diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 422a72690cc..0587087034c 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -266,6 +266,7 @@ jobs:
             conda create -n env --yes python=3.9 conda-build conda-verify
             conda install -n env -c conda-forge jupyterlab nodejs=12
             conda init bash
+            mkdir output
 
       - run:
           name: initial NPM Build
@@ -284,12 +285,7 @@ jobs:
             conda activate env
             cd packages/python/plotly
             python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
-            mkdir pypi_dist
-            tar czf pypi_dist/all.tgz dist
-
-      - store_artifacts:
-          path: packages/python/plotly/pypi_dist
-          destination: pypi_dist
+            cp -R dist ../../../output/dist
 
       - run:
           name: Conda Build
@@ -298,12 +294,7 @@ jobs:
             conda activate env
             cd packages/python/plotly
             conda build recipe/
-            mkdir conda_dist
-            mv /opt/conda/envs/env/conda-bld/noarch/plotly*.tar.bz2 conda_dist
-
-      - store_artifacts:
-          path: packages/python/plotly/conda_dist
-          destination: conda_dist
+            mv /opt/conda/envs/env/conda-bld/noarch/plotly*.tar.bz2 ../../../output
 
       - run:
           name: NPM Pack
@@ -312,12 +303,15 @@ jobs:
             conda activate env
             cd packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly
             npm pack
-            mkdir npm_dist
-            mv jupyterlab-plotly*.tgz npm_dist
+            mv jupyterlab-plotly*.tgz ../../../output
+
+      - run:
+          name: Zip output
+          command: |
+            tar czf output.tgz output
 
       - store_artifacts:
-          path: packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/npm_dist
-          destination: npm_dist
+          path: output.tgz
 
   build-doc:
     resource_class: xlarge
diff --git a/release.md b/release.md
index f7e32f663c0..574ce7f7285 100644
--- a/release.md
+++ b/release.md
@@ -59,11 +59,7 @@ Manually update the versions to `X.Y.Z` in the files specified below.
 
 ### Download and QA CI Artifacts
 
-The `full_build` job in the `release_build` workflow in CircleCI produces three sets of artifacts. Download all three:
-
-1. `pypi_dist/all.tgz`
-2. `conda_dist/plotly-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2`
-3. `npm_dist/jupyterlab-plotly-X.Y.Z.tgz`
+The `full_build` job in the `release_build` workflow in CircleCI produces a tarball of artifacts `output.tgz` which you should download and decompress, which will give you a directory called `output`. The filenames contained within will contain version numbers.
 
 **Note: if any of the version numbers are not simply `X.Y.Z` but include some kind of git hash, then this is a dirty build and you'll need to clean up whatever is dirtying the tree and follow the instructions above to trigger the build again.** (That said, you can do QA on dirty builds, you just can't publish them.)
 
@@ -72,13 +68,13 @@ To locally install the PyPI dist, make sure you have an environment with Jupyter
 - `tar xzf all.tgz`
 - `pip uninstall plotly`
 - `conda uninstall plotly` (just in case!)
-- `pip install dist/plotly-X.Y.X-py2.py3-none-any.whl`
+- `pip install path/to/output/dist/plotly-X.Y.X-py2.py3-none-any.whl`
 
 To locally install the Conda dist (generally do this in a different, clean environment from the one above!):
 
 - `conda uninstall plotly`
 - `pip uninstall plotly` (just in case!)
-- `conda install conda_dist/plotly-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2`
+- `conda install path/to/output/plotly-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2`
 
 It's more complicated to locally install the NPM bundle, as you'll need to have a JupyterLab 2 environment installed... Undocumented for now :see_no_evil:.
 
@@ -94,21 +90,21 @@ you can publish the artifacts. **You will need special credentials from Plotly l
 
 Publishing to PyPI:
 ```bash
-(plotly_dev) $ cd pypi_dist/dist
+(plotly_dev) $ cd path/to/output/dist
 (plotly_dev) $ twine upload plotly-X.Y.Z*
 ```
 
 Publishing to NPM:
 
 ```bash
-(plotly_dev) $ cd npm_dist
+(plotly_dev) $ cd path/to/output
 (plotly_dev) $ npm publish jupyterlab-plotly-X.Y.Z.tgz
 ```
 
 Publishing to `plotly` conda channel (make sure you have run `conda install anaconda-client` to get the `anaconda` command):
 
 ```
-(plotly_dev) $ cd conda_dist
+(plotly_dev) $ cd path/to/output
 (plotly_dev) $ anaconda upload plotly-X.Y.Z.tar.bz2
 ```