The release timeline
Every release you measured and what it did to its KPI, month by month, with a scorecard you can share.
Your team ships every week. A quarter later, someone asks which of those releases actually moved the needle. The Timeline answers that in one view.
The Timeline is your project's diary of releases. It lists every change you measured, and what each one did to its KPI.
Think of a school report card
A report card lists every subject and the grade you got. The Timeline lists every release and the grade it got: did it help, did it hurt, or did it do nothing?
At the end of the term you don't remember every test. You look at the report card. The Timeline is that report card for your product.
When to use it
- A monthly or quarterly review: what did we ship, and what worked?
- Telling your boss or your team which releases paid off.
- Spotting releases that went out too close together.
- Stopping or shipping an impact check: open it from its row (how).
- Releases with a date still ahead: they wait on the Impact checks tab until that day.
How to open it
- 1Open your project.
- 2Press the Timeline tab, next to Impact checks.
- 3Pick a period at the top: Last 90 days, This quarter, Last quarter, This year or All time.
- 4Choose List or Calendar on the right.
What you'll see
The scorecard at the top counts the releases in that period and splits them into Improved, Got worse, No clear effect, Needs attention and Still measuring. An impact check that was stopped before its verdict is counted apart.
The list groups releases by month, newest first. Each row shows the release date, the change, the KPI it should move (after the arrow →), which kind of impact check measured it, and the result. Press a row to open its check page.
It moved the KPI the right way, by this much.
It made the KPI worse. Stopped · it hurt means a split test a coding agent started was stopped early, because it clearly hurt.
No real difference either way.
Something is wrong with the counting. Open it to see what to fix (more).
Still collecting data. The date is when Needlr expects to call it. Too early to call means the same: wait.
An adoption impact check: this share of active people used the feature, and it reached your target. Below target and Near target are the other answers.
The badge in the middle says how the release was measured. Split test · Proven means visitors were split, so the result shows what the change caused. Before vs after · Likely is a strong hint, not proof: other things changed in the same weeks (why).
Shipped or Moved to code next to a result means the winner now runs for everyone (more).
A ! next to a release means it went out within 2 weeks of another release in the same project. A before vs after impact check can't tell those two apart, and the row says so.
Calendar shows one month at a time. Each release sits on the day it went out, with a colored dot for its result; the line under the calendar says which color means what. Use the arrows to change month.
Copy summary for your team copies a short text to paste into Slack or an email: how many releases moved the needle, hurt or did nothing, and the wins and losses by name. Sample releases from the demo project are never in it.
Common mistakes
- Reading Likely as proof. A before vs after result is a strong hint. When you need proof, run a split test.
- Shipping two changes in the same week. A before vs after impact check then can't say which one did it. Space them out, or split-test them.
- Counting Collecting data as a win. Until there's a verdict, the change hasn't proven anything yet (why wait).
What the video says
Your team ships every week. A quarter later, someone asks which of those releases actually moved the needle. The Timeline answers that in one view.
Every release lands in its month, newest first, with the KPI it was meant to move and its kind of impact check: split test, before vs after, or adoption.
Each row ends in its verdict: moved, hurt, no clear effect, or still measuring. Once the call is in, you see the size of the change.
On top sits a scorecard for the period you pick. How many releases moved the needle, how many hurt, and how many made no difference at all.
Two releases within two weeks of each other? Needlr flags them, because a before vs after comparison can't tell which one deserves the credit.
Copy the summary into your team channel, wins and losses included. Your next roadmap review starts from evidence about what worked, not from opinions.