Unfold's Modern Mobile Release Process And The Subtle Art Of Making Them Boring
Article Summary
Alan Cooke from Squarespace reveals how Unfold turned chaotic mobile releases into boring background events. Boring is the goal, and here's why that's brilliant.
The Unfold team at Squarespace transformed their mobile release process from shipping 4-5 releases per week (including holiday hotfixes) to a seamless one-week release train. They reduced hotfixes from multiple per month to just 5 per year while cutting engineering time spent on releases by two-thirds.
Key Takeaways
- Reduced hotfixes from many per month to only 5 per year
- Cut engineering time on releases by 33% with automated workflows
- One-week release train runs automatically from Friday branch cuts to Monday rollouts
- Runway and Xray tools replaced manual spreadsheets and custom automation
- Crash-free sessions SLA above 99.5% with automated rollout halts
Critical Insight
Unfold reduced mobile release overhead by two-thirds and slashed annual hotfixes to just 5 by automating their one-week release train with clear SLAs and stakeholder buy-in.
