested projects 11:31 — Multi-repo product families and parent changelogs 13:08 — Scheduled releases 14:22 — Getting started without a blank canvas 15:30 — Drafting a release from everything since the last GitHub release 16:43 — Customizable in-app changelog widgets 17:36 — Making product updates discoverable 19:28 — In-app updates vs. noisy notifications 19:59 — Groups, JWT, and segmented changelog visibility 21:44 — Internal users, client users, and beta release use cases 22:10 — A simple tool that adds value in the right capacity 23:07 — The three user types Herald is built for 23:48 — Real release notes, testing, and future feedback 24:35 — Website demo and interactive examples 24:59 — Try Herald and let us know what you think