How a Communications Liaison keeps incident updates consistent and accessible in PagerDuty

Working outline (for reference)

• Opening: set the stage with how critical clear communication is during incidents.

• The role defined: who the Communications Liaison is and why they matter.

• Core duty explained: the primary responsibility to keep updates consistent and accessible.

• How it plays out: practical flow—gathering updates, translating tech speak, choosing channels, keeping cadence.

• Why it matters: reduced confusion, faster decisions, calmer stakeholders.

• Real-world flow: a simple incident scenario to illustrate the rhythm.

• Tools and rituals: Statuspage, PagerDuty, Slack/Teams, dashboards, and prewritten templates.

• Pitfalls and remedies: common traps and how to sidestep them.

• Quick tips: actionable takeaways for aspiring incident responders.

• Wrap-up: the human side of incident response and the value of reliable updates.

Clear communication is the quiet hero in a loud moment

Imagine a clock with 10 hands—everybody sprinting in different directions, labels flashing, urgency in the air. Outages don’t wait for polite pauses; they demand clarity. In that moment, the person who keeps everyone informed—the Communications Liaison—can be the difference between chaos and coordinated action. This role isn’t about compiling dry notes; it’s about shaping a narrative that helps teams act quickly and stakeholders stay calm.

What the Communications Liaison actually does

Let’s zero in on the core duty. The primary responsibility of the Communications Liaison during an incident is to ensure updates are consistent and accessible. In plain terms: you’re the bridge between the tech side and everyone else who wants to know what’s going on. That means updates that are easy to understand, delivered through the right channels, and shared at a pace that matches the incident’s pace.

Now, you might be thinking, “Does that mean I’m just writing emails and posting on a status page?” Not quite. It’s a bit more nuanced—and a lot more practical. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Collecting updates from the field: you listen in on the incident bridges, on-call chats, and dashboards. The goal is to capture what’s changed, what’s being worked on, and what’s still uncertain.

• Translating jargon into plain language: engineers talk in terms like MTTR, RTO, or a specific component name. Your job is to translate that into plain language so managers, customers, and executives can follow along without a glossary.

• Maintaining a single, coherent thread: no mixed signals. You harmonize information so everyone sees the same status, the same risks, and the same next steps.

• Determining the cadence and channels: decide how often you’ll post updates and where they’ll appear—Statuspage for customers, Slack or Teams for internal teams, and emails or incident calls for leadership. The channels should fit the audience.

• Curating relevant updates: you filter noise. If a team is still investigating, you don’t pretend certainty; you share what you know and what you don’t, with a plan for follow-up.

• Verifying accessibility: ensure updates are readable by people with varied backgrounds, from executives to frontline engineers to external customers. Accessibility isn’t an afterthought; it’s part of the job.

Why consistency matters so much

Consistency isn’t a buzzword here. It’s a practical safeguard against confusion. When updates arrive from different teams with different tones or details, the situation quickly becomes a guessing game. People waste time trying to reconcile conflicting messages, and trust erodes. The Liaison’s role is to keep that from happening.

Think about it like weather reporting. A meteorologist would never issue a forecast without agreeing on what “light rain,” “showers,” and “storm” mean. In an incident, the same principle applies: define what you mean by “impact,” “mitigation in place,” and “next steps.” When everyone shares the same vocabulary, decisions get made faster and with more confidence.

How the flow typically unfolds

Let me explain a smooth, practical rhythm you’ll recognize if you’ve handled incidents with PagerDuty or similar tools.

• Initial alert and triage: the incident is detected, and the Liaison joins early to set expectations for updates. You draft a first, honest status that acknowledges what’s known and what’s not yet known.

• Early containment and investigation: updates focus on what the teams are doing, rough timelines, and any customer-facing implications. You’may hear phrases like “partial service,” “workaround,” or “mitigation in progress.” Your job is to translate those into a clear, customer-facing message plus a more detailed internal note.

• Escalation to a broader audience: leadership, customers, and partners get a concise, consistent update. Internal teams receive a separate, slightly more technical briefing that helps them stay aligned without leaking sensitive material.

• Ongoing cadence: regular updates—every 15, 30, or 60 minutes depending on the incident—keep everyone informed. If new information changes the trajectory, you adapt the message and the plan, not just the numbers.

• Resolution and post-incident: you’ll draft a clean, readable summary that covers what happened, what was done, what worked, what didn’t, and how to prevent a recurrence.

A simple scenario to anchor the idea

Picture this: a cloud service hiccup affects users intermittently. The engineering team is on it—checking logs, rerouting traffic, validating fixes. The Communications Liaison pulls together a customer-facing update that says something like: “We’re investigating intermittent outages affecting a subset of users. A temporary routing fix is in place. We expect stabilization within the next 30–60 minutes. We’ll post updates here as the status evolves and will notify you once resolved.” Then, for the internal audience, you add: “Root cause hypothesis: network instability in zone A. Containment: rerouted traffic, failover to zone B. Next steps: confirm fix in staging, monitor latency. ETA: 60 minutes.” The two messages look different on purpose, but they reflect the same underlying reality. Everyone gets what they need without being overloaded with jargon.

Tools that help you stay on top of updates

In the age of speed, the right tools are your best friends. A typical toolkit might include:

• PagerDuty: the incident trigger and orchestration backbone. It helps escalate and coordinate, but the Liaison translates that activity into plain-language updates.

• Statuspage or equivalent: a customer-facing hub for real-time incident status and historical updates.

• Chat platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams): quick, continuous channels to keep on-call teams in the loop.

• Dashboards and runbooks: living documents that capture standard procedures, response steps, and checklists.

• Email or on-call bridges: for stakeholders who prefer formal or broadcast-style updates.

The human touch keeps it real

Tools are great, but they’re not a substitute for thoughtful communication. The Liaison anchors the tone and credibility of the response. That means:

• Being honest about uncertainty: if you don’t know something yet, say so politely and explain how you’ll find out.

• Keeping empathy in the mix: outages frustrate customers. Acknowledge the impact and outline steps being taken to minimize it.

• Avoiding information overload: too many numbers or too much detail can overwhelm. Lead with the gist, then offer a deeper dive for those who want it.

Common pitfalls and how to sidestep them

Every role has landmines. Here are a few that routinely pop up, with practical fixes:

• Message fragmentation: multiple teams sending their own updates. Solution: establish a single publication cadence and designate a go-to channel for status messages.

• Jargon overload: tech terms that leave non-engineers puzzled. Solution: keep a glossary handy in a living document and translate terms in each update.

• Over-promising: “We’ll be done in 20 minutes” when you’re not sure. Solution: phrase carefully—“ETA based on current findings; we’ll update within the next interval.”

• Delayed communications: waiting for a perfect fix before sharing anything. Solution: share what you know now, plus what you’re doing next to improve the situation.

Tips from the trenches

• Use a simple template: start with impact, current status, what’s being done, and the next update time. It saves time and reduces confusion.

• Prewrite common updates: for widely seen issues, you’ll be faster if you have a few ready-to-use templates that you tailor as needed.

• Audit your messages after an incident: note what helped and what caused friction. Use the learnings to tighten the process for next time.

• Keep the audience in mind: customers want reassurance; internal teams want technical clarity; executives want a concise narrative of risk and resolution.

• Protect sensitive information: you don’t reveal security secrets or internal knobs to every audience. Filter what’s appropriate for each channel.

A human, not a machine, should be the voice

The role thrives on a balance: precise, concise updates with a touch of human care. The goal isn’t to sound perfect; it’s to be trustworthy. People remember when a message is clear, when they’re not left in the dark, and when the timeline is credible even as it shifts. The Liaison’s voice should feel confident without pretending to know everything at every moment.

Putting it all together

So, what’s the throughline you can carry into your day-to-day work as an incident responder? The Communications Liaison is the steady thread that keeps everyone moving in the same direction. Their primary responsibility—ensuring updates are consistent and accessible—creates a predictable rhythm in the middle of disruption. That rhythm reduces confusion, speeds decision-making, and keeps the focus on restoring service rather than chasing rumors.

As you explore PagerDuty’s incident response framework, you’ll notice how important this role is in practice. The liaison doesn’t own the technical resolution; they own the narrative that accompanies the resolution. They translate what the engineers are doing into what matters to customers, managers, and partners. And in doing so, they protect trust—one well-timed update at a time.

A few closing thoughts for curious minds

• Think of updates as a product you’re delivering to diverse audiences. Different consumers, different formats, same core message.

• Remember the value of cadence. A steady flow reduces anxiety and helps people plan their next steps.

• Embrace a little patience. Even the best teams sometimes hit dead ends. Clear, honest communication keeps morale intact and momentum alive.

If you’re aiming to sharpen your incident response chops, the Communications Liaison lens is a powerful one. It sharpens not just your message, but your mindset: clarity first, then action. And when the lights flicker and the clock starts ticking, that mindset may be the difference between a contained incident and a full-blown outage.

Final takeaway: in an incident, reliable updates are the backbone of effective response. The Communications Liaison is the person who makes sure those updates are consistent, accessible, and trustworthy—every single time.