Expanding Platform Capabilities Through Systems Design
Product Strategy
Product Strategy
Systems Design
Systems Design
UX Architecture
UX Architecture
Established scalable product architecture that enabled rapid market expansion
Established scalable product architecture that enabled rapid market expansion
Signal Sciences needed to scale its web security platform beyond its core offering. We discovered customers were cobbling together existing features for bot protection - revealing both a market opportunity and a design challenge.
How could we systematically expand platform capabilities while maintaining a cohesive user experience?
Signal Sciences needed to scale its web security platform beyond its core offering. We discovered customers were cobbling together existing features for bot protection - revealing both a market opportunity and a design challenge.
How could we systematically expand platform capabilities while maintaining a cohesive user experience?
Signal Sciences needed to scale its web security platform beyond its core offering. We discovered customers were cobbling together existing features for bot protection - revealing both a market opportunity and a design challenge.
How could we systematically expand platform capabilities while maintaining a cohesive user experience?
Discovery & Strategy
Discovery & Strategy
Discovery & Strategy
Working closely with product and engineering, we interviewed a dozen customers to understand:
Customer workflow patterns and mental models
Existing feature usage and customization
Technical constraints and opportunities
This research validated our hypothesis: instead of building separate point solutions, we could create a modular system that helped users leverage existing platform capabilities more effectively.
Working closely with product and engineering, we interviewed a dozen customers to understand:
Customer workflow patterns and mental models
Existing feature usage and customization
Technical constraints and opportunities
This research validated our hypothesis: instead of building separate point solutions, we could create a modular system that helped users leverage existing platform capabilities more effectively.
Working closely with product and engineering, we interviewed a dozen customers to understand:
Customer workflow patterns and mental models
Existing feature usage and customization
Technical constraints and opportunities
This research validated our hypothesis: instead of building separate point solutions, we could create a modular system that helped users leverage existing platform capabilities more effectively.
Translating interviews to insights.
Translating interviews to insights.
Translating interviews to insights.
Technical Discovery & Visualization
Technical Discovery & Visualization
Technical Discovery & Visualization
Signal Sciences' platform processed billions of HTTP requests through interconnected systems. To guide the conversations around our technical approach, I leveraged my engineering background to create visualizations mapping the relevant parts of our existing system.
This helped us:
Understand system constraints
Identify capabilities we could leverage
Have better design discussions and get alignment
Signal Sciences' platform processed billions of HTTP requests through interconnected systems. To guide the conversations around our technical approach, I leveraged my engineering background to create visualizations mapping the relevant parts of our existing system.
This helped us:
Understand system constraints
Identify capabilities we could leverage
Have better design discussions and get alignment
Signal Sciences' platform processed billions of HTTP requests through interconnected systems. To guide the conversations around our technical approach, I leveraged my engineering background to create visualizations mapping the relevant parts of our existing system.
This helped us:
Understand system constraints
Identify capabilities we could leverage
Have better design discussions and get alignment
Visualizing the SigSci agent processing flow
Systems Approach
Systems Approach
Systems Approach
Our discovery work revealed that three key parts of our existing platform would come together to support bot protection:
Signals - Detections that identified bot behavior
Dashboards - Visualizations to monitor bot activity
Rules & Alerts - Automated responses to block and track suspicious traffic
We created a modular "kit" architecture that loosely combined these pieces to:
Make it easier to get started with bot protection
Standardize best practices we saw from power users
Create clear marketing and sales opportunities with a new SKU
Establish a repeatable pattern for other security use cases
Our discovery work revealed that three key parts of our existing platform would come together to support bot protection:
Signals - Detections that identified bot behavior
Dashboards - Visualizations to monitor bot activity
Rules & Alerts - Automated responses to block and track suspicious traffic
We created a modular "kit" architecture that loosely combined these pieces to:
Make it easier to get started with bot protection
Standardize best practices we saw from power users
Create clear marketing and sales opportunities with a new SKU
Establish a repeatable pattern for other security use cases
Our discovery work revealed that three key parts of our existing platform would come together to support bot protection:
Signals - Detections that identified bot behavior
Dashboards - Visualizations to monitor bot activity
Rules & Alerts - Automated responses to block and track suspicious traffic
We created a modular "kit" architecture that loosely combined these pieces to:
Make it easier to get started with bot protection
Standardize best practices we saw from power users
Create clear marketing and sales opportunities with a new SKU
Establish a repeatable pattern for other security use cases
The team in thought prioritizing work.
The team in thought prioritizing work.
The team in thought prioritizing work.
Component Architecture
Component Architecture
Component Architecture
We built the system around three core interaction patterns:
We built the system around three core interaction patterns:
We built the system around three core interaction patterns:
Detection Framework (Signals)
Pre-configured templates that caught common bot patterns like:
Search engine crawlers
Web scrapers
Vulnerability scanners
Detection Framework (Signals)
Pre-configured templates that caught common bot patterns like:
Search engine crawlers
Web scrapers
Vulnerability scanners
Detection Framework (Signals)
Pre-configured templates that caught common bot patterns like:
Search engine crawlers
Web scrapers
Vulnerability scanners
Detect bots using predefined Signals.
Detect bots using predefined Signals.
Detect bots using predefined Signals.
Monitoring Interface (Dashboards)
Ready-to-use views that helped teams:
Track bot activity over time
Identify attack patterns
Measure mitigation effectiveness
Monitoring Interface (Dashboards)
Ready-to-use views that helped teams:
Track bot activity over time
Identify attack patterns
Measure mitigation effectiveness
Monitoring Interface (Dashboards)
Ready-to-use views that helped teams:
Track bot activity over time
Identify attack patterns
Measure mitigation effectiveness
Monitor Signal trends with dashboards.
Monitor Signal trends with dashboards.
Monitor Signal trends with dashboards.
Response System (Rules & Alerts)
Automated response system that could:
Block or flag suspicious traffic
Rate limit aggressive bots
Alert teams to active attacks
Trigger incident response workflows
Response System (Rules & Alerts)
Automated response system that could:
Block or flag suspicious traffic
Rate limit aggressive bots
Alert teams to active attacks
Trigger incident response workflows
Response System (Rules & Alerts)
Automated response system that could:
Block or flag suspicious traffic
Rate limit aggressive bots
Alert teams to active attacks
Trigger incident response workflows
Enable automatic actions based on Signal activity.
Enable automatic actions based on Signal activity.
Enable automatic actions based on Signal activity.
Track suspicious behavior over time.
Track suspicious behavior over time.
Track suspicious behavior over time.
Impact & Future Direction
Impact & Future Direction
Impact & Future Direction
The bot protection kit proved we could grow the platform by packaging existing capabilities into focused use-case based solutions.
It was a win for users and the business:
Shortened time-to-value for users
Created a clear path to upsell existing customers
Validated a pattern we could apply to other security use cases
This approach became our blueprint for expanding into other areas like API security and account takeover protection, helping Signal Sciences compete in new markets without building separate point solutions.
The bot protection kit proved we could grow the platform by packaging existing capabilities into focused use-case based solutions.
It was a win for users and the business:
Shortened time-to-value for users
Created a clear path to upsell existing customers
Validated a pattern we could apply to other security use cases
This approach became our blueprint for expanding into other areas like API security and account takeover protection, helping Signal Sciences compete in new markets without building separate point solutions.
The bot protection kit proved we could grow the platform by packaging existing capabilities into focused use-case based solutions.
It was a win for users and the business:
Shortened time-to-value for users
Created a clear path to upsell existing customers
Validated a pattern we could apply to other security use cases
This approach became our blueprint for expanding into other areas like API security and account takeover protection, helping Signal Sciences compete in new markets without building separate point solutions.
Creating intuitive software and content fostering the creativity in everyone.
Available for Hire
©2024 Patrick Morgan
Creating intuitive software and content fostering the creativity in everyone.
Available for Hire
©2024 Patrick Morgan
Creating intuitive software and content fostering the creativity in everyone.
Available for Hire
©2024 Patrick Morgan