It’s a Partnership, Not a Handoff: Doug McLaughlin on Navigating Enterprise Change

The journey from a signed contract to a fully deployed security solution is one of the most challenging in enterprise technology. For a mission-critical function like identity, the stakes are even higher. It requires more than just great technology; it demands a true partnership to drive change across massive, complex organizations.

I sat down with HYPR’s SVP of Worldwide Sales, Doug McLaughlin, to discuss what it really takes to get from the initial sale to the finish line, and how HYPR works with customers to manage the complexities of procurement, organizational buy-in, and full-scale deployment for millions of users.

Let’s talk about the initial hurdles – procurement and legal. These processes can stall even the most enthusiastic projects. How do you get across that initial finish line?

Doug: By the time you get to procurement and legal, the business and security champions should be convinced of the solution's value. These teams aren't there to re-evaluate whether the solution is needed; they're there to vet who is providing it and under what terms. The biggest mistake you can make is treating them like a final sales gate.

Our approach is to be radically transparent and prepared. We have our security certifications, compliance documentation, and legal frameworks ready to go well in advance. We’ve already proven the business value and ROI to our champions, who then become our advocates in those internal procurement meetings. It’s about making their job as easy as possible. When you’ve built a strong, trust-based relationship across the organization, procurement becomes a process to manage efficiently, not an obstacle to overcome. The contract signature is less the "end" and more the "official beginning" of the real work.

You’ve navigated some of the largest passwordless deployments in history. Many people think the deal is done when the contract is signed. What’s the biggest misconception about that moment?

Doug: The biggest misconception is that the signature is the finish line. In reality, it’s the starting gun. For us, that contract isn’t an endpoint; it’s a formal commitment to a partnership. You've just earned the right to help the customer begin the real work of transformation.

In these large-scale projects, especially at global financial institutions or manufacturing giants, you’re not just installing software. You’re fundamentally changing a core business process that can touch every single employee, partner, and sometimes even their customers. If you view that as a simple handoff to a deployment team, you're setting yourself up for failure. The trust you built during the sales cycle is the foundation you need for the change management journey ahead.

When you’re dealing with a global corporation, you have IT, security, legal, procurement, and business units all with their own priorities. How do you start building the consensus needed for a successful rollout?

Doug: You have to build a coalition, and you do that by speaking the language of each stakeholder. I remember working with a major global bank. Their security team was our initial champion; they immediately saw how passkeys would eliminate phishing risk and secure their high-value transactions. But one of the key stakeholders was wary. Their primary concern was a potential surge in help desk calls during the transition, which would blow up their budget.

Instead of just talking about security with them, we shifted the conversation entirely and early. We presented the case study from another financial services deployment showing a 70-80% reduction in password-related help desk tickets within six months of rollout. We framed the project not as a security mandate, but as an operational efficiency initiative that would free up the team's time.

We connected the dots for them. Security got their risk reduction. IT saw a path to lower operational costs. The business leaders saw a faster, more productive login experience for their bankers. When each department saw its specific problem being solved, they became a unified force pushing the project forward. That's how you turn individual stakeholders into a powerful coalition.

That leads to the user. How do you get hundreds of thousands of employees at a global company to embrace a new way of signing in?

Doug: You can’t force change on people; you have to make them want it. A great example is a Fortune 500 manufacturing company we worked with. They had an incredibly diverse workforce. From corporate executives on laptops to factory floor workers using shared kiosks and tablets. Compounding this further, employees spanned the globe, from US, to China to LatAm and beyond. Let’s face it, a single, top-down email mandate was never going to work.

We partnered with them to create a phased rollout that respected these different user groups. For the factory floor, we focused on speed. The message was simple: "Clock in faster, start your shift faster." We trained the shift supervisors to be the local experts and put up simple, visual posters near the kiosks.

For the corporate employees, we focused on convenience and security, highlighting the ability to log in from anywhere without typing a password. We identified influential employees in different departments to be part of a pilot program. Within weeks, these "champions" were talking about how much easier their sign-in experience was. That word-of-mouth was more powerful than any corporate memo. The goal is to make the new way so demonstrably better that people are actively asking when it's their turn. That’s when adoption pulls itself forward.

Looking back at these massive, multi-year deployments, what defines a truly "successful" partnership for you?

Doug: Success isn’t the go-live announcement. It's six months later when the CISO tells you their help desk calls are down 70%. It's when an employee from a branch in Singapore sends unsolicited feedback about how much they love the new login experience. It’s when the customer’s security team stops seeing you as a vendor and starts calling you for advice on their entire identity strategy.

That's the real finish line. It's when the change has stuck, the value is being realized every day, and you’ve built a foundation of trust that you can continue to build on for years to come.

What's the biggest topic that keeps coming up in your customer conversations these days?

Doug: I'm having a lot of fun clarifying the difference between simply checking a document and actually verifying a person's identity. Many companies believe that if they scan a driver's license, they're secure. But I always ask, "Okay, that tells you the document is probably real, but how do you really know who's holding it?" That question changes everything. Between the rise of AI-generated fakes, or the simple reality that people lose their wallets, relying on a single document is incredibly fragile. The last thing you want is your top employee stranded and locked out of their accounts because their license is missing.

I move the conversation to a multi-factor approach. We check the document, yes, but then we use biometrics to bind it to the live person in front of the camera, and then we cross-reference that against another trusted signal, like the phone they already use to sign in. It gives you true assurance that the right person is there. More importantly, it provides multiple paths so your employees are never left helpless. It’s about building a resilient system that’s both more secure and more practical for your people.

Bonus question! What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting to manage these complex sales and deployment cycles?

Doug: Get obsessed with your customer's business, not your product. Understand what keeps their executives up at night, what their biggest operational headaches are, and what their long-term goals are. If you can authentically map your solution to solving those core problems, you stop being a salesperson and start being a strategic partner. Everything else follows from that.

Thanks for the insights, Doug. It’s clear that partnership is the key ingredient to success!