diff --git a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/prepare_release.md b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/prepare_release.md
index 6952ef8864..45a3b0f659 100644
--- a/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/prepare_release.md
+++ b/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/prepare_release.md
@@ -14,14 +14,56 @@ For detailed info on the release process refer to https://github.com/waku-org/nw
  -->
 
 ### Items to complete
-- [ ] create release branch
-- [ ] assign release candidate tag
-- [ ] validate release candidate
-- [ ] generate and edit releases notes
-- [ ] open PR and merge release notes to master
-- [ ] cherry-pick release notes to the release branch
-- [ ] assign release tag to the cherry-picked release notes commit
-- [ ] create GitHub release
-- [ ] deploy the release to DockerHub
-- [ ] [deploy release to `waku.sandbox` fleet](https://ci.infra.status.im/job/nim-waku/job/deploy-waku-sandbox)
-- [ ] announce the release
+
+All items below are to be completed by the owner of the given release.
+
+Note that `status.staging` refers to `shards.staging` fleet (rename is wip).
+
+- [ ] Create release branch
+- [ ] Assign release candidate tag to the release branch HEAD. e.g. v0.30.0-rc.0
+- [ ] Generate and edit releases notes in CHANGELOG.md
+- [ ] _End user impact_: Summarize impact of changes on Status end users (can be a comment in this issue).
+- [ ] **Validate release candidate**
+
+- [ ] Automated testing
+  - [ ] Ensures js-waku tests are green against release candidate
+  - [ ] Ask Vac-QA and Vac-DST to perform available tests against release candidate
+
+  - [ ] **On Waku fleets**
+    - [ ] Lock `waku.test` fleet to release candidate version
+    - [ ] Continuously stress `waku.test` fleet for a week (e.g. from `wakudev`)
+    - [ ] Search _Kibana_ logs from the previous month (since last release was deployed), for possible crashes or errors in `waku.test` and `waku.sandbox`.
+      - Most relevant logs are `(fleet: "waku.test" OR fleet: "waku.sandbox") AND message: "SIGSEGV"`
+    - [ ] Run release candidate with `waku-simulator`, ensure that nodes connected to each other
+    - [ ] Unlock `waku.test` to resume auto-deployment of latest `master` commit
+
+  - [ ] **On Status fleet**
+    - [ ] Deploy release candidate to `status.staging`
+    - [ ] Perform [sanity check](https://www.notion.so/How-to-test-Nwaku-on-Status-12c6e4b9bf06420ca868bd199129b425) and log results as comments in this issue.
+      - [ ] Connect 2 instances to `status.staging` fleet, one in relay mode, the other one in light client.
+      - [ ] 1:1 Chats with each other
+      - [ ] Send and receive messages in a community
+      - [ ] Close one instance, send messages with second instance, reopen first instance and confirm messages sent while offline are retrieved from store
+    - [ ] Perform checks based _end user impact_
+    - [ ] Ask other (Waku and Status) CCs to point their instance to `status.staging` for a week and use the app as usual.
+    - [ ] Ask Status-QA to perform sanity checks (as described above) + checks based on _end user impact_; do specify the version being tested
+    - [ ] Ask Status-QA or infra to run the automated Status e2e tests against `status.staging`
+    - [ ] Get other CCs sign-off: they comment on this PR "used app for a week, no problem", or problem reported, resolved and new RC
+    - [ ] **Get Status-QA sign-off**. Ensuring that `status.test` update will not disturb ongoing activities.
+
+- [ ] **Proceed with release**
+
+  - [ ] Assign a release tag to the same commit that contains the validated release-candidate tag
+  - [ ] Create GitHub release
+  - [ ] Deploy the release to DockerHub
+  - [ ] Announce the release
+
+- [ ] **Promote release to fleets**.
+  - [ ] Update infra config with any deprecated arguments or changed options
+  - [ ] [Deploy final release to `waku.sandbox` fleet](https://ci.infra.status.im/job/nim-waku/job/deploy-waku-sandbox)
+  - [ ] [Deploy final release to `status.staging` fleet](https://ci.infra.status.im/job/nim-waku/job/deploy-shards-staging/)
+  - [ ] [Deploy final release to `status.test` fleet](https://ci.infra.status.im/job/nim-waku/job/deploy-shards-test/) ([soon to be `status.prod`](https://github.com/status-im/infra-shards/issues/33))
+
+- [ ] **Post release**
+  - [ ] Submit a PR from the release branch to master. Important to commit the PR with "create a merge commit" option.
+  - [ ] Update waku-org/nwaku-compose with the new release version.