In today's fast-paced business environment, Chief Product Officers (CPOs) and product teams are under immense pressure to deliver innovative products while managing risks effectively.  

RiskSmart, a cutting-edge risk management system (RMS), has become a favourite among these people for several reasons. In this blog, I’ll delve into the common challenges faced by CPOs and product teams when implementing an RMS, how RiskSmart addresses these challenges, and why it’s a valuable investment for any business looking to improve and supercharge risk management.  

Better the devil you know... 

For product teams, one of the most common fears we encounter is resistance to change.

And with good reason!  

Introducing a new system can heavily disrupt the workflow and take capacity from product teams that have already been stretched too thin. It can also take time away from their actual tasks at work: building and developing the products that make money for the business.  

With so much at stake, it’s no wonder your product team chooses a cautious approach. 

...than the cost of non-compliance you don’t?

We’d always advise you to err on the side of caution (after all, we are risk managers), but in this case, not implementing and investing in risk software that suits your business needs could have adverse effects. 

A recent report from Drata shows that 87% of organisations report negative outcomes resulting from low compliance maturity or reactive compliance.  

In the same breath, delaying compliance efforts might be a risk you can’t afford to take. In a report by FORTRA, it’s reported that the cost of non-compliance is 2.7 times higher than the cost of staying compliant.  

As more qualitative proof of how RiskSmart can benefit product teams, we recently had one of our clients (a leading tech company) share that they significantly reduced their product recall rate by implementing RiskSmart.  

The CPO noted that RiskSmart transformed their approach to risk management, allowing them to confidently deliver higher quality products. 

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Preventing steep learning curves 

When product teams haven't designed a system themselves, it’s natural to associate new products with a steep learning curve, not just for themselves but across the business.  

How does RiskSmart counteract this?  

Firstly, we find that our user-friendly interface is a huge selling point for most CPOs and Product teams. While some solutions can be heavy and clunky to use, RiskSmart is designed with an intuitive user interface, ensuring a minimal learning curve.   

It truly is a system anyone can use (yes, even that guy on the Sales team who can’t seem to rotate a PDF properly). But RiskSmart is still thorough enough to help GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) professionals save time and stop data duplication. 

In addition to this, the RiskSmart team provides comprehensive training and support to ease the transition when new companies onboard with us across all teams and functions.

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Integration stagnation 

Another common worry we see across product teams is difficulty integrating new RMS tools with existing tech and processes. To ensure minimal impact on teams across the business, RiskSmart easily integrates with your existing solutions.  

It doesn’t aim to replace the tech you already use but rather work in harmony without demanding effort from your tech and dev team.  

In fact, we’ve already seen positive reactions from our customers around this. During an onboarding process, a CPO mentioned that integrating their existing tools was so seamless that the team quickly adapted to the new system, thanks to RiskSmart's user-friendly interface. 

Migrating sensitive data  

Moving data across systems can be a challenge for any business. Especially when that data contains sensitive corporate information.

Product teams are often challenged when large amounts of data migration is needed, and having to ask for resources from the CIO or CTO can quickly turn into an epic boardroom battle.  

RiskSmart prevents the need for any major resources needed from your side, as we supply our own data migration tools. We also support any new client coming on board with this process. This ensures the quickest possible migration and no loss of critical information.  

Furthermore, we believe that you should always have free access to your data. Should you ever choose to export data or off-board with us, we will never charge you for this process.  

The ROI of staying compliant 

When faced with the choice of investing in a risk management system, companies often must overcome the ROI hurdle, not to mention the bone-chilling side-eye from the finance team when discussing spend. * 

(*  Shivers) 

Product teams are constantly driven by ROI when steering product prioritisations and decisions, so why would bringing on a risk management system be any different?  

In addition to the reports and stats we mentioned earlier, we want product leaders to consider how a risk management system benefits the entire business.  

A risk management tool that breaks down silos 

A common concern we see amongst this group is the maintenance cost for the solutions they bring on board and not seeing the product's scalability.  

RiskSmart works differently from other solutions on the market in that we have flexible pricing models to suit various businesses across sectors, and we don’t charge for extra seats.  

This means businesses using RiskSmart can create more users as they grow across different teams at no extra cost.  

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Why CPOs and Product teams should get involved in Risk Management across the business  

There are so many benefits of CPOs and product teams getting more involved in risk management, but here are my top three: 

1. Enhanced product quality

Building a strong risk culture and mindset in your product team leads to proactively identifying and managing risks. This, again, leads to higher product quality and reliability. It also reduces the likelihood of costly recalls and product failures.  

2. Improved decision-making

3. Competitive advantage 

A robust risk management framework can be a differentiator in a competitive market. It helps you build customer trust and loyalty through consistent product performance, as well as helping you stay compliant with consumer regulations.  

How can CPOs and Product teams take the first steps to become more involved?  

1. Educate and train

Invest in training sessions to educate teams about the importance of risk management. This can also help you encourage a culture of continuous learning and improvement.   

2. Collaborate and communicate 

Fostering collaboration between product teams and risk management professionals can be a challenge, but it's one that’s worth doing. Regularly communicate the benefits and progress of risk management initiatives seen in the product department and vice versa.  

3. Leverage technology 

Adopting a risk management tool like RiskSmart to streamline and enhance risk management processes can be your key to staying compliant and improving your products and processes. It also lets your team utilise data analytics to gain insights into potential risks and mitigation strategies.   

Should you have any questions or need any guidance on choosing a risk management system, don’t hesitate to contact our team of RiskTech experts.  

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