Most mobile teams say releases are a top frustration

Runway’s 2026 survey of 300 mobile engineering managers finds release coordination is still a major drag on mobile teams, with 65% ranking it among their top three frustrations. The findings show how release work can consume time, delay roadmaps and pull in dozens of people across the business.

Why it matters: - Mobile release work is eating time that could go to shipping features. - Runway says 40% of release time goes to coordination instead of build work that moves the business forward. - The burden spills across teams, making mobile release management an org-wide operations problem, not just an engineering one. - Burnout risk rises when the same people who absorb coordination work are also the ones carrying the release load.

What happened: - Runway released its 2026 State of Mobile Release Management survey. - The survey covered 300 mobile engineering managers. - 65% of mobile teams ranked the release process among their top three sources of frustration. - A typical mobile release takes about 25 people to unblock at 51% of surveyed companies. - About 25% of companies said a typical release takes around 40 people to unblock.

The details: - Release coordination extends beyond mobile engineering to design, QA, product, marketing and legal. - Only 13% of teams can see current release status in a single place. - 76% of engineering managers said at least a quarter of their releases miss the planned timeline. - 83% of engineering managers said improving the release process would accelerate the product roadmap. - In a 2025 survey of mobile engineers, 43% said inefficient releases were unlikely to cause missed deadlines. - 44% of managers said the engineer running a release completes less than half of their planned sprint work during that cycle. - Release work is layered on top of already committed sprint work, which can stretch roadmaps without canceling feature work.

Between the lines: - The survey suggests the core problem is not just release tooling, but fragmented coordination and poor visibility. - Managers and engineers appear to experience release pain differently, which can make it harder to win buy-in for process changes. - The gap between roadmap optimism and day-to-day sprint impact helps explain why release friction can persist even when teams recognize the cost. - Runway’s framing points to a maturity issue: some teams still manage releases as a manual logistics exercise rather than a repeatable system.

What's next: - Runway’s 2026 Decision Guide expands on the survey with five decisions that define mobile release management. - The guide compares how the numbers changed from 2025 to 2026. - The guide also includes a five-stage maturity curve so engineering managers can benchmark their teams against peers. - The 2026 Decision Guide: Modern Mobile Release Management for Engineering Managers is available for free. - More information is available in Runway’s announcement.