ACCESS GUARD
A Lightweight Compliance, Built for the Real World
Why I Created This
I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria; a city that demands structure in the midst of chaos. Whether it was power cuts or government paperwork, the lesson was the same; it you don’t build your own system of checks, you will fall behind. That mindset shaped what I wanted to do with my career.
Years later, working in tech and exploring the world of risk, compliance, and governance, I saw a kind of chaos: GRC teams buried in spreadsheets, struggling to keep up with access reviews, and trying to make engineers care about least-privileged access.
That is where AccessGuard began.
This project aims to create a message that respects the realities of lean compliance teams, particularly at Cloud-native startups in regulated industries like healthcare, where the stakes are high but budgets are limited.
Overview
AccessGuard is a smart, lightweight solution that helps growing cloud teams stay secure and audit-ready. It automates access reviews, flags risky permissions, and simplifies least-privilege compliance for SOC2 and HIPAA. Built for startups, it fits seamlessly into tools teams use like AWS, GCP, GitHub, Slack and Notion. No heavy setup, no complexity, just clear, actionable visibility and one-click fixes. Designed for DevOps speed, trusted by GRC teams.
OBJECTIVES
- Established clear product positioning and messaging
- Drove awareness and trust through early customer education
- Enabled sales through targeted collateral and personas
- Supported validation with real-world case studies and use cases
- Built customer advocacy through persona-aligned storytelling
- Informed product-market fit with structured customer and market research
INDUSTRY
Cloud Security & GRC
PRODUCT
Automated Security & Compliance Solution
ROLE
Technical Product Marketing Manager
To bring AccessGuard to life, I used the Pragmatic Institute’s product marketing framework to ensure structure, clarity and action. Here is how I applied it:
- Market Problem: I interviewed GRC professionals and identified a pattern. They had manual access reviews, audit fatigue and internal friction with engineering teams
- Persona: I developed a focused persona for the Head of Compliance or GRC at a cloud-native startup, navigating SOC 2/ ISO 27001 readiness with limited tooling
- Positioning & Messaging: Using real feedback and iterative testing, I distilled the core promise into a single thought: “Click less. Access less. Worry less”
- Launch Readiness: I mapped out a phased GTM plan in Asana, including persona-driven messaging, launch assets, and enablement ideas
Structured GTM planning with Asana
Board view in Asana showing structured breakdown of strategic messaging tasks for AccessGuard's GTM launch.
User Personas
Target Industries:
Industries handle sensitive data (PII, PHI, Financial data) and must comply with strict frameworks (SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI DSS). Compliance is now a sales blocker, especially when selling to enterprise clients
Is this industry ready for disruption?
Yes, traditional GRC and IAM tools are too complex, slow or siloed for fast-moving cloud-native teams. These industries demand lightweight, developer-friendly solutions that deliver compliance without blocking velocity.
Why Now?
Explosive cloud adoption – Increased IAM complexity
VC/investor pressure to prove security maturity
Enterprise customers demand continuous compliance, not spreadsheets
SOC 2 is often required as early as Series A
AccessGuard Case Study.
From Over-Permissioned to Audit-Ready: How Fintra Passed SOC 2 in Weeks with AccessGuard
Profad Security, UK (2021)
In 2021, I had the pleasure of developing sales enablement collaterals, content and campaigns for Profad Security, an online security platform in the United Kingdom.
I worked cross-functionally with the developers and sales team to identify the ICPs and value propositions. Ensuring alignment with executive leadership and crafting their messaging, branding and content to address the value of the solution.