During Incident

Clear, timely communication is critical during an active incident. Learn how to acknowledge issues, deliver regular updates, and resolve communications with all stakeholders.

When systems fail, the speed and quality of your communication matter as much as the fix itself. Customers will forgive downtime more easily than silence. This section outlines how to communicate clearly, consistently, and credibly throughout an active incident.

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Know who and how to notify

If you followed our previous chapter , you should have the following in place:

1. List of Stakeholders documented and how they should be contacted.

2. PR-approved messaging templates, organized by severity.

3. Communication channels in place.

To view the full list, please follow our chapter if you haven't already.

Communicate during the incident lifecycle

Acknowledge

When something breaks or customers report an issue, acknowledge the incident quickly (≤ 10–20 min depending on severity). There is no need to wait until the issue has been identified; you can report it as "under investigation".

If the incident is still "under investigation", you may opt to communicate it only via your status page instead of sending notifications (SMS, email, Slack) at this point.

Ensure that you share what’s known: impact, affected services, start time (if known), and commit to the next update.

Update regularly

• Provide facts only (scope, impact, current actions).

• Communicate clearly when progress is made in the incident lifecycle (e.g., identified → monitoring).

• Update regularly based on severity.

  • Even if there is no progress since the previous update, a simple "Our team continues to investigate" goes a long way.

• Adjust audience if scope changes (e.g., regional → global impact).

Make sure to honor the cadence you define under .

Resolve

When the issue is resolved, communicate this clearly and concisely. Provide the impact window, including start and end times, and outline any next steps, such as ongoing monitoring or an upcoming root cause analysis. Direct customers to support if they continue to experience issues.