Mindset for Staying Calm During Your First Incident Response

Introduction

“An error screen is showing... is this really production?”
“The notifications won't stop. But I don't know where to start...”
“I'm just panicking. My hands are shaking and I can't get anything done...”

Your first incident response is a nerve-wracking experience for anyone.
However, just by knowing in advance “how to act,” the chances of preventing panic and dealing with it calmly increase significantly.

In this article, I have summarized the “mindset” and “first steps” that young engineers should value when facing an incident for the first time.

✅ Mindset 1: “Accurately grasping the situation” is a higher priority than “rushing to act”

When you panic, you tend to try to find the cause immediately or start looking at code at random.

But what is important is to first calmly organize “what is happening right now?”.

Things to check first

• What is the scope of the incident? (Some features / Entire system / Specific users)

• What is the scope of the impact? (Publicly accessible / Internal tools / Specific browsers, etc.)

• Is it reproducible? (Re-login / Behavior in different environments)

🧠 “Visualizing the situation” is your first job.

✅ Mindset 2: Make “don't handle it alone” a rule

A common mistake for newcomers and young engineers is delaying reporting because they “don't want to be a burden.”

However, incident response is a race against time. It is a team effort.

• Once you have checked the situation yourself, always report it to the team

• If you don't know what to do, set a limit of 15–30 minutes and consult someone

• Even if the situation hasn't changed, always provide a “status update”

📣 Reporting and consulting are not “shirking responsibility,” but rather “actions to protect the team.”

✅ Mindset 3: Separate “facts” from “speculation” when speaking

When you panic, you tend to explain things using vague language.

💬 Facts → What you've tried → Current hypothesis

By communicating in this order, it becomes easier for seniors and leaders to grasp the situation.

✅ Mindset 4: Get into the habit of "keeping an incident log"

• What you did

• What you tried

• What changed

• What you will do next

If you write these down in real-time in a memo, Slack, or Notion,
you can organize your own thoughts later, and it becomes easier to share the situation with seniors.

📝 It also serves as useful material for follow-up investigations and retrospectives.

✅ Mindset 5: View "incidents as a treasure trove of learning"

Incident response is a painful and difficult experience, but
it is packed with "practical learning" that you cannot get from regular development.

• Understanding the overall system architecture

• Knowledge of logs, monitoring, and recovery

• Quality and speed of communication

• The difficulty and importance of working as a team

🌱 Once you experience an incident, you will be able to think, "Will this cause problems in production?" at the design and implementation stage.

Common NG behaviors (often done by beginners)

• Staying silent and worrying in front of the PC for an hour

• Assuming it's a bug without checking the logs

• Fixing code based on assumptions and deploying without verification

• Sending only "investigating" in chat and then going silent

• Ignoring alerts without understanding what they mean

😰 These actions can lead to a loss of trust.
Being able to "see" and "communicate" leads to trust more than just "taking action."

Conclusion

The scariest part of incident response is not
the "technical cause," but rather "human error in judgment or delays in response."

That is why even junior staff are expected to be able to "act calmly, accurately, and as a team."

It is normal to panic at first.
However, just by remembering the content of today's article,
your response will surely take a step forward.

Notice

At ZENSHIN, we provide training for junior staff on incident response and operational design, as well as
"support for building systems that foster teams capable of acting in emergencies."

• I want developers to have an operational perspective

• I want to establish an incident flow that even junior staff can handle

• I want to introduce incident response drills that the team can learn from

If you have any such requests, please feel free to contact us.

👉 If you are interested, you can inquire via
https://www.zenshin-inc.co.jp/#contact
!

■ZENSHIN Company Overview

Trade Name: ZENSHIN Co., Ltd.
Address: 1-11-4 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0041
Representative: Motoki Hanzawa, Representative Director
Main Business:
・Casual game contract development
・Software / System contract development
・Generative AI contract development
・Quality assurance testing
・SES / Staffing and recruitment services