Hailing a CAB (Customer Advisory Board)

Why you need a Customer Advisory Board

Success is an elusive endeavor in the collaborative journey of scaling a company. You’ve meticulously crafted your product, honed your strategies, and charted a course for growth. But amid the chaos of progress lies an oft forgotten truth: without the guiding voices of users, you risk crumbling.

Enter the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) — a group of trusted voices, each a beacon of insight and champion. Your users aren’t just customers; they’re partners in progress, offering invaluable perspectives. They can help you:

• Uncover blind spots in your product roadmap and feature deficits
• Amplify your message as broad advocates
• Discover pain points and use cases for additional revenue prospects
• Buttress product marketing and lead generation
• Unveil hidden opportunities through a better understanding of customer workflows

In formalizing this partnership through CABs, you have the chance to bridge the gap between creator and consumer, transforming feedback into actionable insights. They are the linchpin of your growth strategy, ensuring your company remains agile, responsive, and relevant in an ever-changing landscape – and allowing you to deliver what your customers need.

What Do I Need to Set Up a Customer Advisory Board?

Choosing members for your CAB is akin to fine-tuning your ideal customer profile. Just as in a symphony, where each instrument plays a crucial role, your CAB should reflect the diversity and breadth of your customer base.

Consider segmenting your CAB groups to mirror your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Depending on your industry, you may find it necessary to establish multiple CABs. For instance, a payments provider serving various sectors might require separate boards for SMB retailers, field technicians, and large online brokers. The magic lies in diversity—a medley of voices from different industries, company sizes, geographic locations, and organizational hierarchies to foster rich discussions and insights.

Consulting your customer success team is crucial. They hold the keys to the chest of insights your most engaged and articulate customers hold. Leverage their expertise to compile a shortlist of potential CAB members.

Remember, not every invitee will join the chorus, so it’s wise to have backups. Prioritize customers who wield influence and aren’t shy about sharing their unfiltered opinions. After all, it’s the candid voices that fuel innovation and drive meaningful change.

How Do I Set Up a Customer Advisory Board?

Inviting members to join your Customer Advisory Board (CAB) is akin to extending an invitation to an exclusive club. While some may eagerly accept the call, others may require a bit of enticing.

What does participation entail? When extending an invitation, it’s crucial to outline clear expectations regarding their role and tenure. For example, members at one of our companies are expected to commit to a four-quarter term on the board. This commitment entails participating in calls quarterly, convening in small groups of no more than 10 peers. During these meetings, the agenda will focus on discussing pertinent industry trends, sharing experiences with the product, and soliciting feedback from each participant. Before each call, an agenda is distributed to ensure everyone is prepared and the time is maximized effectively.

But what’s in it for them? Here lies the crux: avoiding the allure of financial incentives, we instead offer the intangible. Exclusive access to leadership, a sneak peek at product releases, power to shape the roadmap, and, perhaps most alluring, exclusive membership in an industry community. It’s a forum where peers collaborate, commiserate over shared industry woes, and celebrate triumphs.

A word of exception: for the truly extraordinary, some companies offer the golden ticket—free travel and accommodation to our company’s user summit or an in-person CAB gathering.

Remember, membership in our CAB is a badge of honor, chosen by leadership for their unmatched expertise and sterling reputation. It’s not just an invitation; it’s an affirmation of their position as an industry titan. Sell not just the opportunity but the exclusivity—it’s often an offer too rare to refuse.

Ready, Set, Prep: Ensuring Effective CAB Meetings

Before you gather your Customer Advisory Board (CAB), remember that preparation is a key ingredient to success. These forums are more than a casual chat. They are a strategic session for which both leaders and participants must be well-prepared. Sharing the agenda and objectives in advance sets the stage for a productive and engaging meeting.

When it comes to technology, simplicity is key. Opt for user-friendly platforms like Zoom for teleconferencing, eliminating the hassle of software downloads. Notion or Figma is a versatile tool for note-taking and documentation, ensuring that every insight and action item is captured. For seamless integration with your customer helpdesk, Zendesk emerges as a reliable ally, streamlining communication and issue resolution.

Here is an example of how to ensure both you and your CAB members are poised for success.

Preparation Steps

Create an Attendee List
Confirm the participants for the meeting. Think of this as crafting the guest list for an exclusive event where industry VIPs convene.

Who is attending?

• Mary – lives on a farm and rides horses
• Michael – played basketball at UNC
• Patrick – moonlighting DJ and has a dog
• Meg – Expecting her third child and managing two energetic girls

Draft and Share the Agenda
Outline the discussion topics and distribute them in advance. This sets the scene for a focused and dynamic conversation.

Agenda:

• Intro: 5 minutes
  • Overview of today
• Networking and Discussion: 35 minutes
• Breakout conversation: 20 minutes
  • Focus: Sharing experiences with the new feature
• Group takeaways: 15 minutes
• Break: 5 minutes
  • Stretch, take a walk, grab a snack, or get some coffee
• Product Feedback Exercises: 45 minutes
  • Discuss New feature
  • Review roadmap widget
• Platform update: 5 minutes

Prepare Facilitator Questions

Develop a list of questions to guide the discussion and keep it on track. Your questions should acts as a roadmap, steering the dialogue towards the insights you need while allowing space for unexpected discoveries.

Questions

• What advice would you give someone just starting with us?
• What aspect of the platform has been most helpful for your team?
• If you could change one thing about our platform, what would it be?
• What’s your best “life hack” tip or trick?
• How would you quantify the value you are getting from our platform?
• What do you hope our platform can achieve in the future?
• Did you find any unexpected use cases?
• How does the latest update/widget integrate into your workflows?

A structured approach such as the one above ensures your CAB meetings are not just efficient but also impactful, fostering a dialogue that creates actionable insights.

Post-Meeting Actions

The job doesn’t end when the meeting wraps up. The real work begins in the aftermath. Analyze the feedback, distill it into actionable insights, and engage with your teams to integrate these learnings into your product strategy, customer success, and marketing. While not every piece of feedback will translate into immediate action, the impact of listening to your users—who are, after all, the heartbeat of your company—cannot be overstated.

Once implemented, communicate with your CAB members about how their insights are shaping your next steps, thanking them for their valuable time. This transparency builds trust and reinforces their role as vital partners in your journey. In addition, this ties your largest and most important customers closer to you, the ones you don’t want to lose.

The right CAB can be the difference between navigating the market’s challenges with ease and stumbling over unforeseen obstacles. In essence, a well-structured CAB meeting isn’t merely a checkpoint—it’s a cornerstone of strategic growth. With experienced users guiding the way, you can navigate potential pitfalls and accelerate your journey toward success.