HOW to Best Run a Customer Advisory Board: 10 Tips for Creating a World-Class CAB Program A well-run customer advisory board is the ideal method for validating corporate strategies, gathering input on product development, and deepening relationships with key customers. The presentation focuses on how to run a world-class customer advisory program: • Design an advisory program – target members, goals, topics • Effectively recruit members • Build an advisory board charter document • Onboard members – discovery interviews on top-of-mind topics • Build a meeting agenda • Sustain board momentum between calls and meetings This presentation was created by Ignite Advisory Group, the world’s #1 advisory board consulting firm, and also Innovation Games, which helps organizations innovate through collaborative, social, and serious business games.

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HOW To Best Run a
Customer Advisory Board:
10 Tips For Creating a
World-Class CAB Program
April 2, 2015

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Today’s Speakers
Gavin Nathan, VP Client Engagement, Ignite Advisory Group
 Extensive experience designing, managing & facilitating customer
advisory boards in US, Europe, Asia.
 Consulted on programs at HP, Brocade, Akamai, Dell, Silicon Valley
Bank, Adobe, Equifax, FICO
Luke Hohmann, Founder and CEO, Conteneo and Inventor of
Innovation Games®
 The author of three books, diverse background has prepared him to
design and produce serious games.
 Luke’s work has been covered in Businessweek and The Financial
Times.
Facilitator: Rob Jensen, VP Marketing, Ignite Advisory Group
 Over 20 years in marketing, communications and business
development leadership positions with enterprise B2B technology
companies.
 Specialized in initiating, managing and facilitating customer and
partner advisory board programs

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About Ignite Advisory Group
World’s leading consultancy focused exclusively on helping
companies manage their customer and partner advisory board
programs
Founded: 2007
200 engagements to date
Consultants: experienced CAB practitioners from leading B2B
companies
Ignite Leadership Team

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Ignite Advisory Group Is the Recognized
Authority for Customer Advisory Boards
As featured in...
See more Ignite In The News at http://www.igniteag.com/News.aspx

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About Conteneo
Conteneo provides software and services collectively known as
the Conteneo Collaboration Cloud, helping organizations build
roadmaps, develop strategy, prioritize portfolios and connect
with customers.
Customers include Adobe, Transamerica, Yahoo!
Platforms: Innovation Games, Strategy Engine & Knowsy

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Proven Experience: Sample Ignite and Conteneo Clients

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Housekeeping
Recording made available to all
Questions / comments welcomed anytime
• Submit via chat feature
Q&A at end of webinar
Twitter hashtag: #CABWebinar
• Add the twitter handle of Ignite @IgniteAG and
Conteneo @ConteneoInc

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Polling Question #1

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10 TIPS FOR CREATING A
WORLD-CLASS CAB PROGRAM

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Tip #1: Decide on Desired CAB Type
Executives
VPs
Managers

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LEVEL 1: The vendor presents 80% of the time. This is a poorly executed advisory
board that has been convened without the necessary research into top of mind
topics for members, in advance. The vendor is left to do all the talking due to a lack
of insight into the board members’ challenges in advance. The vendor struggles to
get 12 people to attend a meeting, and the members typically delegate their
attendance to more junior colleagues.
LEVEL 3: The board views the vendor as a partner. The partner presents 20% of
the time while board members are talking 80% of the time. This represents a
well-designed advisory board. The company has selected hot topics that are top of
mind for members. The focus is on peer exchange and actionable insights. There is
a clear sense of accountability and direction.
Third party CAB management typically required to achieve
LEVEL 2: The vendor presents 50% of the time. The board has yet to
develop trust, member engagement is relatively low, board objectives
are not clear and the vendor doesn’t create the platform for in-depth
discussion between members and between meetings.
Three Levels of CAB MaturityTip #2: Make CAB Interactive

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Tip #3: Allow Enough Planning Time
Phase I: CAB Design JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT
Kickoff
Project planning
Finalize design and charter
Phase II: Member Recruitment JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT
Definition, identification and prioritization
Recruiting instructions and materials
Recruitment process
Phase III: Meeting Preparation JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT
SME interviews (internal and external)
Agenda development
Member interviews & Innovation Games
Pre-reading materials strategy and review
Presentation materials creation and review
Meeting
Phase IV: Post-Meeting Actions JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT
Meeting summary and action items report
Follow up on action items
Sub committees / webinars / calls /
Innovation Games
Next meeting planning / Innovation Games

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Tip #4: Align Internal CAB Stakeholders
Steering
Committee
Subject Matter
Experts
Program
Manager
Key functional leads -
kept in the loop and
engaged for counsel,
reinforce direction and
importance (quarterly)For content development
and working on agreed
action items (on an as
needed basis)
Provides high level direction,
input and an executive face to
the program (quarterly)
Responsible for design,
development and
communication of CAB
(weekly meetings)
Executive
Sponsors

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Tip #5: Develop a CAB Scorecard
Objectives Measures Results To Date
Sales
Customer Referrals Gather 1 referral per CAB member at each quarterly meeting
12 referrals, leading to 3 new
sales
Prospects Database
Increase prospects in sales database by 10% by identifying new
target markets
Sales prospect database
grown by 6%
Average Customer Spend
Increase average spend by 15% among CAB members by better
understanding their unmet needs
16% increase in CAB member
Account Values
Marketing
Success Story Press Releases Gain agreement from 10 customers on joint press releases 7 joint press releases finalized
Event Plannning
Synchronize marketing budget with 5 events being attended by CAB
members
4 events
Customer Speaking Opportunities
Gain agreement from 3 CAB members to speak at Customer
Conference
3 speakers
Customer Loyalty
Customer Retention outside of CAB
Increase customer retention rates by 5% overall by implementing
practices identified through CAB
100% achievement
Customer Retention within CAB Secure annual contract renewals from all CAB members 100% achievement
Innovation
New Product Development
Create one new product concept to meet the CAB's largest unmet
need annually
100% achieved
Innovation Strategy Align R&D investment with industry trends identified by CAB 50% in alignment
Testing & Prototyping
Commitment from CAB to help prototype and beta test all New
Product Developments
80% achieved
Market Intelligence
Identify Top Competitors
Identify top competitors who are approaching CAB members and
understand their strategies
Target met
Identify our unique market differentiation Gather top 5 reasons why companies buy from us Target met
Total Business Value

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Polling Question #2

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Produce
summary
of each
interview
Theme
from
Strategy
Workshop
Overall
Theme for
CAB
Gather Key
Topics from
Internal
Stakeholders
& Subject
Matter
Experts
Create
Interview
Discussion
Guide /
Innovation
Game
Individual
Member
Interviews /
Innovation
Game
Produce
Summary of
each
interview /
Analyze
Innovation
Game
Results
Executive
Report
with Key
Insights &
Top Topics
Draft Agenda
for Content
Workshop
with SMEs
Tip #6: Follow Content Creation Process
Onboarding
Pack for
members

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Tip #7: Expertly Facilitate the Meeting
 Expert Facilitation (to ensure every member has enough time to form their thoughts, express
them and allow the group to build on them. Driving both diverse insights and consensus where
needed.)
 80:20 Interaction (members speak 80% of time...)
 Ensure members wear two hats (customer and advisor)
 Key Takeaway Process to enable ‘active listening’ by employees
 Seating Plan (Executive Sponsor? Facilitator? Most/Least Vocal Clients?)
 Facilitation Guidelines (roles/responsibilities/techniques for Members & Employees)
 Understand cultural communication differences
 Meeting Room Checklist to ensure a great member experience
 Insight capture through note taking, photography, audio recording
 Visualization Techniques (flipcharts, wall of ideas, doodling, Innovation Games)
 In-room coaching for session leaders and members presenting
 Advisory Board Calendar for next 12 months
 Member Feedback Process & meeting benchmarking
 Recommendations for future meeting experience improvement
Stage
1
Divergent
Stage
2
Emergent
Stage
3
Convergent

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Tip #8: Use Games to Gather Insight
Get Higher Quality Insights Faster
Example Strategy Games:
• Understand strategic challenges: Forks in the Road
• Level set on a strategy: What’s Working/Not Working
• Understand customer perceptions: Define a Strategic Partner
& develop a Scorecard
• Penetrate a new market with new technology: Team SWOT
Analysis
• Understand competitive threats: Open To Attack
• Develop an ecosystem: Spider Web
Example Innovation Games:
• Determine R&D Focus: Betting The Farm
• Game Changing integrations: Missing Jigsaw Pieces
• How to meet market needs: Prune Product Tree
• Understand limiting factors: Speed Boat
• Determine evolutionary steps: Continuum
Problem: “We are not
hearing anything new from
our advisory board
members”

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Tip #9: Turn Meeting Insights into Actions
Ignite’s ‘Insight to Action’ process turns board member
insights into actions and ultimately deliverables (ROI).
EXAMPLE Ignite Action Tracker:
12 customers
8 sessions
48 Key Takeaway Forms
10 hours Audio Recording
32 Flipcharts
12 Member Feedback Forms
14 Pages Meeting Notes

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October
2013
December
2013
January
2014
March
2014
April
2014
CAB 2014,
F2F Meeting
“All Hands” Call
Subcommittee 1 Call
Subcommittee 2 Call
“All Hands” Call /
Management Update
Innovation Games
Online
Subcommittee 1 Call
Subcommittee 2 Call
SME/Analyst Call
July
2014
June
2014
August
2014
Subcommittee 1 Call
Subcommittee 2 Call
“All Hands” Call /
Management Update
Innovation Games
Online
CAB 2015,
F2F Meeting
October
2014
Tip #10: Engage CAB Members In-Between
Meetings
NOTE: Members can nominate their own experts responsible for topics being
discussed in Subcommittee Calls – expanding the reach of the program

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Bringing it to LifeBonus Tip!: Transform CAB into a
Marketing Platform

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Polling Question #3

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NEXT STEPS

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Special Offer for Webinar Participants!
FREE 30 Minute Consultation
With experienced Ignite CAB Professional
Discuss
• Your current CAB program or needs
• Immediate suggestions for improvement
• Next steps to begin maximizing benefits
Register: http://info.igniteag.com/schedule-
consultation-with-ignite-advisory-group

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CAB Manager Training
June 16-17, San Jose
Successfully design, manage and optimize a world-
class customer or partner advisory board
Industry’s only CAB Manager training curriculum
Guest speaker: David Coates, Iron Mountain
Registration:
http://igniteag.com/CustomerAdvisoryBoard/Manager
Training.aspx

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Special Offer for Webinar Participants!
2 Months Free Innovation Games
Online with Training
Register for an online class:
http://www.innovationgames.com/training/upco
ming-courses/ and use Code CAB15
Get your license:
https://innovationgames.com/user_mgt/sign_up
and use Discount Code: CAB15

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Q & A

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Thank You!