Product Management in Cybersecurity: A Different Challenge

5 MINS

# Product Management in Cybersecurity: A Different Challenge

Building security products isn't like building typical SaaS. The stakes are higher, the users are more skeptical, and the threat landscape never stops evolving.

After years of building cybersecurity products at HCLTech and now Trellix, I've learned what makes this domain uniquely challenging — and rewarding.

The Invisible Product Problem

The best security product is one users never think about. When everything works perfectly, nothing happens.

This creates a unique challenge: how do you demonstrate value for a product whose success is measured by the absence of events?

The answer lies in:

Proactive visibility — Show customers what threats you're blocking, even when they don't result in incidents

Risk quantification — Translate security metrics into business risk terms executives understand

Compliance alignment — Position security as an enabler of business objectives, not just a cost center

Understanding Security Buyers

Security products have multiple stakeholders with different needs:

CISOs and Security Leaders:

Care about risk reduction and compliance

Need board-ready metrics and reporting

Want strategic alignment with business objectives **Security Analysts:**

Need efficient workflows and reduced alert fatigue

Want actionable intelligence, not just data

Value integration with existing tools **IT Operations:**

Care about deployment simplicity and maintenance burden

Need minimal performance impact

Want clear escalation paths Building for all three requires careful balancing of features and priorities.

The Speed of Threats

In most product domains, you can plan quarterly roadmaps with reasonable confidence. In cybersecurity, a new threat can emerge Tuesday that requires response by Friday.

This demands:

Flexible development processes — Ability to pivot quickly when needed

Strong threat intelligence partnerships — Knowing what's coming before it hits

Modular architecture — Products that can adapt without complete rebuilds

Pre-Sales as Product Intelligence

My experience spanning product management and pre-sales has taught me something valuable: the sales floor is a goldmine of product insights.

Every demo, every objection, every lost deal tells you something about your product-market fit. The customers who don't buy often teach you more than those who do.

I've learned to:

Treat every sales call as a user research opportunity

Build feedback loops between pre-sales and product teams

Use competitive positioning as input for roadmap prioritization

Building for Enterprise

Enterprise security sales cycles are long. Products must demonstrate value quickly while supporting extended evaluation periods.

What works:

Fast time-to-value — Show meaningful results in the first week of POC

Gradual depth — Let evaluators discover advanced capabilities over time

Clear ROI metrics — Make it easy for champions to justify the purchase internally

The Customer-Centric Security Mindset

At its core, cybersecurity product management is about empathy — understanding the fear and pressure security teams face, and building products that make their jobs easier.

Every feature should answer: does this help our customers sleep better at night?

That's the standard I hold myself to.

From Technical Demos to Product Strategy: Lessons Learned

Kaustubh skipped presentations and built real AI products.

Kaustubh Chaturvedi was part of the January 2025 cohort at Curious PM, alongside 15 other talented participants.