Mike Johnson

If I'm looking for a solution to a problem I have, the first thing I do is I turn to my peer CISOs, like, how are you solving this problem?

And that helps build the shortlist, because you then have context.

You're not just going to Google and saying, hey, I need to solve this, or worse, going to Gartner and saying, hey, I need to solve this.

It really comes down to talking to your peers.

And then it's like construct your list of questions.

What are your requirements?

Make sure, send that out to all of your short list.

Get those answers back.

Pick a couple that make great answers.

Then you do your proof of concept.

And that makes you understand whether or not it works in your environment.

And then...

You pick one from there.

And at the end of the day, you're still going to make bad decisions where things are going to happen.

One of mine is we worked with a very early vendor.

They were great.

We actually had a one-year deal because we signed one-year deals first.

And then we signed a three-year deal, and they got acquired.

and product development stopped.

Ah, just like I said.