Error and recovery experience brief
Design failures so users keep their work, understand the outcome, and recover safely.
Product features · 45 min · Advanced · 19 questions
Failure model
Which user action can fail?
Which external dependency can fail?
Which permission can block completion?
Which failure can be prevented?
Which failure can be detected before submission?
Explanation and recovery
What should the user understand about the failure?
What part of the user's work was affected?
Which unfinished work must survive?
When is retry safe?
Which completed action can be undone?
Can users cancel an action that is still pending?
Where should the user resume after interruption?
How will partial completion be shown?
How will an unknown outcome be resolved?
Escalation and evidence
When should support become available?
What context should transfer to support?
Which reference can help trace the failure?
How will we measure successful recovery?
Which repeated failure should trigger investigation?
How to use this brief
Use this brief as a bank of questions for the conversation. Choose what is relevant, mark covered questions as you go, and skip anything that has already been answered.
Use this brief when...
Use when you need to design failures so users keep their work, understand the outcome, and recover safely.
Best used as: Live call · Async intake
- Category
- Product features
- Discussion time
- 45 minutes
- Depth
- Advanced
- Last updated
- Jul 21, 2026
- Scope
- Design briefs
- Best used as
- Live callAsync intake
- Design roles
- Content designerProduct designer
- Audience
- Product designersUX and UI designersDesign leadsFreelancers and consultants
- Platforms
- Cross-platform
- Company type
- StartupB2BB2CEnterprise
- Product stage
- Early-stageGrowthMature product
- Tags
- product-featureserror-and-recovery-experienceproduct-and-experienceerror-recoveryresilienceproduct-quality