A major part of the Internet went dark this week due to an outage at Cloudflare. They operate the infrastructure that millions of sites depend on to stay online.
Throughout the entire incident they communicated quickly, frequently, and with remarkable clarity.
But I want to focus on CEO Matthew Prince specifically who responded within hours with a very clear and honest statement (which was certainly prepared by his team but that’s not the point).
You can read the response in full here.
Let’s break it down:
First, he describes what happened in plain and simple word, with as little tech jargon as possible and no corporate jargon.
Second, he names the mistake clearly. No vague phrasing. No clever spin wording. No blame shifting. Simply what went wrong and what they should have caught earlier.
Third, he’s open about the wrong assumptions, the confusion, the false leads, the pain of real people trying to fix a very real problem. That is rare in the tech world, especially at this scale.
Fourth, he explains the reasoning in a way that treats the audience as capable. No patronizing tone. No hiding behind complexity. He opens the black box at a moment where most leaders would rather hide it away.
Fifth, he apologizes without theatrics. To me, it doesn’t feel performative at all. It’s not just a “strategic sorrow”. It feels like someone who knows exactly why this matters and is willing to stand in front of it.
And sixth, he shows the work behind the fix. Not “we are looking into it.” He walks people through the steps, the sequence, the missteps, the turning points. That is what creates the feeling of “they are taking this seriously and have it under control now.”
This is incredibly strong crisis communication because it follows a principle most leaders avoid.
Say what’s true in the most plain and simple words you can find.
Plus, they said it quickly.
In terms of the path metaphor:
Show them where you are.
Light the path.
Take people with you.
Keep lighting the path,
Michael
