Should changelog entries include demos?

For entries with a visible interface change, entries you expect support questions about, and the feature you most want adopted. Bug fixes, performance work and dependency updates are better as text.

Who reads a changelog?

Existing customers deciding whether to care, and prospects checking whether the product is alive. A walkthrough serves both -- the customer sees whether it helps them, the prospect sees a product visibly moving.

Is recording a demo worth it for one release note?

It is, because the demo outlives the entry. The changelog is read once in its publication week, while the recording keeps working in support macros, onboarding emails and sales conversations months later.

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Demos in Your Changelog and Release Notes

August 28, 2026

Changelogs are written by the people who built the thing, for people who have never seen it, in the vocabulary of the team that shipped it.

"Improved filtering on the reports page" is precise, accurate, and conveys nothing to somebody deciding whether it matters to them.

What a changelog is actually for

Two audiences read one: existing customers deciding whether to care, and prospects checking whether the product is alive. Both are poorly served by a list of terse entries.

A short walkthrough on the two or three entries that matter serves both — the customer sees whether it helps them, the prospect sees a product that is visibly moving.

Not every entry

Anything with a visible interface change is worth showing.
Anything you expect support questions about, since the demo answers them in advance.
The one feature you most want adopted, which is rarely the biggest item.
Not bug fixes, not performance work, not dependency bumps. Text is correct for those.

It gives the entry a second life

A changelog entry is read once, in the week it is published, by whoever happens to look. The demo attached to it goes on being useful: in the support macro when somebody asks, in the onboarding email months later, in the sales conversation where it turns out to be exactly what a prospect needed.

That reuse is what makes recording one worth ten minutes rather than an indulgence.

Write for somebody who was not waiting

The temptation is to write for the customers who requested the feature. They are the smallest and least valuable part of the audience, because they are already convinced.

Write and record for the customer who did not know they needed it. That is where adoption actually comes from.

Frequently asked questions

Should changelog entries include demos?: For entries with a visible interface change, entries you expect support questions about, and the feature you most want adopted. Bug fixes, performance work and dependency updates are better as text.
Who reads a changelog?: Existing customers deciding whether to care, and prospects checking whether the product is alive. A walkthrough serves both -- the customer sees whether it helps them, the prospect sees a product visibly moving.
Is recording a demo worth it for one release note?: It is, because the demo outlives the entry. The changelog is read once in its publication week, while the recording keeps working in support macros, onboarding emails and sales conversations months later.

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