End-of-Life (EOL) Message
Write a clear, empathetic EOL announcement with customer-benefit rationale, explicit impact acknowledgment, transition support, and specific timeline — maintaining trust through product retirements.
You're killing a product customers built their workflow around, and the first draft says "Due to low usage, we're discontinuing Acme Classic. Goodbye." That message writes "churn" into every inbox. A good EOL message acknowledges loss, frames change as progress, and hands over a migration path — not a shrug.
Who it's for: PMs retiring features or products, PMMs crafting sunset communications, customer success leads managing transitions, CPOs consolidating acquired products, teams deprecating APIs or platforms
Example
"Write the EOL announcement for our Classic workflow product, migrating customers to Pro over 9 months" → Full message: company context + announcement + customer-benefit rationale + impact acknowledgment + positioning of replacement + 3-month discount and migration support + specific milestone dates + clear CTA
CLAUDE.md Template
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npx ccplaybooks add eol-message# EOL Message
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.
This is not a generic sunset announcement—it's a customer-centric communication that acknowledges loss while framing the change as progress.
## The EOL Messaging Framework
An effective EOL message balances honesty about the change with empathy for customer impact:
1. **Company context** — Who you are and your commitment to customers
2. **The announcement** — What's being discontinued and what's replacing itGet new playbooks like this one
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What This Does
Drafts a 9-part EOL message — company context, announcement, customer-benefit rationale, product context, customer impact, transition solution, support measures, timeline, and CTA — that maintains customer trust through product retirements. Replaces terse shutdown notices with empathetic, forward-looking communication.
Not a generic sunset. A customer-centric transition narrative.
Quick Start
mkdir -p ~/Documents/EOLMessage
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/EOLMessage/
cd ~/Documents/EOLMessage
claude
Provide the product being retired, replacement solution, timeline, customer impact, and support plan. Claude drafts the full message.
The 9 Sections
- Company context — Commitment to customers
- Announcement — What's being discontinued + what's replacing it
- Rationale — Customer-benefit framing (not "reduces our costs")
- Current product context — What the product was and who it served
- Customer impact — Explicit acknowledgment of disruption
- Transition solution — Replacement positioning
- Support measures — Migration assistance, discounts, training
- Timeline — Specific dates for each milestone
- Call to action — Clear next steps + contact info
Before You Send
- Have a complete transition plan. "What do I do now?" must have an answer.
- Give 6–12 months lead time. Customers need to plan.
- Announce specific dates, not "soon." Migration tool date, freeze date, shutdown date, data export deadline.
- Include a discount or credit. Even a symbolic one signals care.
- Offer 1-on-1 migration support for top customers. Top 20% should feel white-glove treatment.
Tips & Best Practices
- Frame rationale around customer benefit. "We're consolidating so we can invest 100% of engineering in features you've requested" beats "reducing costs."
- Acknowledge loss before selling replacement. "We understand this requires time to migrate" builds trust before positioning the new product.
- Use positioning statement format for the replacement. Maintains continuity language ("Like X, the new product provides Y, while also offering Z").
- Don't hide behind passive voice. "We've decided" is honest; "It has been decided" is cowardly.
Common Pitfalls
- Business-centric rationale that makes customers feel like collateral damage
- Vague timeline ("soon") that creates anxiety and accelerates churn
- No support plan — "good luck migrating" signals abandonment
- Skipping customer-impact acknowledgment and jumping straight to new product pitch
- Defensive tone ("due to low usage") that blames customers for the decision