Author | Lightnews

Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Feb 23

Really flattered and excited and also nervous that my product building workshop was accepted at BSidesSF! 🎉

BsidesSF 2025: Your submission has been accepted: How to Build Security Products that People Actually Buy

Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 23

Saying the quiet part out loud tho, this "coalition" happened because of how many for profit vendors have used the Semgrep OSS under the hood of their products and got shut out in December. It's sort of ridiculous how many expensive cybersecurity tools are just open source tools with a dashboard.

Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 23

Semgrep took that VC funding and ruined everyone's favorite SAST software so they got forked 🤷🏽‍♀️ unsurprising really. www.producthunt.com/posts/opengrep

Opengrep - The open source code security engine | Product Hunt

The fully open source code analysis engine. Quickly analyze large code bases & fix security issues at scale. Initiated by 10 rival security orgs, Opengreps promises to advance and democratize static c...

www.producthunt.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 23

Semgrep took that VC funding and ruined everyone's favorite SAST software so they got forked 🤷🏽‍♀️ unsurprising really. www.producthunt.com/posts/opengrep

Opengrep - The open source code security engine | Product Hunt

The fully open source code analysis engine. Quickly analyze large code bases & fix security issues at scale. Initiated by 10 rival security orgs, Opengreps promises to advance and democratize static c...

www.producthunt.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 23

I've worked my whole career with different chat apps and I am convinced that Microsoft Teams makes it extremely hard to establish a team culture. It feels like another type of email instead of a chat room.

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 21

What happens in your life to get you to a point that you are writing emails with bold, large size font, and highlights. Multiple color highlights.

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Reposted by Emily Patterson

Jess Rose @jesslynnrose.bsky.social · Jan 7

Signal is hiring remote, US timezones for Android dec, Product and support roles. If you're a fellow privacy weirdo, this is a rare and exciting opportunity!

signal.org/workworkwork/

Careers

Join an organization that empowers users by making private communication simple.

signal.org

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Reposted by Emily Patterson

Corey Quinn @quinnypig.com · Jan 17

Gergely clearly doesn’t understand the user story that drove this decision. Let me help!

As a: Google product manager

I want to: make AI mandatory everywhere within Google products

Because: I am a complete piece of shit

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · Jan 17

If a new feature annoys users, makes their product usage more difficult/distracting, and cannot be turned off for paying customers:

This is not "AI."

It's a feature to increase customer churn - regardless of how cleverly engineered it is, how how expensive it was to build.

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 18

Cooler Screens is HQed here in Chicago and I know some folks who work there..... That being said, I have never understood the product and I'm not surprised Walgreens is trying to pull them out.
gizmodo.com/walgreens-re...

Walgreens Regrets Replacing Fridge Doors With Smart Screens, Creating Techno-Dystopia Vibes

Turns out putting everything behind locked glass and ad-covered screens does not create a welcoming shopping environment.

gizmodo.com

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Reposted by Emily Patterson

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · Jan 17

It’s very interesting watching people try to explain how bad it is for the Chinese government to have your information without referencing other places that have your information and the bad things those places are doing without being stopped or even gently chided.

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 7

The SCA market is an over saturated mess and the rapid consolidation is getting hard to keep up with. My prediction is that the SCA vendors who don't get acquired will all be out of business in a year 🤷🏽‍♀️ there are just too many of them.
www.veracode.com/press-releas...

Veracode Acquires Phylum, Inc. Technology to Transform Software Supply Chain Security | Veracode

Technology Acquisition Delivers Automated Malicious Package Analysis, Detection, and Mitigation in Open-source Code

www.veracode.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 4

Anyway, trying to be slightly more online, after I have been away introducing my children to the North Woods (which was fairly magical ❄️)

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Jan 4

I know this from recent experience, but the Bench story is hopefully a good reminder for startup folks that execution failures do actually still matter. If your team isn't shipping solid features, you're on borrowed time.

techcrunch.com/2025/01/03/i...

Exclusive: Inside the wild fall and last-minute revival of Bench, the VC-backed accounting startup that imploded over the holidays

Friday, December 27, was supposed to be the start of a relaxing holiday weekend. But it was chaos for thousands of small business owners who use Bench, an

techcrunch.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 28

Wait, so Uizard is pronounced "Wizard"? Not "You Izard"? What a branding miss.

(the tool itself is quite cool and definitely going to help a lot of PMs without design skills or teams.)

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 9

Seeing a bunch of people laid off this fall announcing new positions before the end of the year (me included yay) - very encouraging to see end of year hiring strong. Hoping 2025 improves more too 🤞

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 7

Okay I put together a Starter Pack for vulnerabilities and appsec and other cybersecurity topics - still small, help me find more great folks! go.bsky.app/7SUey2m

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 7

I'm starting in SAST/SCA, which I know deeply, but moving to API security next...

so does anybody have good/interesting vendors in the API security space that they think should be included?

CNAPP and Runtime are next up as well 😁

Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 7

I'm writing a market report for the application security market, because I don't love Gartner and the like and how that ecosystem works. It will be FREE and published to Medium in parts. I've spent a lot of time in market and want to share my views. Buuuut I need some help! #cybersecurity #appsec

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Dec 2

In my unemployed time, I've been standing up my personal portfolio site - still a little abbreviated, but here's where I'm at right now: emilypattersonproduct.com

Emily Patterson - Product Manager

Portfolio and blog of Emily Patterson, cybersecurity product builder.

emilypattersonproduct.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 26

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to be able to reference butter cows (sculptures of cows made from butter) in a professional conversation, which thankfully was with someone who was married to a Midwesterner, so the reference was appreciated 🤗

The butter cow sculpture from the 2024 Illinois State Fair - from https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/state-fair/2024/08/07/illinois-state-fair-butter-cow-unveiled-to-kick-off-festivities/74663202007/

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 26

I was recommended Motion (www.usemotion.com) as a good way to block my time more effectively so I don't ADHD all over my calendar and get nothing done. Has anybody else used it? thoughts? is it worth it? #productsky (leaning into this hashtag, I love it)

AI Project and Task Management | Plan Your Work Automatically (Try for Free)

The app that uses AI to help you get 25% more done. For only 62 cents a day manage your projects, todos and meetings

www.usemotion.com

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 25

(btw I definitely meant "this looks familiar because of the several startups I have worked at that lay off entire product teams while they are struggling" 😅)

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 24

Ah yes this looks familiar

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 24

My new foster cat is a big guy who discovered mirrors today and also discovered how handsome he is 🥰

A black cat sitting in front of a full length mirror, looking at himself

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 20

Every time I accidentally learn about a computer science debate from the 70s or 80s, I find it incredibly helpful context.

"Ah, we already argued about this 40 years ago, and they landed on ____".

There should be more "history of CS" classes out there.

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Emily Patterson @epatt.bsky.social · Nov 19

In the midst of the current product management sturm und drang, there's a nice newsletter reminding cybersecurity people that they should stop effing around and hire PMs 🥰https://ventureinsecurity.net/p/why-companies-should-be-recruiting?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Why security teams should start recruiting product managers

Imagining how people with a product mindset and skillset would transform the cybersecurity industry

ventureinsecurity.net

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