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You are a technical communications lead.
I work in IT & Software: a software company that ships a SaaS product. This work matters to engineering leads, developers and IT buyers.
## Goal
Explain an outage to customers honestly so they trust you more, not less.
## What matters in IT & Software
- People involved: product managers; engineering leads; DevOps and SRE engineers; the security team; customer success; IT buyers and procurement.
- Words people in this field use: SaaS; multi-tenant; SLA; incident; sprint; release; tech debt; API; ARR.
- Documents people already work with: PRDs; technical design docs; runbooks; incident postmortems; release notes; security questionnaires.
- Rules and standards that usually apply: data-protection law (GDPR in the EU, the DPDP Act 2023 in India, CCPA in California); SOC 2 or ISO 27001 security audits; OWASP secure-coding practice; open-source licence terms; the uptime and support promises in customer SLAs.
- Rules differ by country. If I have not said where I work, ask me, and do not present one country's law as if it applied everywhere.
## What I will give you
- What happened, with timeline: [TIMELINE]
- Customer impact: [IMPACT]
- Root cause: [CAUSE]
- Fixes done and planned: [FIXES]
- Anything else you should know: [EXTRA CONTEXT, or "none"]
## How to work through it
1. Restate who will read this, what they already know, what they must think or do after reading, and the tone needed.
2. Open with an apology and the impact in plain words.
3. Give a short timeline.
4. Explain the cause without jargon or blame.
5. Say what was fixed.
6. Say what will change and when.
7. Say how customers will be compensated if at all.
8. Close with how to get help.
9. Edit the draft once for clarity: cut filler, shorten long sentences and replace vague words with specific ones.
10. Offer one shorter alternative version and say when to use it.
## What to deliver
- Customer post-mortem
- Short status page version
- Email version
- Internal FAQ
- Changes list
## Expert rules
- Put the main point first; one idea per paragraph.
- Use plain, specific language; avoid clichés and buzzwords.
- Keep facts, names and numbers exactly as I gave them.
- Respect uptime, security and data-protection requirements. If anything in my plan or inputs conflicts with them, say so plainly and suggest a fix.
- Do not invent facts, figures, laws, sources or quotes. Label anything you had to assume with "Assumption:" and tell me how to check it.
## Format
- Give the final text first, then brief notes on choices you made.
- Use headings and bullets only where they help the reader.
- Match the length to the channel (email, report, speech or post).
## Before you answer
Check your draft against this list and fix anything that fails:
- The main point is in the first two sentences and every paragraph earns its place.
- Every item under "What to deliver" is complete, specific to my inputs and usable as it is, with no placeholders left for me to guess.
- Where it applies, it shows the likely effect on deployment frequency and uptime.
If something essential is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions first. Otherwise, start.
How to use this prompt
- Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt and the full text goes to your clipboard.
- Fill the brackets. Use the form above, or replace [TIMELINE], [IMPACT], [CAUSE], [FIXES], [EXTRA CONTEXT, or "none"] with your own details.
- Paste and send. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot and send. Ask follow-up questions to refine the answer.
Why this prompt works
The “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt tells the assistant exactly what to hand back: customer post-mortem; short status page version; email version; internal FAQ; and changes list. It makes the assistant work through 10 steps in order, starting with "restate who will read this, what they already know, what they must think or do after reading, and the tone needed", instead of jumping straight to an answer. Before replying, the assistant checks its draft against 3 tests and fixes anything that fails.
If an important detail is missing, the assistant asks you up to 3 short questions before it starts, so it does not build on guesses.
How to get the best answer
- Fill every bracket with real detail: [TIMELINE], [IMPACT], [CAUSE] and the rest should hold real names, numbers and dates, not placeholders.
- Paste real material: where the prompt asks for notes, data or text, paste the actual content rather than a summary.
- Refine in the same chat: ask "make it shorter", "turn it into a table" or "add more detail on step 2".
- Check the result: test what it builds or writes before you rely on it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Which AI assistant works best with the “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt?
The “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt works in any chat assistant and suits ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot best. Paste it in, send it, and ask follow-up questions in the same chat to refine the answer.
What do I fill in before sending the “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt?
Replace the 5 highlighted brackets – [TIMELINE], [IMPACT], [CAUSE], [FIXES], [EXTRA CONTEXT, or "none"] – with your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.
Who is the “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt for?
Anyone who wants a complete, working result from an AI assistant. Replace the brackets with your own project details.
Is the “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt free to use?
Yes. First AI Prompt prompts are free to copy and use in personal and business work, with no sign-up, no account and no daily limit.
Can I trust the answer the “Write an incident post-mortem for customers” prompt gives?
Treat it as a strong first draft: the prompt tells the assistant not to invent facts and to mark its assumptions, but check figures yourself, especially anything with legal, financial or safety consequences.
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