Craig Adams on Building Security Products: Why Me/Why Now, AI-Driven Remediation, and Extreme Ownership

Tom chats with Craig Adams, Chief Product Officer at Rapid7 and Board Member at Peak Metrics.

Adams describes himself as a builder, focused on driving revenue growth through technology by avoiding innovation that isn’t leveraged and by anchoring product strategy in “why me, why now,” plus strong execution.

They discuss how AI has improved risk identification and verdicting (e.g., faster pen-test-like assessments) but has worsened alert volume, shifting cybersecurity’s center of gravity to remediation and response, including granular, agentic actions beyond traditional SOAR rules. Craig discusses how rapid industry change shortens roadmap planning to roughly nine-month increments, and he shares hiring priorities: attitude, work ethic (intensity), and intelligence defined as curiosity. They cover mission-driven teams, repetition in culture, EQ over IQ in leadership, and Craig recommends the book “Extreme Ownership,” emphasizing ownership paired with action and learning.

00:00 Welcome and Friday Vibes

01:06 Craig Adams Background

01:51 Builder Mindset and Growth

03:05 Why Me Why Now

05:39 AI Finds Risk Faster

07:19 From Detection to Remediation

09:53 Completing the Workflow

13:36 Roadmaps in Rapid Change

15:52 Hiring for Curiosity

20:24 Humans Still Do Analysis

22:56 Disruption and Services Future

25:41 Mission Driven Teams

30:32 Repetition and Culture

33:19 EQ Over IQ Leadership