UX design from user research to interaction model design for a machine-learning-powered security product
Atlas: an automated evidence exchange platform for risk management
SecurityScorecard rates cybersecurity postures of corporate entities through the scored analysis of cyber threat intelligence signals for IT risk management. SecurityScorecard’s platform enables users to continuously monitor and manage security ratings for partners and third-party vendors.
SecurityScorecard’s Atlas product is an automated questionnaire and evidence exchange platform for modern risk management. Atlas leverages machine learning to streamline the cyber security questionnaire exchange process between senders and receivers, improving accuracy and security, with key insights mapped to SecurityScorecard ratings at every stage. This streamlines and accelerates the vendor assessment process by up to 70%.
“As Co-founder of SecurityScorecard, heading the product team, I have engaged Karen Donoghue to work on multiple projects since early 2017 to help continue to mature our cybersecurity ratings platform.
Karen’s keen understanding of the needs and motivations of our user populations has helped evolve the user experience in our platform. Karen’s early efforts were formative in leading user research to surface new requirements, planning, and guiding interaction model design for work in Vendor Resource Management (VRM) and for our Atlas product. I highly recommend Karen for early-stage companies requiring deep expertise in user experience.”
Sam Kassoumeh
COO & Co-founder at SecurityScorecard
In addition to working on the Atlas product, I have contributed to additional SecurityScorecard products and core ratings UI components in areas of UX Interaction Architecture, User Research and new product concepts for security ratings.
User research on VRM use cases to understand personas
Working closely with the Chief Product Officer (CPO) and Product Design Lead, I prepared and performed background domain research by leading customer interviews with a dozen VRM professionals, including security professionals and VRM relationship managers. The interviews included questions about how vendors are qualified and the workflows in management vendor questionnaires in daily workflows.
After completing enough user research sessions to feel we understood the needs of the primary personas, I documented the personas representing the primary personas using a model I have developed in my design practice that incorporates demographic data, goals and motivations, and technical profiles. I also worked closely with PM and Product Design on defining prioritized product requirements based on our analysis of the data from the user interviews.
Above are representative design artifacts (personas) that I delivered for this project.
During the next design phase, I documented user journeys and designed core interaction flows for MVP features based on product requirements. Throughout the entire process and working remotely, I developed shareable artifacts available for the entire product development team to review for feedback. After several iterations with the product team, these artifacts were then used as product requirements for engineering to develop the initial version of the Atlas product.
Above are representative design artifacts (journeys, flows and wireframes) for this project.
Impact
The Atlas platform was released in the winter of 2019 as SecurityScorecard’s automated questionnaire and evidence exchange platform for modern risk management. Atlas accelerates and streamlines an enterprise’s Vendor Relationship Management process by up to 70%, enabling teams to confidently make cyber risk decisions regarding external vendors. As of September 2023, the Atlas product functionality has been integrated into the SecurityScorecard ratings platform.
In addition to supporting cross-functional teams around product design for Atlas and the SecurityScorecard ratings platform, I worked with the Director of Product Management on preparing and delivering a Product-focused Workshop for the company. I travelled to SecurityScorecard’s NYC office, prepared for the workshop delivery and spoke on a panel with a senior engineering leader and advisors about future product insights. My comments focused on the design perspective and its role in new product development.
“In addition to her work with our product management and UX teams on new platform capabilities, Karen has also served as a trusted Advisor to SecurityScorecard since the summer of 2017. I highly recommend Karen for early-stage companies requiring deep expertise in user experience.”
Sam Kassoumeh
COO & Co-founder at SecurityScorecard
In 2017, I accepted an invitation to join the SecurityScorecard Board of Advisors. My duties in this capacity have included participating in advisory board meetings, advising executives on design planning, referring talent and helping to build a user-focused culture.
In March of 2021, SecurityScorecard raised a Series E round of USD $180 million. As of 2023, SecurityScorecard regularly monitors over 12 million websites of global companies.
Industry
Enterprise Cybersecurity
Skills and contributions
UX Research, Platform UX Architecture, new feature concept design for MVP, Interaction Model Design, Advising
- New product planning for an ML-powered product in a fast-growth startup environment
- New concept design
- User research with prospective target users to inform persona design and prioritization
- Journey mapping and flow design
- Wireframing
- Rapid prototyping
- Startup advising