Lessons from the Frontlines

CHAPTER 13Product Thinking in Security

After we sold CyberVision to Verint, I found myself in an entirely new role: Head of Product Management for their cybersecurity division. I had gone from scrappy startup founder to product manager at a public company, responsible for the commercial success of security products I was helping to build and market.

I had to learn a lot. Fast.

The transition gave me a masterclass in product management from some of the best in the business. But more importantly, it fundamentally changed how I think about security—not just as a defensive necessity but as a capability that can be designed, built, and delivered in ways that create genuine value for users and organizations.

That experience planted the seeds for an approach I would later apply throughout my career: treating security as a product, not just a requirement.

In this chapter, I will explore how product thinking transforms security leadership, from understanding your internal customers to designing security capabilities that people actually want to use. We’ll examine the fundamental difference between services and product mindsets in cybersecurity, and why user experience has become critical to security effectiveness.

The Services vs. Product Mindset

When I started my second company, SenseCy, I encountered the fundamental tension that defines much of the cybersecurity industry: the pull toward services versus the potential of products. The cyber intelligence market was heavily services-driven, ...