by Snazek Beydoun 
Salesforce provides release updates that improve the performance, logic, security, and usability of their products 3 times a year – Spring, Summer and Winter. Whether you are transitioning from Classic to Lightning, or you’ve been on Lightning from the start, keeping up with the latest release will bring you one step closer to boosting the productivity of your users.
How do I prepare for the release?
Here are some tips on how to prepare for these Salesforce releases:
1. Save the Date!
To plan properly and give yourself enough time to do so, find out when releases will take place (ahead of time) and mark the dates in your calendar. This video helps demonstrate how you can find out the release dates for your org.
2. Join the Release Readiness Trailblazers Community
This helps Salesforce users across the world connect and is a great opportunity to ask questions and gain new resources, tips and tricks.
3. Test the features with a sandbox preview
Most customers who work on new developments will already have set up at least one sandbox, but they can also use it for testing the upcoming new features if they have a preview sandbox. Not all sandboxes will be preview sandboxes, you may also come across ones which are non-preview (these ones will not have the new upcoming features). This video helps demonstrate how to find out if your sandbox is a preview sandbox. You need to make sure the sandbox you will be using, is not refreshed during the sandbox preview (usually starts 4-6 weeks before the production upgrade) because this will change your sandbox to a non-preview sandbox.
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4. Read the release notes to find the quick wins and low-hanging fruit
Release notes can be quite scary when you first look at them, there are pages and pages of notes, and a lot of these may not be relevant to you. To find what is relevant, use the feature impact filter which can help you determine what features are low-hanging fruit (features that require very little effort to switch on) or quick wins (features that will be automatically available to all users).
5. Communicate any upcoming changes to your users
Communication is key ahead of releases because it keeps the users that will be affected by these changes in the loop, and it also gives them a chance to give feedback and ask questions. There are many ways that you can communicate this to users – my personal favourites are through lunch and learns or virtual webinars/meetings. It’s a great forum for people to speak up and discuss the new features within the group, and I would follow up with an email so people can refer to this after the release takes place.
Preparing for a Salesforce release is a critical part of maintaining a well-functioning CRM system. By following these steps and staying proactive, you can ensure a smooth transition to the latest Salesforce version, leverage new features, and keep your organisation on the cutting edge of customer relationship management.