crisis communication webinar
TRANSCRIPT
Crisis Communication Breakdown
Lessons Learned at VictorOps
Michael Merideth, VictorOpsBlake Thorne, StatusPage.io
Crisis Communications at VictorOps
One Goal: Keep Our Brand
Promise
The Beginner’s Path
Our Process: A Work in Progress
Crisis Communication is Scary!
Not Communicating is Worse!
“Nature abhors a vacuum”-Aristotle
Honesty Pays Dividends
“I cannot tell a lie…”
-Teddy Roosevelt
It Takes Buy-In At All Levels
DevOps can’t just go it alone
Every business function has something to contribute
Messaging needs to be accurate, but also accessible
Agree on When, and How Often
Generally: Communicate as soon as possible
Some issues need to be contained before they become public
Set a regular cadence for updates
Agree on What Gets Communicated
Help your users make intelligent choices and you’ll like their decisions better
Provide context and realistic ETAs
Use Incident Templates to ease messaging
Agree on Who Manages the Message
Speak with a single, consistent voice
Agree on Where the Message is Shared
VictorOps’ Cross-Functional CC Team
Crisis Communication Training and Certification
Institute For Crisis Management:http://crisisconsultant.com/
Non-Disruptive Crisis Communication
The CC Process can Help During the Firefight
Context
InsightData
Applied DevOps: Retrospect on the CC Process
•What went well?•What could have gone better?•Action items:•Continue doing…•Stop doing...•Start doing...
Applied DevOps: X-Functional Post-Mortems
What was the technical impact?
What was the business impact?
What was the reputational impact?
Applied DevOps: The VO Toolset
Key Takeaways• Your failures will become public
• Who controls when and how the information gets out: you, or someone else?
• Having a plan makes crisis communication less of a burden on the people fighting the fire
• Doing it right will build trust and loyalty with your users