Why we built Customer Advisory Boards with our founder

When we took over as Co-CEOs, the company’s founder moved into an innovation leadership role. He spent his time with customers and on the future of the product, which were the parts of the business he was best at. We then formalized that work by building Customer Advisory Boards with him at the center. Done well, the boards became one of the most valuable sources of strategic intelligence we had and a way to deepen the relationships with our top customers.

The founder’s product instincts and the customer relationships he had built were a unique asset for the company. Many leadership transitions cost a company the founder’s voice, and we were determined not to let that happen here.

The Customer Advisory Boards were the structure we built around him. We ran a separate CAB for each of our core product modules, staffed with the customers who used that part of the product most deeply and held senior leadership roles at their organizations. The founder chaired each board. We prepared agendas in advance and committed real leadership time to every session.

Each board met in person twice a year. Each session included a roadmap preview from the product team, an open discussion of what was working and what was not, and a portion of the agenda reserved for the customers to bring their own topics. We asked directly about how they viewed our competitors and where they saw gaps between us and the alternatives. We hosted a dinner after every session. Because the customers held similar leadership roles at peer organizations, those dinners built relationships across the group that would not have formed otherwise, and over time became as important as the board sessions themselves. The founder synthesized themes from each board back into our product and strategy work. We treated the CAB members as design partners and acted on what they told us, which was what kept them engaged over time.

The Customer Advisory Boards produced better product decisions, earlier signal on competitive threats, and stronger relationships with the customers we needed most. Members became some of our most effective references. The structure also kept the founder doing the work he was best at, which made the leadership transition stronger for the company than it otherwise would have been.