---
title: Using Session Replay As A Key Tool In Post-Mortems
description: >-
  Leverage Session Replay for post-mortem analysis to visually reproduce errors
  and document incident investigations effectively.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > RUM & Session Replay > Real User Monitoring & Session Replay Guides >
  Using Session Replay As A Key Tool In Post-Mortems
---

# Using Session Replay As A Key Tool In Post-Mortems

## Overview{% #overview %}

Session Replay bridges the gap between user analysis and visually reproducing errors. This guide walks through an example of how developers can leverage Session Replay as a visual aid on documenting post-mortems.

## Use RUM to identify how widespread a user issue is{% #use-rum-to-identify-how-widespread-a-user-issue-is %}

In this example, we noticed that a lot of users were complaining about getting an issue upon clicking the **Checkout** button. After investigating the [RUM frustration signals dashboard](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/analyze-user-experience-frustration-signals-with-rum/), we confirmed in the RUM Explorer that there were nearly 3,000 instances of this error type occurring in just one week:

{% image
   source="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/real_user_monitoring/guide/using-session-replay-in-post-mortems/identify-widespread-user-issue-1.cf9ef180ba75c6b89fca86ae27d15fef.png?auto=format"
   alt="Use RUM to identify how many instances of an error type occurred in a week" /%}

## Watch the user issue in a Session Replay{% #watch-the-user-issue-in-a-session-replay %}

After clicking into a session from the above query, we can watch a Session Replay to see this error occur live, and observe what users did before and after:

{% image
   source="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/real_user_monitoring/guide/using-session-replay-in-post-mortems/watch-user-issue.bbdc5ee852bb2031d85d5dd499241ae2.png?auto=format"
   alt="Review the user's experience the issue in a Session Replay" /%}

## Share to a Notebook{% #share-to-a-notebook %}

To ensure other team members investigating this issue can see this context, we can share this particular Session Replay to a notebook via the share button:

{% image
   source="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/real_user_monitoring/guide/using-session-replay-in-post-mortems/share-to-notebook.a22350900605325b5c6e134366792b59.png?auto=format"
   alt="Share the Session Replay video by saving it to a post-mortem notebook" /%}

By sending the Session Replay to a notebook, we can add commentary, analyze other telemetry data from this incident, and document our post-mortem.

**Note**: A template for post-mortem notebooks is available [here](https://app.datadoghq.com/notebook/template/7/postmortem-ir-xxxx-outage-name).

## Documenting the post-mortem{% #documenting-the-post-mortem %}

After sharing the replay to a notebook, we can begin documenting the investigation.

{% image
   source="https://datadog-docs.imgix.net/images/real_user_monitoring/guide/using-session-replay-in-post-mortems/document-the-post-mortem.81e6846062002ce7b4ed19160fbb5e1a.png?auto=format"
   alt="In Notebooks, add context about behavior in the replay, include appropriate graphs, or tag stakeholders in a comment" /%}

We can add context about behavior in the replay, and bring in appropriate graphs to best represent the issue, such as the total number of users affected.

In addition, by adding a comment in Notebooks, we can tag stakeholders who should take a look. In this case, we've tagged the product manager responsible for this feature to confirm a fix has been added to the backlog.

## Further Reading{% #further-reading %}

- [Detect user pain points with Datadog Frustration Signals](https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/analyze-user-experience-frustration-signals-with-rum/)
- [Notebooks](https://docs.datadoghq.com/notebooks/)