Ideally, thinking of security at the start of a project will mean more hard decisions and discussions and work up front, but a better implementation and product in the end. Like so much of software engineering, it's a team sport and an infrequently included group in security discussions are the designers, like the folks doing Human Centered Design (HCD or UCD), User Experience (UX) or whomever in your world takes care of designing the parts of the system the users touch. They can help a lot with designing security into a product and setting a cyber security mindset. The article on linked in ( https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/designing-security-lindsay-morsillo/ ) looks at this in more detail (7-10 minutes to read).
Thoughts and Ideas of a working software engineer. Observations of the oft-forgotten, but painfully obvious. Remember: Experience pays, and experience costs.