Comms Packages — Overview & Concepts
What stakeholder communication looks like with a system behind it
What Is a Comms Package?
A Comms Package is a curated collection of Lodestone artifacts — roadmaps, releases, strategies, bento grids, and documents — assembled into a single stakeholder communication and delivered by email. You choose what to include, who receives it, and how often it goes out. Lodestone handles the rest.
Each send delivers a clean, formatted email with named links to each included artifact. The artifacts are sent as frozen snapshots — recipients see exactly what you shared at the moment of delivery, not the live artifact as it appears after subsequent edits. The record of what was communicated stays intact.
Why It Exists
Most product updates leave the team in an informal, inconsistent pattern: a Slack message with a link, a forwarded export, or nothing at all. The artifacts exist. The communication around them doesn't. When updates do go out, the effort is non-repeatable — someone remembers to do it, assembles it ad hoc, and sends it in whatever form felt right that week.
Comms Packages turn stakeholder communication into a structured, repeatable workflow. You build a package once: select the artifacts, define the audience, set a cadence. From that point, the update goes out on schedule without requiring anyone to reconstruct it each time. The result is more consistent communication, less coordination overhead, and a permanent record of what was actually sent and when.
Key Concepts
Artifacts
An artifact is anything you include in a package. The following artifact types are supported:
| Type | Source module |
|---|---|
| Roadmap | Roadmaps module |
| Release | Releases module |
| Strategy | Strategy module |
| Bento Grid | Bento Grids module |
| Document (PRD, Opportunity Canvas, etc.) | Documents, generated from a Backlog item |
You can include multiple artifacts of different types in a single package. They are delivered in the order you arrange them.
Snapshots
When a package is sent, each included artifact is captured as a snapshot — a frozen copy of the artifact at that moment. Recipients receive a link to the snapshot, not a live link to the artifact itself. This means:
- Subsequent edits to the roadmap, release, or strategy do not change what recipients received
- Each send creates a new set of snapshots reflecting the current state at that send time
- Snapshot links remain permanently accessible
This behavior is intentional: it preserves the integrity of what was communicated.
Recipients
Recipients are the email addresses that receive each package send. You can enter individual addresses manually. Recurring packages support saving a recipient list as a Recipient Group — a named, reusable list you can apply to future packages without re-entering addresses.
Cadence
Cadence controls when and how often a package is sent:
| Cadence | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Once | Sends once at the scheduled time. |
| Weekly | Sends automatically on the same day of the week, every week. |
| Biweekly | Sends automatically every two weeks. |
| Monthly | Sends automatically once per month. |
For one-time packages, you can schedule delivery for a specific date and time, or send immediately.
Package Status
Each package has a status reflecting its current state:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Scheduled | Package is queued for its first send at a specific time. |
| Active | Recurring package is running and will continue sending on its cadence. |
| Paused | Recurring sends are temporarily suspended. The package can be resumed. |
| Sent | One-time package has been delivered. No further sends will occur. |
| Cancelled | Package has been cancelled and will not send again. |
How Comms Packages Relate to the Rest of Lodestone
Comms Packages are a delivery layer, not a creation tool. All content comes from other modules:
| Module | Role in Comms |
|---|---|
| Roadmaps | Roadmaps can be included as artifacts in a package |
| Releases | Releases can be included as artifacts |
| Strategy | Strategies can be included as artifacts |
| Bento Grids | Bento Grids can be included as visual artifacts |
| Documents | PRDs, Opportunity Canvases, and other documents can be included |
Artifacts must already exist before they can be added to a package. Comms Packages do not create or modify the underlying artifacts.
Who Can Use Comms Packages
All workspace members (Admin and Builder roles) can view, create, and manage Comms Packages. There are no role restrictions on this module.
Next: How-tos & Workflows — creating a package, scheduling a send, managing recipient groups, and viewing package history.