Okta's Oktane 2025 | Kristen Swanson, Okta

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Kristen Swanson

SVP, Design & Research

Okta

play_circle_outline Introduction of Kristin Swanson, SVP of Design and Research at Okta.

play_circle_outline Importance of empathy in design and user experience in B2B SaaS.

play_circle_outline Ongoing commitment to user security through features like FastPass for seamless login.

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Kristen Swanson, Okta

Kristen Swanson

SVP, Design & Research Okta

In this Oktane interview, theCUBE explores how design leadership is shaping the future of secure, people-first experiences. Rebecca Knight, host of theCUBE, and analyst Jackie McGuire sit down with Kristen Swanson, senior vice president of design and research of Okta, to explore the principles behind making security seamless. Swanson explains how her team builds interfaces that empower users to feel confident at work while staying safe. They share Okta’s vision for an identity security fabric, illustrating how orchestration unifies tools into a trusted, effor... Read more

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Rebecca Knight

>> Good afternoon everyone, and welcome back to TheCUBE's Live coverage of Okta's Oktane. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, alongside Jackie McGuire, my co-host and analyst. For the second time today we're going to have an all-female CUBE panel. I love it.

Jackie McGuire

>> Third, third.

Rebecca Knight

>> Oh my gosh.

Jackie McGuire

>> Our last guest was a woman too.

Rebecca Knight

>> That's right. This is getting very exciting to have many illustrious women in tech.

Jackie McGuire

>> Yeah, it's always nice.

Rebecca Knight

>> Exactly. Well, with that, I would like to welcome our next guest, Kristin Swanson, SVP Design and Research at Okta. Thank you so much for coming on TheCUBE, Kristen.

Kristen Swanson

>> Thank you for having me. Oh my gosh.

Rebecca Knight

>> So why don't you start by telling our viewers a little bit about what you do as the SVP of Design and Research at Okta?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah. I have the tremendous privilege to lead all of the design and researchers for Okta platform. And what that means is anything you see, anything you interact with, anything you read in the platform, that is all my team. As well as any research that we do to make sure the experience that people have using the product, is excellent. So it's a wonderful group of people best in the business. I'm completely biased.

Rebecca Knight

>> Before the cameras were rolling, I was actually talking to you. I said, you have so many degrees in educational, you have a doctorate in educational instruction.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah. It's funny because if you think about B2B SaaS, it's all about making people feel really good at their jobs. And the best way to make people feel really good at their jobs and to empower them to do their best work, is to make sure they're always learning and feeling really confident. So we really think about that as we design experiences for admins and end users and everyone, how can we make them have the best day possible at work, and stay safe doing it while making it easy?

Jackie McGuire

>> With well-designed products.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yes, exactly.

Jackie McGuire

>> I assume that means you're a hyper empath because?

Kristen Swanson

>> I am a hyper empath, which means that by this time in the day, I'm very tired.

Jackie McGuire

>> So are we. Yeah I know, I was just like, there's a fat pack of Dove caramel chocolates in my purse just waiting for me to destroy it. Because I did training and facilitation, and I did it when I was very young. I was like 20 when I started working at Fidelity, and I didn't realize that empathy is kind of the cornerstone of design of training. Because when someone doesn't understand a concept, you need to be able to get into their shoes, and identify the gap, because generally they don't ask the question they're actually looking for the answer to. And so that's the same thing I think with design and with Okta, we've heard Todd say, I've heard a number of the different executives that making it easy, making that user interface intuitive, is what prevents people from trying to go around it.

Kristen Swanson

>> I call it falling into the pit of success.

Jackie McGuire

>> It's like 300 but more pleasant.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah.

Rebecca Knight

>> So Kristen, one of the catchphrases we've heard a lot here at Okta's Oktane is this idea of an identity security fabric. That sounds a little abstract, describe this concept in ways that really can make sense to IT and security leaders.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah so when I think about an identity security fabric, yes, it sounds very fancy, but imagine you're making a wonderful meal. If you were making a wonderful meal, you wouldn't keep all the vegetables separate from all of the potatoes and all the meats. You would mix them together, you would let those flavors blend, and when you're eating it would just taste great. And that's exactly how you need all of your identity portfolio to be. You need everything to be tasty, but it's got to work together seamlessly. And when you're eating it, you don't want to think about it. And so when you're using identity security, you don't want to think about, does this tool talk to this tool? You just want it to work. And that's really what the fabric is all about.

Jackie McGuire

>> It's amazing. And so as you're thinking about, do you have any core principles, as a professional, that when you're doing design, you're thinking about humans, are there key pieces that you feel like you've, because obviously you've gotten to where you are in your career because you really deeply understand this. So what are the couple things that you feel like other people could take away from your experience as they're starting to design products that people want to use?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah, I mean, I love that question and there are so many people who've done such incredible work on this, but three things that really stand out to me. One is, if people are not using your product the way that you intend, it's not their fault. It's your fault, the system's fault, and the product's fault. So always be really curious why people are doing what they're doing. And if you can start to just lean into that curiosity, you'll always end up building a better product than if you go into it thinking there's one right way to do something. The second is just spend time with people. If you want to build for people, you've got to spend time with them. Know your customers, know them well, build relationships with them, understand them, and it will go such a long way into building great products. And the third is, don't forget that we all love to have fun. So yes, it needs to be serious. Yes, it needs to be secure, but it should also be a bit joyful when you have that great experience of doing a good job.

Rebecca Knight

>> Well, what is not joyful is when you're trying to juggle multiple tools and multiple platforms.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yes, yeah.

Rebecca Knight

>> So in terms of this, getting back to this idea of an identity security fabric, what does consolidating and unifying all of these tools, what does it really give them beyond just having fewer vendors?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah so I mean, I think obviously there are many people out there who are like, hey, you can get it all from one place. But again, it's really about this idea of orchestration. So does the fact that something is in the registry here mean that it can be automatically ingested into workflows over here. Or automatically kick off a governance campaign and you don't have to go through all this hard work of setting everything up everywhere. And that's really when the magic happens. When something happens, we detect a risk. You are able to just seamlessly see it all the way through to remediation, without any extra work or headache for you.

Jackie McGuire

>> I think that creates more of the feeling of we've got your back versus, we're putting a roadblock in place to stop you. And I think one of the things that we're realizing is agentic AI becomes a thing, is that security has always been able to be the department of no, they have decided what things get turned on and off. And now we're figuring out that this technology kind of rolled out to consumers and businesses simultaneously. And so we can't be the department of no, we have to be the department of, hey, we saw you did this thing. We know you've got great intentions, so we're just going to help you do it in the right way, rather than, why are you doing this? Stop.

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah. It's funny, the journey that we've been on at Okta over the last two years with our security commitment and I've worked so closely with our security team, I think what you're saying is so right. You have to be like, I want you to do this and I want you to be safe. So it's not a, but, it's an, and. And the more that, and they've really leaned into that and we do some amazing things, but we do it really, really carefully and really, really safely. And I think that they've built so much trust across the organization. It's probably pretty rare for someone who's in design to spend so much time with our security partners, but I do because they bring so much valuable insight. And also because I want to do things that are really safe and secure, so that we can be who we want to be as a company.

Rebecca Knight

>> Standards often come up in these kinds of security conversations, and as we heard Todd McKinnon say on the main stage this morning, standards make the internet possible. Why are open standards so important and critical to making this vision work? And what is Okta doing in pushing them forward?

Kristen Swanson

>> I think if you really come back to, and Todd shared this morning, if you come back to our vision, which is free everyone to safely use every technology, that doesn't necessarily mean every person is going to use Okta, but we still want them to be safe. And we still want them to be able to use the technology that they need. And so this is really where standards rise all shifts in that security tide, so that things can talk to each other seamlessly, and people can make the choices that are right for them all while staying safe. So I think it's so important.

Jackie McGuire

>> And so I think we hear the term, design first, all of the time, but what does that actually mean to you?

Kristen Swanson

>> Honestly, it means people first. It means who are the people, what are their problems, and how do we actually really lean in and really help them? And that's not about what they might want to purchase or what they might want, but how do we really help them? And when you come from a place of people and a place of care, usually the rest takes care of itself.

Jackie McGuire

>> And that's helped you drive a great deal of streamline and simplicity at Okta as well, right?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah, I mean, I am really proud to say that I think our UX has been something, even long before my time, Brian Hansen, our original Chief Design Officer, gosh, it's been something that we've always been recognized for and something that we're really proud of. And Okta has invested in it making it easy, making it seamless a lot, which is very unusual in security companies. So I am very, very, very lucky to have the role that I do leading the team that I do. It's very rare.

Jackie McGuire

>> Yeah, we've gotten to the point that I'll get into a vendor and I'll be like, how are you not using Okta? Like it's gotten to the point that I have this expectation of, you're not really going to tell me I have to sign into our CRM separately than our HR platform, like ew. So it's almost become an expectation for me that Okta is kind of the standard for, this is how I want to do my job in a very easy way.

Kristen Swanson

>> Well, my partner is a dentist. And whenever I see him logging in with passwords and all of that, there's a lot of ew in my household with that happening.

Jackie McGuire

>> Right. No have you brought in a salesperson to sell Okta?

Kristen Swanson

>> No, I think I could do it. I think I'm almost there. I'm pretty good at the pitch.

Rebecca Knight

>> Yeah, all that time wasted. You could be working on teeth.

Kristen Swanson

>> That's right.

Rebecca Knight

>> So let's talk about human error, which remains the biggest source of security breaches because people click, people are numb, they're doing things too quickly, they're overwhelmed, they have too many of those kind of steps that they need to go through. How do you think about that element when you are designing for people, and the human first, and making workflows simpler to reduce those risks?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah, I mean, gosh, it is so hard to be human today in this digital world.

Rebecca Knight

>> Thank you Kristen. I feel seen.

Kristen Swanson

>> It is hard.

Rebecca Knight

>> Yes.

Kristen Swanson

>> And so, I think we have to really think about, assume this person is distracted doing something else and thinking about something else, whenever they're going to do whatever we need them to do. Will they still get it right? Are they still likely to make the right choice? And so I think a great example of this that we have is FastPass, where this person or whomever is using it, is able to log in with phishing resistance, and all it takes is a fingerprint. So they don't have to remember anything. They don't have to click anywhere. It just takes a fingerprint and hopefully you always have that with you. So I think that's a great example of where we really led with design to get the security outcome we wanted, and make it actually simpler in the process.

Jackie McGuire

>> That's fantastic. So what have the results been? So as you've worked on this, have you worked on streamlining things, making things simple? What has that brought you in terms of, I know as a company you kind of really transformed over the last couple years. So looking back, I know you said you've come a long way. So what do you think some of the best results that you've achieved through your work have been?

Kristen Swanson

>> So I definitely think 100% of all lock-to-admins we now have secured with MFA. There are many other statistics besides that where we've seen people really step up their security posture. So from two years ago to today, customers are much, much, much more secure, because of the work we've done to go back and work with them and help them up their security posture. On the design side and ease of use side, we recently launched a complete redesign of our UX. We've unified the look and feel of all of the products. And since our launch about three months ago, there's been a 26.6% increase in sentiment of how people feel when they're using the product. So hopefully people feel better and they want to use it more, and keep everybody safer.

Rebecca Knight

>> So one of the themes at this conference is that really the future of work entails humans working alongside non-humans as collaborating, as thought partners, working together alongside. How do you see the identity security fabric evolving as that does in fact become more of our future of work reality, and it becomes a bigger part of the enterprise?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah. It's funny because we've secured non-humans for years. Machines, static API keys, you name it, we've done a great job with that. We've had these unpredictable humans, we've been working on those. And the thing about AI agents that's so unique is, it's the machine, but it's the unpredictable machine. And so actually when you look in the new directory that includes AI agents, that new entity is a combination of qualities that we saw in machines that scale, that speed, but also the quality that we've seen in humans of that unpredictability or that non-determinism. And so we've actually had to put together an entire new entity model, so that we can secure it in ways that we've secured machines in the past, as well as humans in the past, and kind of bring those together. So I think what we're going to start to see as this continues to evolve is almost a new paradigm and a new model, for how we really keep those entities safe, and how we ensure that they only have access to what they're supposed to have access to.

Jackie McGuire

>> I have a somewhat selfish question. So I work with WiCyS, Women in Cybersecurity, a lot, and I actually developed a Pathways document earlier this year on non-traditional ways to get into security. And one of the paths I identified was teaching, was that if you know how to teach, you probably are empathetic. And so, if I'm a young woman in my career and maybe I've gone into teaching or I'm looking at design, is there any guidance you can give on how to start thinking about parlaying those skills into a technical role?

Kristen Swanson

>> Yeah, I mean, I think there's so many different ways to go about it, but especially with all of the tools that are available today, just start building stuff. Do you like building stuff? Do you like building software? There's so many different tools you can use to get started. And if you like it and you enjoy it, you can kind of start to develop a taste and an eye, and that will hopefully give you the information you need to know if this is the right thing for you. But I love welcoming in people from all different walks of life, because it just makes our designs so much richer when we have all of these diverse perspectives coming to the table.

Rebecca Knight

>> Exactly. Different vantage points and from different career paths too, and different backgrounds. Yeah, absolutely. The more knowledge. So finally as we wrap up, companies are all over the map in terms of where they are in their embrace and deployment of artificial intelligence. If you are advising leaders, and here we are at Okta's Oktane, I'm sure you're having lots of these kinds of conversations at lunch and in the hallway, advice about simplifying security in this AI-driven future. What's your number one go-to?

Kristen Swanson

>> So I would just say, keep learning because it's always changing. But I would also say be really, really thoughtful about what you want your outcomes to be. Because when you know what you would hope to achieve for your business, then as you start to make those technology decisions, you can hopefully make the right ones, and be really focused on securing them, versus trying everything at once and seeing what sticks. So really get clear on what's your North Star, what are you hoping to achieve? And that hopefully will guide you to be really intentional about all the things that lead up to it.

Rebecca Knight

>> Excellent. Well, Kristen, a really fun conversation. Thank you so much for coming on theCUBE.

Kristen Swanson

>> Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Rebecca Knight

>> I'm Rebecca Knight for Jackie McGuire. Stay tuned for more of theCUBE's live coverage of Okta's Oktane. You're watching theCUBE, the leader in enterprise tech news and analysis.