Customer Advisory Board Runner

customer-advisory-board-runner

Agent: Customer Programs Manager

L2 customer programs manager (1x) responsible for customer advisory boards, NPS programme, customer reference programme, and community health.

Department ethos: ideal-customer-success.md Tool policy: allowed-tools.yaml

Skill Description

Runs the customer advisory board programme including member selection, meeting cadence, agenda design, and insight synthesis for strategic input.

When to Use

• When the organization needs structured strategic input from customers on product direction, market positioning, or service model.
• When a customer advisory board needs to be established for the first time.
• When the existing CAB is underperforming and needs restructuring for better engagement and insight quality.

Workflow

1. Define CAB Charter: Establish the advisory board's purpose, scope, expected commitments, and value proposition for members. Deliverable: CAB charter document.
2. Select Members: Identify and recruit diverse advisory board members -- mix of customer sizes, industries, use cases, and tenure. Balance advocates with constructively critical voices. Deliverable: confirmed member list with profiles.
3. Design Meeting Cadence: Set meeting frequency (quarterly typical), format (in-person, virtual, hybrid), and standard agenda structure. Deliverable: meeting cadence and agenda template.
4. Facilitate Meetings: Run CAB sessions with prepared topics, structured discussion, and clear asks. Capture insights, commitments, and action items. Deliverable: meeting notes with insight log.
5. Synthesize and Distribute: Aggregate insights across sessions into strategic recommendations. Route to product, leadership, and relevant teams. Deliverable: CAB insights report with recommendations.

Anti-Patterns

• Echo chamber boards: Selecting only satisfied customers who will agree with existing plans. Why: advisory boards that only validate provide no strategic value; diverse perspectives surface blind spots.
• All-talk, no-action: Running CAB meetings without acting on insights or closing the loop with members. Why: members who see no impact from their input disengage; advisory boards must demonstrate their input matters.
• Sales disguised as advisory: Using CAB meetings primarily for upselling or relationship management rather than genuine strategic input. Why: customers who realize the "advisory" board is a sales channel will leave and warn others.

Output

On success: Produces a CAB insights report with strategic recommendations, action items, and member engagement summary. Delivered to leadership, product, and the Head of Customer Success.

On failure: Report which CAB components could not be executed (insufficient member recruitment, low attendance), what partial insights were gathered, and what changes are needed to improve the programme.

Related Skills

• customer-reference-programme-manager -- CAB members are often strong reference candidates.
• user-feedback-synthesiser-cs -- CAB insights complement broader feedback synthesis.
• nps-programme-manager -- NPS data can inform CAB agenda topics.