Written by Laurent Dupont

Threat Modeling: 5 Strategies to Sell Leadership on Security

Picture this: your security team catches a major flaw before a product launch, saving $$$ and a PR nightmare. Still, many security leaders struggle with getting upper management to invest in threat modeling. In fact, a 2021 study found that 79% of security pros see threat modeling as a top priority, yet only 25% do it early in development. The gap is frustrating – leadership craves secure software but often balks at the upfront time or cost of threat modeling.

Sound familiar? You know threat modeling reduces costly late fixes, ticks compliance boxes, and ups customer trust – but how do you get the C-suite to see it? Maybe you’ve tried the usual slide decks and scare tactics, only to get lukewarm buy-in. What’s missing is influence – the psychology of persuasion, the art of speaking leadership’s language.

This post lays out 5 battle-tested strategies to influence leadership and get them on board with threat modeling. We’ll apply established influence techniques to threat modeling, drawing on a five-step framework for guiding leadership through change.By the end, you’ll have a conversational, no-fluff playbook to flip the script – from pleading for budget to inspiring action. Along the way, look for clear calls-to-action (CTAs) linking to resources like our Threat Modeling Training. Let’s dive in and unlock how to make threat modeling a no-brainer for upper management.

Ready to jumpstart change? Check out our Threat Modeling Training for actionable workshops and quick wins you can show leadership.

1. Find Your Internal Champions (Identify Influential Leaders)

Every company has its movers and shakers – not just by title, but by who colleagues listen to. Our first tip: “Identify the influential leadership”. Start by mapping out formal decision-makers (CIO, CISO, Head of Development), and the informal influencers (that product manager everyone respects, the veteran architect with sway). These allies can become your internal champions for threat modeling.

Why It Works: Leadership is more likely to listen when the pitch comes from a trusted peer. If you can get, say, a DevOps manager excited about threat modeling’s efficiency boost, they’ll help sell it upstairs. It’s social proof in action – people follow the crowd, especially when the “crowd” includes respected voices.

Example: At one fintech company, a principal developer became the threat modeling advocate after seeing how it caught design flaws early. When she spoke up about saved development time and preventing a costly bug fix (640x cheaper to fix early!) at the next department sync, leadership took note.

Actionable Tip: Set up a casual brown-bag session to talk about a recent security win (or scare) and how threat modeling played a role. Invite a mix of roles – QA, Dev, Ops, Compliance. See who leans in with interest or questions. Follow up with them 1:1 to ask if they’d help champion a threat modeling initiative. This relationship-building mirrors “building relationships with those people” – a principle that emphasizes trust before influence.

Want to empower an internal champion fast? Our Threat Modeling Training isn’t just tech skills – we offer leadership-ready talking points to help you and your allies make the case.

2. Speak Their Language: Align with Strategic Objectives

You might live and breathe security, but top executives juggle business goals, market competition, and compliance on top of security. To grab their attention, frame threat modeling as a solution to their problems. This aligns with the idea of connecting your approach to broader organizational goals—in our case, linking threat modeling to the key concerns and priorities that matter most to leadership.

Start with Why: Does your CEO obsess over market trust? Talk about how threat modeling prevents the next breach headline, protecting brand reputation. CFO worried about costs? Show data that fixing a vuln in production costs 30x more than fixing it in design – threat modeling is essentially a cost-saver. For compliance-focused leaders (think GDPR, ISO, or the new EU Cyber Resilience Act), emphasize threat modeling as a built-in way to meet regulations while simplifying audits.

Example: A healthcare startup’s CTO was lukewarm on threat modeling until the security lead reframed it: “This isn’t a security tax, it’s how we speed up HIPAA compliance checks and avoid reworking code later.” By linking threat modeling to avoiding regulatory fines and development churn, the CTO saw it as efficiency and risk management, not a hurdle.

Actionable Tip: Before your next pitch, list 3 top business objectives in your org (e.g., “Scale to new markets,” “Increase customer trust,” “Cut operational costs by X%”). For each, jot a note on how threat modeling supports it. Even better, gather any existing metrics or case studies: “After adopting threat modeling, Company X saw 15% faster security approvals, contributing to quicker market launches” (hypothetical example, but you get the idea!). Armed with this, your conversation shifts from technical jargon to business value – exactly what leaders want to hear.

3. Make It Personal: Align with Leaders’ Personal Goals

Beyond organizational goals, remember that leaders are individuals with personal drivers. It’s important to align change efforts with what matters to them personally. In practice, this means understanding what motivates your executives. Do they want to be seen as champions of innovation? Cost-saving leaders? Culture shapers?

Find the Hook: If a VP is eyeing a promotion, frame threat modeling as their chance to shine as a forward-thinking leader who introduced a practice that saved the company millions (yes, security can be a kingmaker!). If another leader is a tech enthusiast, pitch threat modeling as the “next cool thing” – it’s cutting-edge, it’s what top companies do (nobody wants to be left behind, and “everyone’s doing it” is a psychological nudge via social proof).

Example: Consider a CISO who deeply values mentorship and team development. By highlighting that threat modeling training will empower teams, making them less reliant on outside consultants (a common pain point) and more autonomous in decision-making, you appeal to that personal passion for team growth. Suddenly, threat modeling isn’t just a process – it’s part of their leadership legacy in building a stronger team.

Actionable Tip: Do a bit of homework on your execs. You likely know their professional KPIs, but what anecdotes have you heard in meetings? Did your CEO mention “customer trust” in the last town hall? Does your CIO talk about “sleeping better at night knowing X is handled”? Jot those down. In your proposal or chat, weave those exact phrases in: “I know keeping customer trust is huge for you – threat modeling directly feeds into that by preventing the kind of breach that loses users.” This isn’t flattery; it’s framing your ask in terms of what they already care about.

4. Use the Power of Story and Social Proof

Numbers are great, but stories seal the deal. Psychologically, humans are wired to remember and connect with stories more than spreadsheets. When persuading leadership, come prepared with relatable anecdotes and social proof from peers or industry leaders. This approach draws on a simple truth: influence is stronger when it taps into how people naturally think, feel, and make decisions.

Tell a “What If” Story: Paint a picture. What if we hadn’t threat-modeled our new app and missed a flaw? Imagine a critical vuln found days before launch, causing a month delay – and now picture the opposite: a smooth launch because threat modeling saved the day. Or recount a high-profile breach in your industry with a twist: “If only they’d threat modeled the system design, they might have caught that glaring hole.” These narratives create an emotional urgency beyond the cold facts.

Social Proof Matters: Highlight how industry leaders or competitors are already on the threat modeling train. “BigBank Corp just credited threat modeling for cutting security incidents by 40% this year” or “In our sector, companies that do threat modeling have a 20% faster compliance audit pass rate.” If you lack public examples, leverage quotes from respected sources: For instance, the CTO of Toreon emphasized that threat modeling “ensures vulnerabilities are recognized and remediated before they become a problem”. Knowing peers value something makes leadership more inclined to follow suit (nobody wants FOMO in business).

Actionable Tip: Craft a short case study or find a relevant one. Even a fictitious but realistic scenario works: “Last year, Team X spent 6 weeks fixing a late-discovered security flaw, costing €100K in dev time. Threat modeling those features upfront would have prevented that – saving time, money, and some grey hairs.” Share this story in an all-hands or a leadership 1:1. Also, look up industry reports or surveys to sprinkle in stats that back your story with evidence.

5. Lower the Barrier: Start Small and Show Quick Wins

One reason leadership hesitates on threat modeling? It sounds big – like an overhaul, expensive tools, training every dev, possibly slowing releases. So, make it small. Propose a pilot or a time-boxed trial where you can snag a quick win. This tactic is about reducing fear of change by proving it on a manageable scale.

The Foot-in-the-Door Technique: Psychologists note that getting someone to agree to a small step makes them likelier to agree to bigger steps later. So instead of “Let’s implement threat modeling everywhere forever,” try “How about a 2-week spike where one team threat models their next feature, and we see what value comes out?” When leadership sees a tangible result with minimal investment, it’s much easier for them to say, “Okay, let’s do more.”

What Does a Quick Win Look Like? It could be finding and fixing a significant security issue before code is written, preventing a costly fix later. Or achieving an “all clear” in a security review because threat modeling guided devs to build it right the first time. Or even just a dev team saying, “This actually helped us think deeper; we saved time in code review because we caught stuff earlier.” Those wins, however small, create positive momentum.

Example: A security architect in a SaaS company convinced leadership to let her run a one-day threat modeling workshop (with pizza – bribery by food works!). One product team identified 3 potential vulnerabilities in a planned feature and adjusted design on the spot. It barely impacted their timeline. That story was shared in the next exec meeting, and the CTO’s immediate response: “How do we roll this out more broadly?”

Actionable Tip: Identify a friendly team or a low-risk project to pilot threat modeling. Keep it informal and fun, if you can (gamify it, use sticky notes, whatever fits your culture). Document the outcome: what was found, how long it took, and any a-ha moments. Then package that into a one-page “success brief” and deliver it to leadership. It’s hard to argue with real, recent success inside your own company. It shows pragmatism (you’re not asking for the moon, just incremental improvement) and proof that threat modeling works for you.

To help you craft that pilot and rack up quick wins, consider our Threat Modeling Training – it’s designed to get teams hands-on experience fast, building confidence and results you can show off.

Conclusion

Adopting threat modeling at scale can feel like pushing a boulder uphill – at first. But with these influence strategies, you’re not shoving alone; you’re enrolling others to help that boulder roll downhill. Let’s recap the game plan:

Find Allies: Don’t go it solo. Tap respected voices to champion threat modeling.
Frame Strategically: Map threat modeling to business goals (ROI, compliance, speed) so it’s a solution, not a cost.
Make It Personal: Speak to what individual leaders care about – their legacy, their fears, their aspirations.
Use Story & Proof: Facts tell, stories sell. Share powerful anecdotes and peer examples to make threat modeling real.
Start Small: Diminish the risk in leaders’ eyes by piloting and delivering a quick win, then scale up.

Overcoming Objections: You might still hear, “We don’t have time,” or “Won’t this slow us down?” Remind them that not doing threat modeling means risking far bigger delays and costs later. Show the stat about a prod vuln costing 640x more to fix – that usually raises eyebrows. If budget is a concern, emphasize that threat modeling isn’t about buying pricey tools; it’s about a mindset and practice that saves money. And if they worry about developer time, point out that integrating security early prevents fire-fighting later, freeing teams to innovate.

By now, you’re armed to turn skeptics into supporters. The key is a casual, confident conversation – you’re on their side, helping them win in their roles while making the company safer. Threat modeling isn’t a hard sell when it clicks that it’s really about smarter, smoother business.

Ready to make threat modeling a reality? Remember, you don’t have to do it alone. Bring in reinforcements, whether it’s data from this post, peers with success stories, or experts like us. We’ve helped many organizations break through the buy-in barrier.

Take the Next Step: If you’re looking for a structured way to get started and impress your leadership with immediate progress, check out our Threat Modeling Training. It’s designed to equip you (and your team) with the skills embed threat modeling into your culture. Let’s turn that uphill battle into a downhill roll – with you leading the charge!

Now go forth and influence – you’ve got this, and the benefits (secure, on-time projects; happy auditors; proud leadership) are totally worth it.

About the Author

Seba Deleersnyder is the editor of the Threat Modeling Insider newsletter and a passionate advocate for practical security solutions. With years of experience in the field, he continues to curate insights and build communities that make threat modeling more accessible to everyone.