Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy...sound like your first on-call shift? One of the biggest challenges in incident response work, especially for newer SREs, is the lack of safe spaces to fail. Incident simulations can be an effective way to take the terror out of that first on-call shift, but they take careful planning. In this talk, I’ll explore different types of simulations (from tabletops to full-on realistic mock incidents), how and when to utilize them, and how to make sure you get the most out of them.