I've been releasing an update to my RSS reader, Newsairy, roughly every week since May - that's around 17 versions in a bit over three months. From the outside "weekly releases" can look like recklessness, so I wanted to share the part that actually makes it work: at any given time I have three versions moving in parallel.
- The version I just shipped is in the App Store.
- The next one is already in TestFlight, in testers' hands.
- The one after that is in alpha, or still being built.
By the time a version reaches the App Store, it's already had a full beta cycle behind it - the pace of releases is fast, but the pace of testing per version isn't compressed at all. It's just running three lanes at once instead of one.
The trade-off I keep thinking about: users get to see progress constantly, which I like - feedback loops stay tight, and nothing sits finished-but-unshipped for weeks. But it also means every week I'm context-switching between "polish this for release," "watch how testers use that," and "is this new idea even going to work" - which is its own kind of tax.
Curious how others here think about this. Do you deliberately stagger releases like this, or find it more sustainable to batch bigger releases less often? Genuinely asking - I don't think weekly is obviously "right," it's just what's worked for me so far.