A leading collaborative design platform proactively decided they wanted to be in the category of companies that were fully prepared to communicate effectively for a range of situations, with an end to end incident and response communications plan.

“I always admired Melanie’s ability to see through the clutter and diagnose the problem in a way that is very clear-eyed. When we needed to create something as no-nonsense as a process for how to respond to potential security incidents, we wanted to work with someone who was going to focus on the right path and give it to us straight – and that was Melanie.”

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“Melanie is the calm voice of reason when others are panicking. She puts things in perspective for teams based on her years of experience de-escalating security situations. Melanie’s guidance is a staple for any security team looking to make better decisions and reduce the risk of PR nightmares, saving them from their own reactive decisions.”

Lindsey Glovin, former bug bounty manager, Uber

Discernible’s simple, yet powerful solution made a real difference. “I had never seen this process operationalized before. Discernible was able to take the whole process and build a sequential workflow, all the way from ‘I’m thinking about speaking or blogging’ to actually doing it,” said former Twilio CISO Coleen Coolidge. “It also ended up saving me and my team a lot of time, and for that, I’m incredibly thankful.”

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“Melanie is an absolute force to be reckoned with. She served as our Comms advisor within our growing organization that exploded globally overnight. With the growth rate and attention our organization gained overnight, we would have surely caved without her guidance, expertise and cool demeanor. Not only was she able to handle all communication strategy, but she served as our business guru, helped with marketing, engineering, and so much more- she is well versed in all things business, and knows how to run a tight ship. Melanie is one of the most brilliant folks I have had the pleasure to work with, her knowledge and expertise is invaluable- and I am honored to have worked side by side with her.”

Rachel Smith, former board member at Masks for Docs Foundation

“I’m convinced there’s literally no one better in the world at Security and Privacy Communications than Melanie. She’s guided startups and some of the world’s largest companies through endless headline-making events. But even better, you want her in your corner before you have an issue to help guide your teams and culture. She’ll help you get ahead of the curve with a distinct business advantage.”

Jamie Wallace, former director of cybersecurity, AT&T

As the Vice-President of Software Assurance Practice at Trail of Bits, which secures some of the world's most targeted organizations and products, Nick Selby leads a large, geographically distributed team of software engineers and security researchers who audit and strengthen the security of various products and networks for large private enterprise and government customers. And that requires a lot of communicating – in all directions: to the senior leaders of the company, to his peers across the organization and to his direct reports, and their teams. And, to audiences at industry events, to customers, and even to the press.

“I noticed that Melanie has a rare ability to speak in headlines and get right to the point in a compelling way. I wanted to learn how to do that.”

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“Melanie is one of the most brilliant colleagues I have had the privilege to work with — I’d put her in the top 3. Working with her alone made the move to Uber worth it for me. Her knowledge of the InfoSec domain, grasp of the details, read of the room and command of how features play to the message make her that rare breed: one that combines technical knowledge with organizational navigation. She never, ever, ever obsessed with driving a story; Rather, she invested her political capital in building features that protected security and privacy. For her, trust was built on the bedrock of capability rather than the quicksand of spin. She held engineering and the leadership at Uber to a high standard….She is like the training wheels on a bike; she will keep you from falling but also equip you to go forth on your own.”

Nishant Bhajaria, Director of Privacy Engineering, Architecture, and Analytics, Uber

“Melanie has deep experience developing the skill sets necessary to enable security teams to deliver successful outcomes for their customers and partners through the application of effective communication.”

Josh Yavor, former head of corporate security, Facebook

“Melanie is a one-of-a-kind security and privacy comms executive. What is most impressive is her deep technical security and privacy expertise; this affords her an unusual amount of credibility with engineers, and it powered her ability to help my team make better engineering and product decisions. She is infinitely respected and loved by the security and privacy groups at Uber. Always the first person to fight for what’s right. And she’s funny as hell.”

Zach Singleton, Group Product Manager, Marketplace Trust & Privacy Engineering, Uber

“Melanie was one of the most important people I worked with at Uber. She’s whip smart, knows her space, and cares deeply about the problems at hand and the people they affect. We spent a lot of time discussing, debating, pushing and pulling on details of a project and I always knew Melanie had her eyes and heart set on what was most important. She often put her own reputation on the line for others. Melanie is the type of pro that you want by your side as you wade into something new or challenging.”

Menotti Minutillo, former Senior Manager, Privacy Engineering Business Operations & Strategy, Twitter

“We at PrivacyCode take training from Discernible on concise and impactful communication.

Why?

Privacy, law, information security, and ethics are hard enough!!! We do better business when we communicate well with stakeholders.

Thank you Melanie Ensign and team!!!”

Michelle Finneran Dennedy, CEO, PrivacyCode

“If you're looking for a way to foster a culture of writing blogs and speaking at events, definitely hit up Melanie Ensign. I've gone through the reviewer AND reviewee Slack workflows powered by Discernible. It's great for working across time zones and is remote work certified.”

Leif Dreizler, Senior Engineering Manager, Twilio/Segment

In his former role as the Chief Information Security Officer for Cisco Secure, Josh Yavor was responsible for a large, growing team. With a balance of established and newer leaders in this group, he understood that effective communication skills would be vital to ensure his direct reports were successful as they navigated significant organizational change.

After evaluating numerous consultants, Yavor selected Discernible because of Melanie’s experience in security communications and her flexible approach. “I knew Melanie could be a partner in assessing each individual’s needs and doing that in a way that removed biases on my part,” Yavor said. “That and she is a security professional who knows how to uncover and prioritize areas of opportunity for development.”

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