Crisis Communication Protocols

Study Notes

Begin activating Crisis Chat after sending a required attention email using @ for direct queries to an Incident Commander (IC).
If no response in 30 minutes, follow up with a direct ping; if no response after another 30 minutes, escalate with a page.
Always page immediately for time-sensitive issues.
Embed screenshots directly in Crisis Chat to ensure accessibility, as mobile authentication may hinder link access for ICs.
Ensure triage decisions are accompanied by solid rationale in email communications and Rocking Horse updates.

In multi-incident discussions, clearly indicate the alert with prefaces like “air quality maps #published.”
For non-emergency issues (e.g., suggesting turndown), defer direct pings to ICs until business hours to avoid morning disruptions.
Use Rocking Horse suggestions when posting information about detected events in go/crisis-chat.

If no response in 10 minutes for escalations, initiate a second manual escalation.
On failure of the second attempt, page the IC who last handed off in the other timezone.
Page primary IC if a Googler requests incident response, regardless of personal disagreement.
Escalate for UNKNOWN responses that meet launch criteria.

On Friday overnights, only page for manmade or violence events; check with ICs in the morning for other issues.
Adhere to a maximum Service Level Agreement (SLA) of 15-20 minutes for live SOS content updates; escalate to Eng on-call if delays occur.

Report issues impacting live alerts to ICs; if they are unresponsive via chat, page them to decide if Eng needs to be contacted.
When paging Eng on-call, include directives to update go/crisis-chat with progress and any additional details needed.
Responding Eng ICs have an SLA of 30 minutes; escalate if there is no contact after 1 hour.

Dispatch mailer communications for post-escalation triage immediately after deciding on action to keep stakeholders informed.
No need to manually CC local leads on US-based incident emails; utilize existing group emails.
Clarify in crisis chat if an escalation is an auto-response and if IC approval for launch is required.

Ops shift leads should act as main point of contact for local Googlers in Crisis Chat when they offer support or request alert changes.
Evaluate requests from Googlers based on policy guidelines, including naming conventions and resource allocations.
Utilize templates for standard communication for specific inquiries when appropriate.