Skip to content

Communicating During Incidents

First PublishedByAtif Alam

During an incident, stakeholders need to know impact, what you are doing, and when to expect resolution.

That is the job of the Communications Lead (CL) in Incident lifecycle phase 4 (Internal & External Comms). This page summarizes what to communicate, how often, and what to avoid.

Internal Updates

Section titled “Internal Updates”

Who — The CL (or designated comms person) posts updates so the rest of the organization is not guessing or spreading rumors.

How often — At a regular cadence (e.g. every 15 minutes for SEV-1, every 30 for SEV-2) until the incident is resolved or downgraded. More frequent if the situation changes quickly.

What — Keep updates short and factual:

  • Impact — Who or what is affected (e.g. “Checkout is failing for users in region X”).
  • Action — What the team is doing (e.g. “We are rolling back the last deploy and investigating.”).
  • ETA — When you expect the next update or resolution, if known (e.g. “Next update in 15 min” or “ETA for rollback complete: 20 min”).

Use a dedicated incident channel or thread so everyone sees the same information.

External Communication

Section titled “External Communication”

Status page — For customer-facing services, update the status page with the same structure: impact, action, and ETA. Avoid technical jargon; focus on what the user experiences.

Customer success or account teams — If high-touch customers are affected, brief internal teams so they can communicate with those customers in a consistent way.

What not to say — Avoid speculation (e.g. “We think it might be the database”) and blame. Stick to facts and what you are doing. Do not promise a root cause or timeline you cannot keep; it is better to say “we will update in 15 minutes” than to guess.

How the CL Uses This in Phase 4

Section titled “How the CL Uses This in Phase 4”

In the Incident lifecycle, phase 4 is “Internal & External Comms.” The CL posts regular updates, maintains status-page entries, and coordinates customer-success briefings.

By owning a single, factual message and a predictable cadence, the CL keeps the rumor mill down and lets the rest of the response team focus on mitigation and recovery.