Release meetings fail when hold criteria live only in an engineer’s head. We write them as plain sentences tied to observable thresholds.
Example language
“Hold expand if crash-free users on the candidate build are more than 0.3 points below the prior release after 10,000 sessions.” Or: “Hold if a new ANR cluster exceeds 8% of ANR volume and touches login.”
Include an exit from the hold
A hold without an exit becomes a vague postponement. State what evidence would allow expand later: a hotfix build, a device-targeted pause, or a longer observation window at the current percentage.
Keep the sheet short
One page. Three to five criteria. Anything longer will not be read under time pressure. The field notes and stack traces can live in an appendix for the mobile lead.