One of the toughest things when you’re trying to understand what “security” is supposed to do is figuring out the right person to talk to. In some sense, it’s hard because a lot of security people are pretty technical, but it’s also kinda tricky because a lot of security people are introverts—although…this seems to be changing given some of the twitter activity at #hackersummercamp this year…
So yesterday, we were talking about how customers come in different shapes and sizes and that it made sense to treat them differently as a result. So this is kinda vamping on the same chord.
If we’re going to intelligently engage with our customers, we need to understand what it is we need to be asking them about. Part of this comes down to a clear understanding of both your customers and exactly what interactions and relationships you have with them.
I mean, after all…you don’t want to be asking the CEO about which encryption algorithm he would like you to use for the internal company recipe for Grandad’s Soda Pop. Because doing so might just trigger a flashback to the classic “mirror scene” in Taxi Driver…
…and in a flash, an engraved, silver pen is in his hand, he’s asking your name, and you’ve just been handed your pink slip with the retort:
“And don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
Fortunately, you don’t have to go do an MBA to figure out what kinds of things you need to ask your customers. You just need to do some homework up front. After all, it’s one of the practices of The Agile Security System™ we need to develop into a habit.
And there’s other ways the system can keep you safe that I talk about when you’re planning your stakeholder/customer interviews as part of the upcoming September Security Sanity newsletter.
So, if you don’t want to suffer through executives doing their best De Niro on you, skedaddle on over to http://securitysanity.com and you can make sure you subscribe.
Stay safe,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Archistry Chief Executive
