Conduct product advisory boards

Introduction

Involving your customers directly in the product development process can yield profound insights and foster a deeper sense of collaboration. Product advisory boards provide a structured way to engage with key customers, gather strategic feedback, and ensure that your product evolves to meet their needs. This method not only enhances the product but also builds stronger relationships with your most valuable customers. In this article, we will explore how to effectively conduct product advisory boards to gather actionable insights. Following our exploration of leveraging community feedback, this final step ensures you have a comprehensive approach to integrating customer insights into your product development strategy.

Why does this matter?

Conducting product advisory boards is essential for several reasons:

• Strategic insights: Direct interaction with key customers provides deep insights into their needs and challenges.

• Enhanced product development: Feedback from advisory boards helps prioritize features and improvements that are most valuable to your customers.

• Customer advocacy: Engaging customers in the development process builds loyalty and turns them into advocates for your product.

• Informed decision-making: Advisory boards provide a forum for discussing strategic decisions and validating product roadmaps.

How to get started

To effectively conduct product advisory boards, follow these steps:

Step 1: Organize your advisory board

1. Identify strategic customers:

   • Customer selection: Choose a subset of customers who are highly engaged and represent various segments of your user base.

   • Diversity: Ensure a mix of industries, company sizes, and use cases to gather a wide range of perspectives.

2. Set clear objectives:

   • Define goals: Clearly outline what you aim to achieve with the advisory board, such as feedback on new features, validation of product roadmaps, or strategic insights.

   • Communicate expectations: Inform participants about their role, the frequency of meetings, and the type of input you are seeking.

Step 2: Conduct effective meetings

1. Prepare thoroughly:

   • Agenda setting: Create a detailed agenda for each meeting, focusing on specific topics or challenges.

   • Pre-meeting materials: Provide participants with relevant materials, such as mockups, prototypes, or data, ahead of time to facilitate informed discussions.

2. Facilitate productive discussions:

   • Engage participants: Encourage open dialogue and ensure all participants have the opportunity to contribute.

   • Capture insights: Document key insights, feedback, and action items during the meeting for further analysis.

Step 3: Act on feedback

1. Develop action plans:

   • Prioritize feedback: Assess the feedback received and prioritize actions based on impact and feasibility.

   • Implement changes: Integrate the prioritized feedback into your product development process.

2. Close the loop:

   • Communicate back: Inform advisory board members about how their feedback has influenced product decisions and developments.

   • Acknowledge contributions: Recognize and thank participants for their valuable input and involvement.

Gainsight features you'll need

• Community Platforms: For managing interactions with advisory board members.

• Surveys: To gather structured feedback from advisory board meetings.

• Text Analytics: To analyze qualitative feedback from community posts and comments.

• Dashboards: To visualize feedback data and monitor trends over time.

What’s next?

With the completion of this series, you now have a robust framework for integrating customer feedback into your product development strategy. From capturing initial insights via surveys to leveraging community input, analyzing support tickets, and conducting product advisory boards, each step builds on the previous to create a comprehensive feedback loop. Continue to refine and adapt these processes to stay aligned with customer needs and drive ongoing product innovation.

Further reading and inspiration

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