A product advisory council can be an invaluable asset for any product team looking to build a successful product that truly solves customer needs. A council is a selected group of trusted advisors that provide ongoing guidance, feedback, and insights on a company’s product strategy and roadmap based on their knowledge and experience. While Assembling a Product Advisory Council requires effort to build and manage, the diverse perspectives brought by an effective council can help shape products that resonate in the market.
This blog post will explore best practices for Assembling a Product Advisory Council and selecting the right members so you can leverage the full benefits of third-party guidance to build impactful products customers want.
Assembling a Product Advisory Council
Selecting Council Members
The most important factor in creating an effective product advisory council is identifying and selecting the right members. Here are some tips on who to consider and what to look for:
Aim for diversity – Include members with a mix of backgrounds and perspectives. Key groups to consider are current customers, industry experts and analysts, implementation partners, technology leaders from adjacent markets, and internal executives. Get viewpoints from different roles, company sizes, geographies, and demographics.
Look for relevant knowledge and experience – Select members who deeply understand your target customers, markets, and industry landscape. They should have experience developing products and bringing them to market successfully. Subject matter expertise will allow them to provide strategic guidance.
Find engaged advisors – Look for members who are excited by your vision and mission and intrinsically motivated to contribute. They should be responsive, ask thoughtful questions, and come prepared with ideas to discuss.
Recruit customer advocates – Advisory councils are a great way to strengthen engagement with existing happy customers. Identify members who are enthusiastic supporters willing to be a voice for other users.
Leverage networks and ask for introductions – Your team likely already has connections to potential members through existing networks and partners. Reach out within your networks and ask for referrals to identify members through word-of-mouth.
Make it easy to participate – Understand members’ needs and constraints. Offer flexibility for remote participation via video conferences to ease the logistics required of members.
Provide value – Highlight opportunities for members to learn about industry trends and share insights from across their networks by participating. Show how the council benefits their interests.
Aim for 6-12 members – This size council provides enough perspectives for rich discussion without being unwieldy. Members should be given 2-3 year terms with staggered turnover to refresh views while retaining continuity.
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Defining the Council’s Role and Responsibilities
Clearly defining the scope and responsibilities of your product advisory council is crucial to setting expectations and extracting maximum value from members. Consider outlining responsibilities such as:
- Provide strategic guidance on the product roadmap and vision – Members should take a big-picture view and advise on high-level direction and priorities. They can offer insights on industry trends, emerging technologies, and what capabilities or features will differentiate you.
- Assess the competitive landscape – Leverage members’ market expertise to stay on top of competitors and position your product effectively. They can provide perspectives on competitor weaknesses to exploit or strengths to emulate.
- Give feedback on new product concepts – Get candid feedback early in the product development process on how new ideas or enhancements will be received. Members can spot potential issues or opportunities.
- Represent the voice of the customer – Members should inform you about real needs, pain points, and use cases of target users so you can build for them. But avoid making members proxies for formal market research.
- Test beta product versions – Reward members with early access by allowing them to pilot products pre-launch and provide implementation feedback.
- Brainstorm ideas for innovation – Facilitate creative thinking and ideation with members during councils to uncover new directions and expand your vision.
Clearly, articulate things that are out of the scope of the council, such as giving input on pricing, making feature requests, reviewing granular requirements or design specs, or approving detailed roadmaps. Focus their role on strategy, vision, and high-level feedback.
Structuring Engagement and Logistics
To enable valuable ongoing dialogue with your advisory council, thoughtfully structure when and how you will engage members:
Cadence – Holding council meetings quarterly or biannually tends to work well. Tie meetings to key milestones when member input would be particularly helpful, such as planning cycles, product launches, or new feature developments.
Meeting format – Mix up in-person meetings and remote conferencing to balance the intimacy of face-to-face with convenience for members. Remote meetings via video chat can foster surprisingly rich discussions. Also, use quick polls or surveys on specific topics between meetings.
Agendas – Set clear objectives for each meeting and develop agendas that structure discussions to meet them. Send pre-reads at least a week before to allow members to prepare. Focus on 2-3 key topics to properly explore rather than trying to cover too much.
Facilitation – Appoint a strong moderator to facilitate meetings and guide the conversation. Set some ground rules up front, like confidentiality and open sharing of ideas. Manage dominant personalities so quieter members can also contribute.
Capturing insights – Designate someone to take careful notes during meetings to record feedback, suggestions, and action items. Share meeting minutes with members afterward so insights aren’t lost.
Size – For a rich but manageable discussion, aim for 6-12 members. Much larger becomes unwieldy.
Terms – Consider giving members 2-3 year terms. This provides continuity while also rotating in fresh perspectives over time as needs change.
Compensation – Offer rewards commensurate with members’ significant time commitment, like paid advisory retainers, donations to charity of choice, or gifts.
Does this provide helpful details on engaging and working with a product advisory council? Let me know if you would like me to expand or clarify anything.
Managing Ongoing Relationships
The relationships with your advisory council members should be actively managed between meetings to maintain engagement and align ongoing priorities. Here are some best practices:
- Regular communication – Keep members informed with quick email updates on product developments, company news, industry happenings, etc. Make them feel involved.
- Informal outreach – Connect individually with members outside of council meetings. Set up 1:1 calls to get to know them and their interests better. Build rapport.
- Gather feedback – Solicit input from members on meeting effectiveness, ideas for improvement, and what value they are getting from participating. Incorporate feedback to maximize benefits.
- Respect their time – Be conscious not to overburden members. Look for small ways to be helpful to them and add value to the relationship beyond just taking their advice.
- Drive participation – If some members are becoming less engaged, reach out to reenergize them. But also know when to graciously transition inactive members of the council.
- Add new voices – Consider rotating in 1-2 new members annually to gain fresh perspectives while retaining most existing members.
- Formalize relationships – For long-term members who provide exceptional insights, offer to formalize advisory retainers or make them company advisors.
- Show appreciation – Find meaningful ways to show members you value their commitment, through gifts, handwritten notes, or donations to causes they care about.
Leveraging members’ time and expertise requires nurturing strong reciprocal relationships based on trust and transparency. The council should provide value to them, not just extract it.
Measuring Success
To evaluate effectiveness, it’s important to establish metrics and governance for the advisory council. Track indicators such as:
- Council input incorporated – How many product decisions, roadmap priorities, and new concepts generated can be traced back to council discussions?
- Member engagement – Meeting attendance rates, survey response rates, email responsiveness, and participation levels in meetings.
- Member satisfaction – Gather annual feedback on members’ satisfaction with council operations and progress on goals.
- Member retention – The share of members who renew their annual terms. High retention indicates satisfaction.
- New ideas generated – Quantify the number of new product ideas, features, and innovations proposed during council meetings.
- Competitive insights shared – Track mentions of competitor activity and industry trends provided by the council.
Appoint a council leader responsible for setting objectives, tracking these metrics, and reporting progress to stakeholders. Review what’s working well and where improvements may be needed. Measurement provides accountability and visibility into the council’s impact.
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Assembling a Product Advisory Council: Key Takeaways and Conclusion
In summary, some key steps for creating an effective and impactful product advisory council are:
- Carefully evaluate and select members based on relevant expertise, engagement levels, and diversity of perspectives.
- Define a clear charter outlining the scope and responsibilities of the council centered on strategic guidance and customer advocacy.
- Structure cadence and format of meetings to facilitate valuable interactions and contributions from members.
- Manage relationships between meetings through ongoing communication, feedback loops, and showing appreciation.
- Measure effectiveness through member satisfaction, ideas generated, and input incorporated into product outcomes.
- Continually refine council operations based on feedback and impact on business goals.
A thoughtfully constructed product advisory council with committed external advisors can provide tremendous value to product teams. The unbiased insights and market guidance help validate product direction and identify potential risks early. By following the best practices outlined above, product managers can establish a productive council that informs strategic decision-making and ultimately leads to building products users love.
The diverse perspectives and real-world experience of talented advisors from your target market are just too valuable not to leverage in shaping exceptional products. With careful planning and management, a trusted product advisory council can become a product team’s secret weapon.
