What we are proud of

When I started my CISO research, I asked myself: Are CISOs the right audience for security vendors? Looking at the number of CISOs in the Netherlands (only 1100) and the big differences between organizations, I’d argue that in many situations, they are not the right target audience. So, who do you focus on instead? It…

“Please don’t contact me,” said the CISO. Or did they? Vendors almost always complain about buyers’ openness to new solutions. Something that everyone takes for granted. After all, the CISO’s role is to lower risks, and new tools inherently come with new challenges. So, we tested this. How many CISOs actually ask not to be…

There’s a common narrative that CISOs are constantly frustrated with security vendors, while vendors claim that security leaders aren’t giving their innovative solutions a fair chance. But does this tension truly exist? At Beyond Products we were curious about this disconnect. Our investigation culminated in “The State of Innovation in Security 2025” report (published on…

“There are two types of CISOs. The group of people who are busy checking boxes, compliance, and then there’s a group that believes in process innovation, solving risks.” During a recent interview for Security Innovation Stories, this observation from a CISO sparked an interesting question: how much of it is true? Read the first article…

Many companies invest heavily in creating quality content but forget one essential component: how do you ensure that content actually gets seen? You probably recognize this… that brilliant article where your point of view on cybersecurity comes across great. You’re proud of the content, just like your colleagues. But then comes the quarterly evaluation… where…

“We target CISOs,” say many IT security businesses – either they say that or that the CISO doesn’t have enough decision power. At Beyond Products we have interviewed many CISOs (for Security Innovation Stories and client interviews), and the question always pops up in my head: are you sure that the CISO is the right…

It’s January again—the 2025 trend reports are everywhere. You’ve spent months working on yours. The result is impressive—strong content, visually appealing—but… where are the downloads? The views? The visibility? What’s going wrong? The same question comes up every year: How do we make it work? Usually around March or April, when it’s already too late…

De uitdaging voor 2025 is duidelijk: Onderscheid jezelf – of verdwijn in de massa. Het internet barst van de me-too content, en AI maakt het er niet beter op. En dat is niet alleen maar slecht nieuws, vind ik zelf. Want de noodzaak tot het maken van écht goede content was nog nooit zo groot….

Almost weekly, I speak with CISOs for Security Innovation Stories. We ask them about industry challenges and discuss innovative solutions. One thing that comes up time and again is jargon, fluff, and buzzwords. Or as one CISO said, “What is actually so ‘extended’ about your XDR solution?” CISOs are therefore asking for clear—and especially honest—positioning…