Introduction: What You’ll Learn
In this simulation, you'll practice communicating during a service outage. Keeping your users and stakeholders informed with clear and honest updates is crucial to maintaining their trust and managing expectations effectively.
You’ll practice:
- Crafting clear, concise, and timely updates
- Aligning messages for internal and external audiences
- Balancing technical details with user-friendly language
- Managing the expectations of stakeholders
Step-by-Step Simulation
Scene 1: Initial Incident Discovery
Incident Lead: "Hey team, we’ve got a major outage on our hands affecting the service. Users can’t log in or access their data. Our top priority is to get out accurate updates to users and stakeholders ASAP."
Communication Lead: "Got it. I'll start crafting the first status update. We need to be upfront about the issue but also reassure everyone we're on it."
Scene 2: Drafting the Initial Update
Communication Lead (Drafts an update): "Hi [User/Stakeholder],
We’re currently experiencing an issue that’s affecting logins and data access. Our team is actively working to resolve this as quickly as possible. We know this is inconvenient, and we appreciate your patience. We’ll keep you updated every 30 minutes until it’s fixed.
Thanks for bearing with us, [Your Company] Team"
Incident Lead: "Perfect. Let’s get this out on our status page, social media, and email it to users. Let's ensure everyone on our team is saying the same thing."
Scene 3: Internal Sync and Technical Update
Incident Lead: "Let’s quickly sync on what we know so far. It looks like the issue is coming from a database cluster that's struggling with unexpected load."
Engineering Lead: "We’re redirecting traffic and boosting capacity to handle the load. We’re aiming to have everything back to normal in about 2 hours."
Communication Lead: "Great. I’ll update our message to include that timeline and continue emphasizing our commitment to getting this resolved."
Scene 4: Follow-Up Communication
Communication Lead (Drafts a follow-up update): "Hi [User/Stakeholder],
Here’s an update on the outage: We’ve pinpointed the issue to a database cluster that’s overloaded. We’re rerouting traffic and adding more capacity. We expect to have full service back in about 2 hours. We’ll keep updating you as we go.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
[Your Company] Team"
Scene 5: Wrapping Up and Reflection
Incident Lead: "Service is back online. Awesome job, everyone. Let’s send out a final update to let people know we’re back and what our next steps are."
Communication Lead (Final update): "Hi [User/Stakeholder],
Good news! The service outage has been resolved, and everything’s back to normal. We’re sorry for the disruption and really appreciate your patience. We’re reviewing the situation to prevent it from happening again and we’ll share any updates.
Thanks for sticking with us.
Best,
[Your Company] Team"
Mini Roleplay Challenges
Challenge 1: A stakeholder wants more details on what happened.
- Best Response: “I’ll connect you with our technical lead for a detailed rundown.”
Challenge 2: A user is upset about the delay in updates.
- Best Response: “We’re working hard to provide timely updates. Thanks for your patience, and we appreciate your understanding.”
Challenge 3: A team member gives out conflicting information externally.
- Best Response: “Let’s get on the same page to ensure our messaging is consistent.”
Optional Curveball Mode
- Another issue pops up during the outage.
- Media requests for comments start arriving.
- A key stakeholder is demanding an immediate resolution.
Practice handling these situations calmly and clearly.
Reflection Checklist
Communication Effectiveness
- Were updates clear, concise, and timely?
- Was the language accessible and honest?
- Was messaging consistent across all channels?
Crisis Management
- Was there alignment between internal and external communications?
- Were stakeholder expectations managed appropriately?
Leadership & Tone
- Was the tone calm and reassuring?
- Was trust and credibility maintained throughout the incident?
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Waiting too long to communicate
- Using too much technical jargon
- Sending mixed messages across different platforms
- Not following up with a clear resolution and next steps