Tone at the top is most important - if this is not valued at an organization level, it will be tough sledding. Next is knowledge - you don’t know what you don’t know. However, one you learn - usually through a gap assessment with an audit firm - you are now going to remedy and get into the audit. This is bad because you will miss point three. Automation is a must. Automated compliance monitoring, automated rituals (document reviews scheduled by a tool, etc), automated rituals whatever you can. Without this, you will create a ton of work for yourself.
This process is hard because there is tension between ticking boxes and being effective. The most well meaning people will get caught in a box ticking exercise if a critical contract depends on it.
It doesn’t have to be this way, but if you want it to be easy, start before clients start asking. Focus on being effective and automated so that you don’t feel pressured to tick boxes.
Absolutely agree about the tone. I've seen teams where compliance becomes one person's problem instead of a company priority, and it shows during the audit.
On the knowledge gap: the gap assessment route works, but it's expensive upfront and still leaves you building the foundation afterward.
What I've been exploring is the step before the audit: getting teams organized enough that when they do engage a consultant or tool, they're not starting from zero, which would result in faster compliance.
I'm building a platform (Lumoar) focused exactly on this pre-audit organization phase, helping early-stage teams get structured before the compliance pressure hits.
Curious: in your experience, what's the biggest mistake teams make when they're under contract pressure to get SOC 2 done quickly?
The biggest mistake is accepting controls that they cannot manage. I mentioned automation earlier for this reason. If your controls place undue stress on the business then you’ve just created more work instead of enabling success.
Compliance can be a business enabler if done correctly or a burden if treated like a side project.
Tone at the top is most important - if this is not valued at an organization level, it will be tough sledding. Next is knowledge - you don’t know what you don’t know. However, one you learn - usually through a gap assessment with an audit firm - you are now going to remedy and get into the audit. This is bad because you will miss point three. Automation is a must. Automated compliance monitoring, automated rituals (document reviews scheduled by a tool, etc), automated rituals whatever you can. Without this, you will create a ton of work for yourself.
This process is hard because there is tension between ticking boxes and being effective. The most well meaning people will get caught in a box ticking exercise if a critical contract depends on it.
It doesn’t have to be this way, but if you want it to be easy, start before clients start asking. Focus on being effective and automated so that you don’t feel pressured to tick boxes.
Absolutely agree about the tone. I've seen teams where compliance becomes one person's problem instead of a company priority, and it shows during the audit.
On the knowledge gap: the gap assessment route works, but it's expensive upfront and still leaves you building the foundation afterward.
What I've been exploring is the step before the audit: getting teams organized enough that when they do engage a consultant or tool, they're not starting from zero, which would result in faster compliance.
I'm building a platform (Lumoar) focused exactly on this pre-audit organization phase, helping early-stage teams get structured before the compliance pressure hits.
Curious: in your experience, what's the biggest mistake teams make when they're under contract pressure to get SOC 2 done quickly?
The biggest mistake is accepting controls that they cannot manage. I mentioned automation earlier for this reason. If your controls place undue stress on the business then you’ve just created more work instead of enabling success.
Compliance can be a business enabler if done correctly or a burden if treated like a side project.