Product Retirement Communication Workflow

Last updated: July 15, 2025 | Author: Andrew Orcilla

This documentation outlines a complete mock internal process for preparing and delivering product and feature retirement communications. It supports compliance with Microsoft policy, editorial consistency, and coordination across engineering, product, and marketing teams.

Announcment

Some content will breifly be explained to avoid revealing the full operation process. Links to mock internal tooling sites and documentation will be shown as bolded and italicized without a hyperlink.

Limitations and challanges for this mock documentation are that images would be used to describe the steps further however, that would compromise internal tooling visibility. Following that I excluded it from this sample.

Overview

Product retirements affect both customer trust and legal compliance. This workflow ensures each communication:

Is reviewed by the Governance Team
Uses Microsoft-approved templates and tone
Reaches the correct customers with clear, actionable guidance
Is aligned with subscription-level targeting and executive sign-off when needed

Retirement Request Processing

Intake Requests

Stakeholders will submit requests via Azure DevOps (ADO). After assigning the request to yourself, it is important to verify that the ADO request contains the required fields.

Required fields:

Product or Feature details
Proposed retirement timeline
Scope of impact (Subscription list)
Tags (Retirement, EOL, Deprecation)

warning

If one of the required fields is absent, it is critical that you reach out to the stakeholder before proceeding.

Initiate Retirement Review

Add the custom ADO tag:

Retirement CPEX Review

This triggers a notification to the Retirement Governance Team to begin their policy review.

Governance Team Validation Process

The Governance Team confirms:

Policy-compliant retirement timeline
Required internal approvals are documented
Legal or support implications are addressed

warning

Do not begin writing until Governance gives a green light by:

Commenting "Approved" on the ADO request.
Changing the custom ADO tag from Retirement CPEX Review to CPEX Approved

Editorial Process

Writing Communications

Use the Microsoft Retirement Templates located in the retirement template SharePoint folder and follow the Microsoft Style Guidelines. The communication should contain 3 parts: subject, body, and account information.

Subject

The subject will always follow this format:

Retirement notice: (Azure Product/Feature) is retiring on MM DD YYYY.

Body

The body will include the following sections:

Summary – What is retiring, why, and what is replacing it (if applicable)
Action Required – Provide the migration steps or documentation link for customers to take action.
Help and support – Provide a link to the product Q&A page and Azure support documentation.

Write in active voice. Avoid jargon. Prioritize clarity.

Account Information

The account information section will include variables of customer data to reference. Depending on the data the stakeholder provides alongside the subscription list, the content will vary.

Format your variable with surrounding {{ }} brackets. For example, {{SubscriptionId}}.

Important

{{SubscriptionID}} and {{SubscriptionName}} should always be included.

Stakeholder & PMM Review

The final step in the editorial process is to send the communications draft in an email thread to:

The stakeholder
Their Product Marketing Manager (PMM)

The stakeholder and PMM information should be included in the ADO request. If the PMM is missing ask the stakeholder for their alias.

They will approve and confirm:

Message tone and accuracy
Scope of impact is correct
Call-to-action clarity

Preparing Send Data

Audience Scope Validation

As mentioned the subscription list should be provided to you upon creation of a retirement request. If not, ask the request submitter for a subscription list.

Audience Size	Next Step
< 20,000	Proceed normally with Data Cleanup & Mapping
≥ 20,000	Submit to Executive Product Manager for review

Data Cleanup & Mapping

The stakeholder will provide the required values for their communication within a .csv file. You will need to pull subscription names from a seperate list.

Retreiving Subscription Names

Navigate to the Customer Information Portal website and input the given Subscription ID(s) in the text box and hit enter.

Be sure "Subscription ID" is selected in the drop-down menu instead of "Tenant ID".

Click on Export as .csv located on the bottom right of the report.

This will give us a seperate .csv files that includes the subscription names.

In Excel:

Use the INDEX MATCH formula to merge the subscription names from the downloaded list to the main list provided by the stakeholder.
Validate for duplicates, missing fields, and correct formatting

Important

Make sure the file is saved as a .csv format when saving.

For more guidance on Excel formulas and troubleshooting refer to the sperate Excel Guide documentation.

Executive Product Manager Process (If applicable)

Communications going to over 20,000 subscriptions will need to go through additional approvals from Executive Product Managers to verify that the scope of impact is correct.

Reach out to the stakeholder requesting a data review from their Executive Product Manager.

Request to be added in any chat or email thread they are performing the data review in.

Once approved by the Executive Product Manager proceed normally to Data Cleanup & Mapping.

Internal Publishing Tool Workflow

Once these criterias are completed:

Communications approved by stakeholder and PMM
Subscription list data is finalized and cleaned

You can proceed with inputing the finalized content in the internal tooling that targets Azure subscription emails.

Publishing Steps

Convert the stakeholder approved Word document to HTML using our internal HTML converter.
Open the HTML file in a text editor (VS code is prefered) and copy the content with CTRL + C.
Navigate to the templates section of the internal tool and paste (CTRL + V) the HTML content into the internal tool’s HTML editor and click save.
- This will generate a commuication swimlane where we can preview the communications and attach a .csv file.
Attach the finalized Excel file in the correct swimlane.
Double-check the preview for any missed errors.
Click on the "Send Communication" button.

important

The account information section in the swimlane preview will display the first row of the Excel file attached.

It is critical you double check and verify the information matches before pressing "Send Communication".

Communication Timing & Launch

Coordinate with your manager before launch. Your manager will have a spreadsheet with a send date for each retirement.

Avoid sending multiple retirements on the same day to prevent customer fatigue.

Approval Criteria Summary

Stage	Approver
Policy Approval	Governance Team
Editorial Approval	Service Comms Team
>20k Subs	Executive PM
Final Sign-off	Stakeholder & PMM

Best Practices

Use the correct tags early in ADO
Check for Retirement Communication template updates in the retirement template SharePoint folder
Track your communications content in seperated folders named after the ADO request number
Double-check HTML formatting before publishing

Need help? Reach out to the Service Comms Team or Governance PM. Additionally, you can post your questions in the Fireside Teams channel for team members to assist.

This guide is intended for internal use only.

Overview​

Retirement Request Processing​

Intake Requests​

Required fields:​

Initiate Retirement Review​

Editorial Process​

Writing Communications​

Stakeholder & PMM Review​

Preparing Send Data​

Audience Scope Validation​

Data Cleanup & Mapping​

Executive Product Manager Process (If applicable)​

Internal Publishing Tool Workflow​

Publishing Steps​

Communication Timing & Launch​

Approval Criteria Summary​

Best Practices​