Write a clear, empathetic EOL announcement with rationale, customer impact, and next steps. Use when retiring a product, feature, or plan without creating avoidable confusion.
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Slash command/eol-message
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Write a clear, empathetic EOL announcement with rationale, customer impact, and next steps. Use when retiring a product, feature, or plan without creating avoidable confusion.
---name: eol-message
argument-hint: "[product or feature being retired]"
description: Write a clear, empathetic EOL announcement with rationale, customer impact, and next steps. Use when retiring a product, feature, or plan without creating avoidable confusion.
intent: >-
Craft a clear, empathetic End-of-Life (EOL) message that communicates product or feature discontinuation, explains the rationale, addresses customer impact, provides transition support, and positions the replacement solution. Use this to maintain customer trust during difficult transitions and reduce churn by demonstrating care and offering a clear path forward.
type: component
---## Purpose
Craft a clear, empathetic End-of-Life (EOL) message that communicates product or feature discontinuation, explains the rationale, addresses customer impact, provides transition support, and positions the replacement solution. Use this to maintain customer trust during difficult transitions and reduce churn by demonstrating care and offering a clear path forward.
This is not a generic sunset announcement—it's a customer-centric communication that acknowledges loss while framing the change as progress.
## Input
**Works best with:** What's being retired (product, feature, or plan) and roughly when.
**Also useful:** The rationale, affected customer segments, migration or replacement path, and support commitments.
Anything supplied with the invocation itself — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line — counts as answers already given. Use it and skip whatever it covers; don't re-ask.
**Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The skill asks for the what/when/why before drafting — an EOL message without a stated rationale and next step reads as abandonment.
**Example invocation:** `Draft an EOL message: retiring our legacy reporting module Dec 31, replaced by the new analytics dashboard; 400 accounts affected.`
## Key Concepts
### The EOL Messaging Framework
An effective EOL message balances honesty about the change with empathy for customer impact. It includes:
1. **Company context:** Who you are and your commitment to customers
2. **The announcement:** What's being discontinued and what's replacing it
3. **The rationale:** Why this decision benefits customers (not just the business)
4. **Current product context:** What the product was and who it served
5. **Customer impact:** How this affects users (acknowledge the disruption)
6. **Transition solution:** What the replacement is and how it improves on the old
7. **Support measures:** How you'll help customers migrate
8. **Timeline:** Key dates and milestones
9. **Call to action:** Next steps and contact info
### Why This Works
- **Empathy-first:** Acknowledges customer disruption before justifying the decision
- **Clarity:** No ambiguity about what's changing and when
- **Support-focused:** Shows you're not abandoning customers mid-transition
- **Future-oriented:** Frames change as progress, not loss
- **Customer impact:** How many users affected? What workflows disrupted?
- **Support plan:** Migration support, training, discounts, data export tools
- **Rationale:** Why is this happening? (Technology obsolescence, strategic shift, consolidation, etc.)
**If missing context:** Don't send the message until you have a complete transition plan. Customers will ask "What do I do now?"—you must have an answer.
---
### Step 2: Draft the Product Transition Narrative
#### Company Context
Establish who you are and your commitment:
```markdown
### Product Transition Narrative
**We are:** [Describe the company and its relationship to the product being phased out]
- [Key point about company's commitment to customers]
- [Key point about company's product evolution]
- [Key point about company's future vision]
```
**Example:**
```markdown
**We are:** Acme Workflows, a workflow automation platform serving 50,000 small businesses
- We're committed to helping you save time and focus on what matters
- We continuously evolve our product based on your feedback and technological advances
- We're building toward a future where automation is accessible, powerful, and simple
```
---
#### The Announcement
Be clear and direct:
```markdown
**Announcing:**
- [Single sentence that clearly states the EOL of the product and introduces its replacement]
```
**Example:**
- "We are discontinuing Acme Workflows Classic on December 31, 2026, and migrating all customers to Acme Workflows Pro."
---
#### The Rationale (Customer-Benefit-Focused)
Explain *why* this benefits customers:
```markdown
**Because:**
- [Reason 1: e.g., technological advancements]
- [Reason 2: e.g., improved performance]
- [Reason 3: e.g., better alignment with customer needs]
**Which means for you:**
- [Describe the impact and benefits from the customer's perspective]
```
**Example:**
```markdown
**Because:**
- Acme Workflows Classic runs on outdated infrastructure that limits performance and scalability
- Acme Workflows Pro is built on modern technology that enables faster automation, better integrations, and real-time collaboration
- Consolidating to one platform allows us to invest 100% of our engineering resources in features you've requested
- **that** maintains all the simplicity and reliability you love while adding 3x faster performance, 50+ new integrations, and real-time collaboration
### Differentiation and Continuity
- **Like** Acme Workflows Classic,
- Acme Workflows Pro
- **provides** easy-to-build automations without coding, reliable execution, and straightforward pricing
- **while also offering** 3x faster workflows, mobile app access, real-time team collaboration, and integrations with tools like Slack, Asana, and Notion
```
---
### Step 6: Outline Support Measures and Timeline
#### Support Measures
```markdown
### Support and Next Steps
**To ensure a smooth transition, we will:**
- [Support measure 1, e.g., "Provide 1-on-1 migration assistance for all customers"]
- [Support measure 2, e.g., "Automatically migrate your workflows (with your approval)"]
- [Support measure 3, e.g., "Offer a 3-month discount on Acme Workflows Pro for existing customers"]
```
---
#### Timeline
```markdown
### Timeline
- [Key date 1 and associated milestone, e.g., "March 1, 2026: Migration tool available"]
- [Key date 2 and associated milestone, e.g., "September 1, 2026: Acme Workflows Classic becomes read-only"]
- [Key date 3 and associated milestone, e.g., "December 31, 2026: Acme Workflows Classic fully discontinued, data export deadline"]
```
**Quality checks:**
- **Sufficient lead time:** Customers need time to plan (6-12 months is typical)
- **Clear milestones:** When does functionality freeze? When does shutdown happen?
- **Data export deadline:** When do they lose access to their data?
---
### Step 7: Provide Clear Next Steps
```markdown
### Call to Action
- [Clear next steps for customers, e.g., "Log in to your account to start the migration wizard"]
- [Contact information for questions or assistance, e.g., "Contact our support team at support@acme.com or call 1-800-ACME-HELP"]
```
---
## Examples
See `examples/sample.md` for a full EOL message example.
Mini example excerpt:
```markdown
**Announcing:** We are discontinuing Acme Classic on Dec 31, 2026
