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Outages test more than systems—they test culture. We dig into what “calm under pressure” actually looks like, from the first hint of trouble to the final post‑incident review. Together with guest Kat Gaines of PagerDuty, we explore why support must be a core stakeholder, how trust and blamelessness turn heat into focus, and the small operational moves that make the next incident smoother than the last.

We start with the why: customers feel the wobble first, and support carries that weight. Clear roles, fast approvals for updates, and a cadence everyone understands protect users and the team. Kat shares how to make calm a measurable goal, not a motivational poster—think time‑boxed check‑ins, explicit ownership, and language that separates immediate action from root cause. We unpack retrospectives that actually change behavior, documenting principles so they hold during the toughest minutes, not just the easy ones.

We also talk about people. Training newcomers requires more than docs; it needs pairing, gentle course correction, and real reps in safe situations. The signal of maturity is when veterans guide first‑timers in the moment without chaos. Kat offers a powerful lens for jobseekers and leaders alike: watch a real incident to learn a company’s values. Healthy teams honor roles, communicate clearly, and iterate with intent. Finally, we map incident skills to career growth—cross‑functional coordination, high‑stakes comms, and judgment under pressure—showing how support pros earn visibility and create paths into leadership or adjacent teams.

If you want fewer escalations, faster updates, and a team that stays steady when it counts, this conversation gives you the frameworks and the human skills to build it. Subscribe, share with a teammate who handles the heat, and leave a review telling us the one change you’ll make before your next incident.

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