Death by Dashboard: Why FinOps Needs Stories, Not More Charts ft. Gilad Katz, Riskified | Ep #47

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:

• Why trying to “learn everything” in cloud infrastructure actually slows FinOps practitioners down
• What it means to act as the “UN” between Finance and Engineering, and why neutrality drives influence
• Why reporting to the COO removes bias and prevents CTO–CFO misalignment from derailing cost decisions
• What “death by dashboard” looks like and why FinOps needs stories, summaries, and context, not dozens of charts
• Why looking forward matters more than looking backward when costs spike, and how to avoid blame cycles
• How to communicate cloud costs in a way that reduces tension and increases cooperation
• Why FinOps is a marathon of relationship-building, not a sprint of optimizations

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Quote of the Show:

• “It's like being exactly where the money is, where decisions are being made.” - Gilad Katz

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%E2%98%81%EF%B8%8Fgilad-katz-b989549a/
• Website: https://www.riskified.com/

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