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Operate & LearnOL-04
How to run a blameless incident postmortem
Learn from system conditions and information available at the time, preserving uncertainty and avoiding personal blame.
Product statusAvailable now
Input3 required inputsTimeline, alerts and logs · Responder accounts and mitigation evidence · Initiative focus and approved Product Brain guidance
SkillsDraft a blameless incident postmortem · Synthesise supplied evidence · Prepare task contextReliability Engineer + Reliability Engineer Agent
OutcomeIncident postmortem: impact summary, evidence-anchored timeline, contributing conditions, and prevention, detection and recovery actions with owners.Artifact: Incident postmortem
Owner
Reliability Engineer
Human + Agent
Participants · Agents
EngineerProduct ManagerSales & SupportReliability Engineer Agent
Trigger
A specific incident has an agreed postmortem scope.
Required context
FilesTimeline, alerts and logsMeetings · BetaResponder accounts and mitigation evidenceProduct BrainInitiative focus and approved Product Brain guidance
Optional context
CodeChange history around the incidentConfluenceSLO definition and service ownership
Skills
Draft a blameless incident postmortemSynthesise supplied evidencePrepare task contextReview an artifact against agreed criteriaRecord decisions and follow-up
Suggested conversation arc
- 1Establish impact and timelineAssemble incident events and impact from logs and responder accounts; mark conflicting timestamps and missing evidence explicitly.Skills: Prepare task context · Synthesise supplied evidence
- 2Discuss contributing conditionsReview the timeline with responders and examine why actions made sense with available information. Identify technical and organisational conditions without hindsight blame.
- 3Draft the learning recordDocument impact, response, contributing causes and concrete prevention/detection/recovery improvements with proposed ownership and priority.Skills: Draft a blameless incident postmortem
- 4Review and confirm learningHave responders verify facts and action usefulness; confirm sharing scope, owners and follow-up review while retaining uncertain causality.Skills: Review an artifact against agreed criteria · Record decisions and follow-up
Output
Incident postmortem: impact summary, evidence-anchored timeline, contributing conditions, and prevention, detection and recovery actions with owners.
Artifacts
Creates: Incident postmortem
What good looks like
- Timeline and causal claims are evidence-linked.
- Actions address concrete contributing conditions without blame.
- Conflicting logs or accounts stay unresolved rather than harmonised by invention.
Quality gate
The responders verify the facts and the incident owner confirms actions, owners and sharing scope.
Destination
ConfluenceJira
Usually next
People and agents work from the same Product Brain. The owner stays accountable. Assigned agents prepare and check. A named person approves at the gate.
Deep dives from the AI PM Lab
Articles that explain the thinking behind this Activity.
Choose the path that matches your role.
Set the Product AI direction with us, or test the shared Product Brain on real work with Jira and code.