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Cybersecurity metrics work best when each team member can connect a measure to a decision: executives need a view of overall risk, governance teams need evidence of policy and framework work, vulnerability teams need to track remediation, and product specialists need operational detail. A single shared data foundation can support those different views without forcing every role to use the same dashboard.
Why the full security team needs different metrics
A metric is useful when it helps someone decide what to do next. The same security program may need a concise view for leadership, proof of governance activity, a way to assess vulnerability remediation, and product-specific signals for day-to-day operations. One universal dashboard can obscure those distinctions; separate measures with no shared context can make it difficult to see how operational work affects broader risk.
Cybersecurity Insiders reported on October 2, 2024, that SeeMetrics was expanding its platform to serve security-team members beyond senior leaders. The announcement describes role-specific metrics and customizable boards drawing on the same underlying data. This is a vendor description, not an independent assessment of the platform or a validated universal metric set.
Match metrics to the decision and the owner
The categories below reflect the use cases described in the announcement. They are a practical way to organize measurement, not a prescribed list of metrics or a claim that one measure fits every organization.
#1 Best Overall
| Audience or work area | What the view should help answer | Typical action it should support |
|---|---|---|
| Security leadership and board reporting | What is the security posture or risk trend that leadership needs to understand? | Set priorities, discuss material risk, and communicate changes in posture. |
| Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) | How is policy or framework work progressing, and where does attention remain necessary? | Direct governance work and inform policy or framework follow-up. |
| Vulnerability-program owners | How is the vulnerability program performing over time? | Focus program attention and assess performance trends. |
| Security product specialists | What does the data from a particular security product show about operational work? | Investigate and act on product-level findings. |
| Security hygiene owners | Where are routine security practices or controls showing gaps? | Address hygiene issues and monitor whether they change. |
These views should remain connected to a shared interpretation of the underlying data. A leadership metric can summarize a trend, while the operational owner needs enough context to investigate it. The point is not to hide detail from executives or overwhelm practitioners with board-level summaries; it is to make each view useful to its audience.
How role-specific dashboards can work
In its announcement, SeeMetrics says the platform aggregates, correlates, and normalizes information from different security products, then presents metrics through customizable boards, filters, and historical trends. The stated aim is to let security roles work from shared information while selecting the metrics relevant to their responsibilities.
That approach has a clear organizational logic: consolidating information may help teams identify gaps and compare changes over time, while customized views can reduce the need for every stakeholder to interpret a large common dashboard. However, the announcement does not identify supported products, explain the technical architecture, or provide independent test results or comparative performance measurements. Those details should be confirmed directly when assessing any platform.
What the spreadsheet statistic does—and does not—show
The Cybersecurity Insiders article says that “90% rely on static spreadsheets, manually fed from dozens of siloed security products.” It does not name the underlying study or research organization, describe a sample, or provide methodology. Treat the figure as a claim reported in the announcement, not as an independently established statistic about cybersecurity teams generally.
Rank #3
The broader operational concern is understandable: manually assembling information from separate products can make metrics harder to keep current and compare consistently. But the article does not quantify the burden, establish how common that workflow is, or independently show that a particular platform eliminates manual work.
Questions to ask when building a metrics program
- Who will use this measure? Name the owner and other intended readers before deciding how much detail to show.
- What decision should it inform? If no action or oversight decision follows from a metric, reconsider whether it belongs on the dashboard.
- Can the trend be interpreted? Historical context helps distinguish a changing condition from a one-time reading.
- Do stakeholders share definitions? Teams need to understand what a measure represents before comparing views or escalating a change.
- Can the source data be verified? When information is aggregated across products, confirm what is included and how it is normalized before relying on a summary.
- Is the view appropriate to the audience? Board reporting, framework work, vulnerability-program management, and product operations call for different levels of detail.
What the announcement establishes about SeeMetrics
The October 2, 2024, announcement presents SeeMetrics as an enterprise platform for metrics automation and risk management, with role-specific boards and data drawn from multiple security products. It also quotes co-founder and CEO Shirley Salzman describing the goal as giving a range of security players individual metrics and boards. These are the company’s product description and executive statement, not outside validation of performance.
The announcement does not provide product pricing, deployment comparisons, a supported-product list, or independent evidence of efficacy. It therefore offers a relevant example of role-oriented security metrics, but not enough information to determine whether the platform fits a particular organization’s technical or procurement requirements. Read the Cybersecurity Insiders announcement for the source account.
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