What was the problem?

Android releases were a manual, error-prone process that took two weeks and relied heavily on a single person’s knowledge, creating a bottleneck that delayed feature delivery and left the team vulnerable to key person dependency.

What did I do?

I designed and built an automated release pipeline that integrated Firebase, GitHub, Slack, and Jira to eliminate manual steps and reduce release cycles from two weeks to two days, removing the knowledge bottleneck and enabling any team member to safely trigger deployments.

How did I do it?

  1. I documented the existing manual release process, identifying each step, decision point, and knowledge dependency that created friction.
  2. I designed an automated workflow that integrated GitHub actions with Firebase App Distribution to streamline build, testing, and deployment.
  3. I built Slack notifications and Jira automation to keep stakeholders informed and track release progress in real time.
  4. I implemented the initial automation over two weeks, validating the workflow with the Android Chapter and refining based on feedback.
  5. I spent the following two months iterating on edge cases, improving error handling, and adding self-service capabilities.
  6. I documented the process and trained the team, reducing institutional knowledge silos.

What did I achieve?

I reduced Android release time from two weeks to two days—a 85% improvement—and eliminated key person dependency by enabling releases to be automatically driven. The automated process became the template for iOS releases and set a standard for deployment automation across the engineering organization.