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Use the template in this page to conduct your retrospective meeting.
[Filled-in Example] API Latency Incident – 1 Aug 2025
Additionally, we’ve put together prompts that accept this template format to generate drafts for common follow up artefacts.
[Prompt] Generate an Internal Email Draft about the incident
[Prompt] Generate a stakeholder follow up draft about the incident
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Summarise what happened, when and why, the severity and who/what was affected. Include the time range, key symptoms, trigger, percentage of users or transactions affected and how the issue was resolved.
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| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Incident type & severity | |
| Services/components involved | |
| Impact window | Start: [UTC Time]; End: [UTC Time] |
| Duration & time‑to‑resolve | |
| Participants | Incident commander, responders, reporter |
| Important links | Chat channels, ticket numbers, status‑page posts |
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UTC timestamps, event descriptions and notes. Record lead‑up events, detection (how it was discovered), notable actions, escalations and the point at which service was restored.
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| Time (UTC) | Event / action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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Briefly describe the conditions that enabled the incident (process gaps, infrastructure limitations, missing safeguards) and list anything that helped reduce the impact.
Use a root‑cause technique like the Five Whys to drill down to systemic issues, avoiding “human error” blame.
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Summarise how the team fixed or mitigated the issue and call out any relevant technical details (e.g., logs, configuration problems, dependency failures). Distinguish between temporary workarounds and permanent solutions.
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