The Importance of OKRs and KPIs for SaaS Software Security in 2023: A Data-Driven Perspective

“As a SaaS Founder and CTO, one field of particular special interest for me is software security. We are proud to have a few emerging software security companies use OKRs and KPIs on Fibots. I can attest to the importance of OKRs and KPIs for SaaS companies in 2023.”

-- Kashi, CTO and Co-founder of Fitbots OKRs

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a data breach for a company is $3.86 million. This outlines the financial impact that a security failure can have on a business. Additionally, a study by Gartner predicts that by 2023, 30% of all companies will use OKRs to measure and track their security performance, up from 20% in 2018. This trend highlights the growing importance of these tools in the field of software security.

Tools like KPIs and OKRs provide a framework for measuring and tracking the effectiveness of security efforts, enabling teams to focus on the most critical areas and make progress toward their goals. OKRs and KPIs are important for SaaS security teams to help identify areas of risk and prioritize resources to mitigate those risks. For instance, setting a KPI for the number of vulnerabilities found and fixed can help the security team to focus on finding and mitigating vulnerabilities as soon as they are discovered. Additionally, OKRs can be used to set and measure progress towards objectives such as reducing the number of successful attacks on the company's systems or increasing the percentage of systems that are compliant with industry standards.

In short, OKRs and KPIs are essential tools for SaaS companies in 2023, as they provide a framework for measuring and tracking the effectiveness of security efforts, enabling teams to focus on the most critical areas and make progress toward their goals. These tools are becoming increasingly important as the costs of data breaches continue to rise and the need to stay ahead of evolving security threats becomes more pressing.

Example of OKRs set by Security Teams

Trust and compliance are the top priorities for CTOs and CSOs in 2023 in order to win business and drive growth. The following example represents an OKR set by the security team. There is a multitude of KRs for this example, but the best practice is to choose no more than 5 KRs for any objective.

Objective: Improve software security in order to drive trust among customers and reduce organizational break risk

KR: Reducing the vulnerability density by 30% in the next quarter

KR: Reduce the incident response time by 50% in the next quarter

KR: Achieve compliance with industry-specific security regulations within the next quarter

KR: Increase the security training completion rate to 90% in the next quarter

KR: Block 90% of network traffic that is not secure and encrypted in the next quarter

KR: Increase the percentage of applications that are free from known vulnerabilities to 90% in the next quarter

KR: Block 95% of malware instances in the next quarter

KR: Block 90% of phishing attempts in the next quarter

KR: Prevent 90% of data loss incidents in the next quarter

KR: Reduce the security incident rate by 50% in the next quarter

KR: Achieve a penetration testing pass rate of 95% in the next quarter

KR: Automate 80% of security processes in the next quarter

Click here to read our full article and identify 20 KPIs that align with the above KRs. These are also the top 20 KPIs we see being managed by SaaS product security teams, along with the levers used to achieve them. Additionally, see our how-to guide on writing OKRs for your organization’s security and AppSec programs.

At Fitbots, we are obsessed with OKRs, KPIs, and strategy execution. While helping you figure out what to measure, we strongly believe actions drive progress. Fitbots software is specially tuned to help you drive actions with both OKRs and KPIs no matter how you choose to run your business. Click here to?book a call?with our OKRs expert on how we can help you get OKRs right, and manage them with powerful insights.?