Outage Communication Orchestrator

Overview

This skill focuses on WHAT TO SAY, TO WHOM, and WHEN during an outage—not how to fix it. Most teams improvise communication under pressure, leading to confused customers, nervous executives, and inconsistent messaging. This skill codifies communication patterns that build trust even when things break.

Why Communication Fails During Outages

Communication Audiences

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    AUDIENCE MAP                                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  EXTERNAL                          INTERNAL                     │
│  ────────                          ────────                     │
│  • Customers (affected)            • Executives                 │
│  • Customers (all)                 • Support team               │
│  • Public (status page)            • Sales/CS team              │
│  • Press (if major)                • Engineering (other teams)  │
│  • Partners/integrations           • Legal/PR (if needed)       │
│                                                                 │
│  Different message for each. Never copy-paste across audiences. │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Communication Timing

When to Communicate

Communication Cadence During Outage

ONGOING OUTAGE CADENCE:
─────────────────────────
First 30 minutes: Update every 10-15 minutes
30 min - 2 hours: Update every 20-30 minutes
2+ hours: Update every 30-60 minutes

RULE: Never go silent for more than 30 minutes during active outage.
Even "still investigating" is better than silence.

Status Page Communication

Status Levels

Status Page Language Patterns

Initial Acknowledgment

INVESTIGATING: We are investigating reports of [symptom].
Some users may experience [user-visible impact].
We will provide updates as we learn more.

Posted: [time]

Investigation Update

IDENTIFIED: We have identified the cause of [symptom].
The issue is related to [general area - not technical jargon].
Our team is actively working on a fix.
[X]% of users are currently affected.

Posted: [time]

Mitigation in Progress

MONITORING: We have implemented a fix for [issue].
We are monitoring the results.
Some users may still experience [residual impact].
We expect full resolution within [timeframe or "the next X minutes"].

Posted: [time]

Resolved

RESOLVED: The issue affecting [service/feature] has been resolved.
All systems are operating normally.
Users should no longer experience [symptoms].

We apologize for any inconvenience.
A detailed post-incident summary will be shared within [timeframe].

Posted: [time]
Duration: [start time] - [end time] ([X] hours [Y] minutes)

What NOT to Say on Status Page

Customer Communication Templates

Email: Outage Notification (Major)

Subject: [Service Name] Service Disruption - [Date]

We're experiencing a service disruption affecting [specific functionality].

WHAT'S HAPPENING
[1-2 sentences describing user-visible impact, not technical cause]

WHAT WE'RE DOING
Our team identified the issue and is actively working to restore service.
We expect resolution within [timeframe] / as quickly as possible.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
[Any workarounds, or "No action needed from you at this time"]

We'll send another update [when: in 30 minutes / when resolved].
For real-time status: [status page URL]

We sincerely apologize for the disruption.

[Name]
[Title]

Email: Resolution Notification

Subject: [RESOLVED] [Service Name] Service Disruption - [Date]

The service disruption affecting [functionality] has been resolved.

WHAT HAPPENED
On [date/time], [brief non-technical description of what users experienced].
The issue lasted approximately [duration].

IMPACT
[What was affected: data, transactions, access, etc.]
[Any data loss or required user action]

WHAT WE'RE DOING
We're conducting a thorough review to prevent similar issues.
[Any remediation: credits, extended access, etc.]

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

[Name]
[Title]

Email: Follow-Up (Post-Incident Summary)

Subject: Post-Incident Summary: [Service] Disruption on [Date]

SUMMARY
On [date], [service] experienced a [duration] disruption affecting 
[scope: all users / X% of users / specific regions].

TIMELINE
[Time] - Issue began
[Time] - Issue detected
[Time] - Investigation started
[Time] - Root cause identified
[Time] - Fix implemented
[Time] - Service restored

ROOT CAUSE
[Non-technical explanation of what went wrong]

REMEDIATION
To prevent this from happening again, we are:
• [Action 1]
• [Action 2]
• [Action 3]

We take reliability seriously and apologize for the impact to your operations.

[Name]
[Title]

Internal Communication

Executive Notification Template

INCIDENT BRIEF - [SEV LEVEL] - [Time]
────────────────────────────────────

STATUS: [Investigating / Identified / Mitigating / Resolved]

IMPACT:
• Customer impact: [X users affected / Y% of traffic / $Z revenue at risk]
• Duration so far: [X minutes/hours]
• Services affected: [list]

WHAT HAPPENED:
[2-3 sentences, business terms not technical]

WHAT WE'RE DOING:
• [Current action]
• [Next step]
• ETA to resolution: [time or "unknown, investigating"]

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION:
• Status page: [Updated / Pending]
• Customer notification: [Sent / Drafting / Not yet needed]

NEXT UPDATE: [Time]

INCIDENT COMMANDER: [Name]
CONTACT: [Slack channel / phone]

Support Team Enablement

🚨 ACTIVE INCIDENT - [Service] - [Time]
──────────────────────────────────────

CUSTOMER-FACING SCRIPT:

"We're aware of an issue affecting [feature/service]. Our engineering 
team is actively working on it. Based on current information, we 
expect [resolution timeframe / to have an update within X minutes]."

WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE EXPERIENCING:
• [Symptom 1]
• [Symptom 2]
• [Symptom 3]

WORKAROUNDS:
• [Workaround if any, or "None available at this time"]

DO NOT SAY:
• [Anything about root cause if not confirmed]
• [Specific timeframes unless approved]
• [Technical details]

ESCALATION:
• For VIP/Enterprise customers: [escalation path]
• For press inquiries: [PR contact]

UPDATES: Watch [Slack channel] for real-time updates

Channel Coordination

Channel Priority by Audience

Coordination Checklist

COMMUNICATION COORDINATION
──────────────────────────

□ Status page updated
□ In-app banner (if applicable)
□ Support team enabled (script + Slack)
□ Exec brief sent
□ Sales/CS notified with talking points
□ Customer email drafted (if needed)
□ Customer email approved (if needed)
□ Customer email sent
□ Twitter/social updated (if major)
□ Press statement ready (if needed)

ALL CHANNELS CONSISTENT: □ Yes

Decision Framework

When to Send Customer Email

SEND EMAIL IF:
□ Outage > 30 minutes AND customer-impacting
□ Data loss or integrity issue (any duration)
□ Security incident affecting customer data
□ Billing/payment system affected
□ SLA breach likely/occurred

DON'T SEND EMAIL IF:
□ Resolved quickly (<15-20 min) with minimal impact
□ Very limited scope (single customer, handled directly)
□ Internal-only impact

When to Involve PR/Legal

When to Offer Credits/Remediation

Post-Incident Communication

Timeline for Follow-Up

What to Include in Public Post-Incident

INCLUDE:
• What happened (user perspective)
• Timeline of events
• Impact scope
• What we're doing to prevent recurrence

DO NOT INCLUDE:
• Blame (individuals, vendors, teams)
• Excessive technical detail
• Security-sensitive information
• Speculation about cause

Resources

references/

• message-templates.md — Full template library by scenario
• channel-guide.md — When to use which communication channel
• severity-communication-matrix.md — What to communicate at each severity level

scripts/

• timeline-formatter.py — Formats incident timeline for communications

assets/

• email-templates.docx — Editable customer email templates
• exec-brief-template.docx — Executive notification template
• support-script-template.md — Support team enablement template