A customer design advisory board is a group of customers/users who agree to provide early feedback on your UX designs. This talk explains the benefits of forming a board compared to other customer groups like user groups or beta testers. It covers how to recruit participants, level of commitment to ask for from your partners, how to get past legal and confidentiality hurdles, and types of feedback sessions to organize. It also provides some techniques for running and maintaining such a program.

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Starting and Running a Customer
Design Advisory Board
MARY BETH RAVEN, Ph. D.
Oracle Corporation
UXPA Boston 2017
Confidential – Oracle Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted

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Design Advisory Board
• A form of participatory design to actively involve users in the design process to help
ensure the results meets their needs and is usable
• Dedicated set of users who provide feedback on a product on a regular basis
• Most effective with NON-consumer products
• Early involvement! Can include feature prioritization
• Consistent legal/confidentiality agreement

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Example Design Advisory Boards
Technical Product Collaboration Product
Participants ~20 companies, ~35 people ~300 companies, 500+ people
Recruiting Existing User Group Existing user group, support community, blog,
Twitter
Commitment •90 min every ~ 3 months
•Meet once a month, one company at a time,
5-7 companies each month
•Meet 1 hr every week, everyone invited
• Additional usability testing 1x1 monthly 5-7
customers/month
Session types •Persona validation
•Remote usability testing
•Persona validation
•Product demos
•Show alternate designs, discuss, vote
Legal NDA for each session Yearly blanket NDA for all sessions
Maintenance UX team tracked NDAs, participation and
reward (3 iPad minis)
Product management maintained

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Design Advisory Board provides feedback on the features
and UI design of upcoming versions of the software
Participate in Usability Tests,
Focus Groups, and Feedback Sessions
Prioritize Features
and Participate in Surveys
Host Site Visits

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BETA TEST
Even fewer people, but they start
later in the design process and
have deep participation
including installing and using
the product over
a period of
time
Design Advisory Board Compared to Other Programs
DESIGN PARTNERS
Fewer people, start early in the design process,
regular participation
USER GROUPS
Many people, small participation

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Recruiting
Get them
• Invite user group members, Customer
Advisory Board Members
• Post invitations in support communities
• Post invitations on social media – Blog, tweet,
Facebook
• Incentives: several give-aways at the end of
each product release (iPad minis, Starbuck’s
gift certificates
Keep them
• Demonstrate that you listen!
• Improve the product based on their feedback
• Explain why you did NOT make some of the
requested changes (technical, business etc.)
Incentives

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Work with Your Company’s Legal Team
Different companies have different legal requirements
Company A Company B Company C
Participants sign a Non-
disclosure (NDA) for every
session
Participants sign a yearly
NDA
The participant’s
COMPANY signs a
“Customer Participation
Confidentiality
Agreement” (CPCA)
NDA was an online survey
they went to, checked a
box and typed their name
and date
If they signed and NDA as
part of a user group or
Customer advisory group,
then they were already
covered for the Design
Partner Program
This agreement broader
than an NDA. If a
participant has a good idea
and you implement it, the
participant cannot expect
any revenue recognition.

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Maintenance
• Have an official “Design Advisory Board” administrator
• Can be part of other jobs
– User Research
– Product management
• Foster Community
– Arrange in-person meetings
– Appreciation events ( at yearly conference or user group
meetings)
– Tie to “Champion” or “Elect” programs
• Have a set begin and end
– Yearly
– Per release