Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Who should be on-call

There usually isn’t a hard and fast rule about who should be on-call. Teams often look for criteria like seniority, experience, or expertise. While those factors certainly help, they might matter less than you think. It is often more useful to look at whether your processes are ready. When incident responses rely on memory and intuition rather than documentation, even experienced engineers can struggle. They might handle things through internal knowledge that isn’t available to everyone else.

5 things to do before you go on-call for the first time

Going on-call for the first time can feel a bit overwhelming, but a little prep work makes it smooth and stress-free. This guide covers five things to set up before you start your first on-call shift. They help you stay on top of your schedule, get on-call notifications, and have a backup in place. By the end, you’ll be ready to handle your first on-call shift with confidence.

Getting started with on-call

Setting up on-call is simpler than it seems. It comes down to a few clear decisions about your team and what your service actually needs. This guide walks you through those decisions. You’ll learn who to add in your rotation, how long shifts should last, when to hand off, and what coverage makes sense for your service. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to set up your first schedule and move from ad-hoc firefighting to organized incident response.

A Recap of 2025

In the past, our yearly recaps were mostly about numbers. What we shipped, how much Spike grew, and a long list of stats. See past recaps: 2023, 2024. But 2025 felt different to me. It had many moments that shaped how Spike as a product and the company looks today. Some of them were exciting. Some were uncomfortable, and all of them changed how I think about building Spike. We’re still bootstrapped and operating lean, with a team of fewer than ten people.