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Severity matrix
Severity levels
| Critical | High | Medium | Low | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer impact | Core workflow down for many | Major degradation, large subset | Limited; workaround exists | None or internal only |
| Page on-call | Immediately | Immediately | Business hours; optional off-hours | No |
| Status page | Yes | If visible | If visible | No |
| Subscriber email | Yes | Yes | Optional | No |
| First public update | ≤ 15 min | ≤ 30 min | If visible | — |
| Follow-up | Timeline review | Recommended | Optional | — |
Examples
| Level | Example |
|---|---|
| Critical | Production API down · Payments/auth failure · Active security breach |
| High | Checkout success < [X]% · Regional outage · Primary API error spike |
| Medium | Non-critical feature flaky · Internal tooling down · Single-tenant issue |
| Low | Cosmetic bug · Monitor flake · Staging only |
Decision tree (30 seconds)
- Paying customers blocked on a core workflow? → Critical
- Core feature degraded for many? → High
- Limited impact or workaround? → Medium
- Otherwise → Low
Incido setup
- Create matching severity levels in org settings
- Link Critical/High to escalation policies
- Train support to use the same definitions
# Severity levels
| | Critical | High | Medium | Low |
|---|----------|------|--------|-----|
| **Customer impact** | Core workflow down for many | Major degradation, large subset | Limited; workaround exists | None or internal only |
| **Page on-call** | Immediately | Immediately | Business hours; optional off-hours | No |
| **Status page** | Yes | If visible | If visible | No |
| **Subscriber email** | Yes | Yes | Optional | No |
| **First public update** | ≤ 15 min | ≤ 30 min | If visible | — |
| **Follow-up** | Timeline review | Recommended | Optional | — |
## Examples
| Level | Example |
|-------|---------|
| **Critical** | Production API down · Payments/auth failure · Active security breach |
| **High** | Checkout success < [X]% · Regional outage · Primary API error spike |
| **Medium** | Non-critical feature flaky · Internal tooling down · Single-tenant issue |
| **Low** | Cosmetic bug · Monitor flake · Staging only |
## Decision tree (30 seconds)
1. Paying customers blocked on a core workflow? → **Critical**
2. Core feature degraded for many? → **High**
3. Limited impact or workaround? → **Medium**
4. Otherwise → **Low**
## Incido setup
- [ ] Create matching severity levels in org settings
- [ ] Link Critical/High to escalation policies
- [ ] Train support to use the same definitions
How to use this template
- Review with support and product. Severity should match customer experience.
- Wire levels into escalation routing (Critical ≠ Medium paging).
- Revisit after major incidents.
Incido severity levels drive colors, notification urgency, and escalation routing. Keep definitions aligned with your policies.