Is “death by dashboard” holding your FinOps program back more than you realize?
In this episode of FinOps in Action, I sit down with Gilad Katz, FinOps Lead at Riskified, to explore why world-class FinOps isn’t about knowing every technical detail or pushing engineers to make changes; it’s about neutrality, trust, and telling the right story with data.
Gilad describes the moment he realized that trying to “know everything” in cloud infrastructure was slowing him down and why the real turning point in his career happened when he shifted from feeling pressure to recommend solutions to embracing his role as the person who brings clarity, context, and facts. As he puts it, “I’m not a recommendation guy, I’m a data guy.” That mindset reshaped the way he collaborates with engineering and finance, and why the most important part of FinOps work is often diplomacy, not technical expertise.
We also talk about what happens when cloud costs spike, why looking backward slows teams down, and how practicing FinOps “with a smile” builds long-term credibility. Gilad pulls back the curtain on how Riskified manages monthly business reviews, how he keeps engineers engaged without blame, and why empathy and composure often matter more than technical mastery.
Here’s what we talked about:
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