In a world where 100 percent uptime is a myth, how you handle the downtime defines your brand. Most incident response processes are optimized for technical resolution, while customer communication is an afterthought. What follows is a vague status page update 45 minutes into an outage, an internal email to stakeholders titled "We're Investigating", and customers refreshing Twitter to figure out what's happening. This talk draws from real-world examples of incident communication done brilliantly and catastrophically and the aftereffects, showing how designing your incident response around the customer experience with timely updates, transparency, proactive channels, and clear ownership turns your worst moments into trust-building ones. See what "good" incident communication actually looks like, from the first red alert to the calm green ticks.
Shubham Srivastava is a builder at the intersection of AI, venture, and product. Currently a co-founder of a stealth AI startup, he is focused on making hiring more scalable, transparent, and human. He recently completed his Master’s at Carnegie Mellon University, where he concentrated on venture funding and product strategy while actively supporting early-stage startups as a scout and mentor.
