Summary
Categories, labels, and cohorts work together to organize your announcements and control who sees them. Think of it as a filtering system: Categories organize announcements by product area or theme, Labels add flexible tags for cross-cutting topics, and Cohorts define which customer segments can access specific content.
How your product structure maps to LaunchNotes
Categories
Categories represent your product's structure—the major products, modules, or feature areas you build. Think of these as what part of your product might be affected by product change. To define your categories, consider how your product is organized. Here are some examples:
Single product: A simple project management tool might have categories like Task Management, Reporting, Integrations and Mobile App.
Product suite: A company with different products might have categories named to the product names. A company like Stripe might use categories like Payments, Billing, Connect etc.
Enterprise software: An enterprise company might organize categories by Core Platform, Advanced Features and Admin Tools.
Your Categories should reflect the way your team talks about the product internally and how customers think about different areas of functionality.
Labels
Labels describe the type of change and can span multiple product areas and are optional. Here are some examples:
New Feature: Entirely new capabilities
Improvement: Enhancements to existing features
Bug Fix: Resolved issues
Integration: Third-party connections
API: Developer-facing updates
Cohorts
Cohorts represent your customer segments—the "who" should see specific announcements based on their plan, role, industry, or other attributes. Cohorts ensure customers only see relevant updates based on their attributes and they are optional. Here are some examples:
Plan-based: Free, Pro, Enterprise users see updates for their tier
Role-based: Admins, end users, developers get targeted communications
Industry-based: Healthcare, finance, retail customers see compliance-relevant updates
Usage-based: Power users vs. casual users receive appropriate detail levels
Internal team: A specific team in your company you’d like to notify
Setting up your organizational structure
1. Create Categories for your product areas
Navigate to Settings > Categorization > Categories tab
Click Create Category
Name it to match your product structure (e.g., "Mobile App" or "Reporting Dashboard")
Add a description to help team members understand what belongs in this Category
Choose a color to make it visually distinct in your changelog
Repeat for each major product area
Start with 3-5 core Categories. You can always add more later, but too many Categories can overwhelm both your team and customers.
2. Define Labels for update types (optional)
Navigate to Settings > Categorization > Labels tab
Click Create Label
Create Labels that describe the nature of your updates
Consider which Labels matter most to your customer as they use these to filter your changelog
Assign colors that create visual hierarchy (e.g., bright colors for exciting new features, neutral for bug fixes)
You can apply multiple Labels to a single announcement. For example, a new integration might have both "New Feature" and "Integration" Labels.
3. Configure Cohorts for customer segments (optional)
Navigate to Audience > Cohorts
Click Create Cohort
Define the Name and Description of your cohort
Click Create Cohort to save
Cohorts can work with your authentication setup (SSO, JWT, or SAML) to automatically segment customers. You'll need to pass these attributes when users authenticate.
Tips for effective organization
Keep it simple: Start with fewer Categories and expand based on actual usage patterns. Customers shouldn't need a guide to understand your structure.
Match customer language: Use terms your customers already know. If they call it "Dashboards" then don't label it "Reporting & Analytics."
Review quarterly: As your product evolves, your organizational structure should too. Check if your Categories still reflect how customers think about your product.
Consider your changelog page: Your Categories become navigation on your public changelog. Make sure they create an intuitive browsing experience.
Test with real announcements: Before publishing your structure company-wide, create a few draft announcements to see if the organization feels natural.
Troubleshooting
My team can't agree on Categories: This often means you need to revisit how your product is actually structured. Meet with product managers to understand the architecture from both a technical and customer perspective.
Customers are confused by too many options: Simplify. If customers can't quickly scan your changelog, you probably have too many Categories. Consider consolidating or using Labels for finer distinctions.
Cohorts aren't working: Verify that your authentication integration is passing the correct user attributes. Check your SSO, JWT, or SAML configuration to ensure customer data is flowing properly.
Updates belong in multiple Categories: This is a sign you might need to restructure. Each announcement should have one clear primary Category. If an update spans multiple areas, use Labels to indicate the cross-functional nature.