The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Craig Adams, Chief Product Officer, Rapid7

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