Happy Monday! Does anyone have any documentation on their CABs that they'd be willing to share? We're looking to start one and our exec is interested in seeing how other companies have communicated tenure and removing people from the CAB at the conclusion of the year while also keeping some people in year over year. He also is interested in seeing any kind of 'contract' that they sign as part of joining. If anyone has anything on this, or info on how you structure yours it'd be very much appreciated!
I can share some stuff with ya! like our charter that they agree too etc - send me your email!
would you be willing to share with me too? ours is very informal at the moment, but we will need to tighten it up at some point
We invited everyone to join the CAB for 2024, with the intent that at the end of the year, we can either say "please stay on for 2025" or "thanks so much and welcome to the CAB alumni" without it feeling like we are kicking them off
could you share with me as well please? Looking into potentially expanding ours too 🙂 would really appreciate! thank you
we made our terms 18 months because we felt like 1 year was too short and 2 was too long - communicated start and end dates from the jump too which i think helps
that's kinda the direction we were thinking, too! Are you doing anything with the CAB Alumnis or is it just title only? That was where we were hitting a bit of a blocker is the idea that we then in theory would have an alumni group to manage
Our advocacy team is me and one other person so we're trying to gauge how much work this is going to add on us to see if we need to request more help
This is our first year having a CAB so we haven't gotten that far yet. But as of now, it would most likely end up being title only, or maybe something small like an extra badge on a nametag. But we definitely don't have the capacity to manage a full alumni group either
we dont have capacity to facilitate an alumni group either, i just have them as another segment/campaign in sfdc and include them in early announcements etc. not a true program id say since its just me
we talked about this a bit a couple months ago when we huddled on Zoom — lmk if you want to chat again 🙂
at Zoom I'm a big fan of rolling over ~50% of CAB members and welcoming in 50% new members each year for our annual CAB summit.
Communicating Tenure: I communicate the tenure when I invite someone to join the CAB.
<i>We hold quarterly meetings over Zoom and hybrid meetings twice a year. We also host a group chat for all CAB members with Zoom executives. Tenure is one year with annual evaluation for a consecutive term based on member contribution and attendance.</i>
Here's an email I recently sent when cycling someone off - and followed up with a DM. It can be really hard! But everyone has been 100% understanding. Alongside the CAB we have less formal "industry councils" so usually there is another group we can add them to which makes it easy.
<i>We are so grateful for your many contributions to our CAB (Customer Advisory Board) that have helped Zoom become the company it is today.</i>
<i>We rotate membership on the CAB, with a standard term of 1-2 years, to ensure diversity of thought and offer the opportunity to other customers. After 2 years on our CAB, we hope you can understand the difficult decision that we need to offer your seat to another customer for 2024. </i>
<i>The good news is that we have other councils for Zoom customers to engage with a community of their peers, provide feedback, and help inform Zoom's product roadmap. I've CC'd [X], to provide more information on the opportunity to join Zoom's [industry] Customer Council.</i>
<i>Please know we value the relationship, and that [exec sponsor] and I are always happy to connect with you outside of the CAB.</i>
We used to do a formal contract, but now just make sure everyone has an NDA. I really like this 1-pager from Citrix that outlines the program without making it too formal. Too often the more formal contract got us stuck in legal reviews.
We did 2 cohorts of 2 years, offset. 6 people the first year for 2 years, then 6 more for the 2nd year for two years. Term expires at the end of 2 years. We did a contract outlining their obligations - one webinar per year, 4 CAB meetings (1 in person, 3 virtual), one advocacy event (speaking engagement/case study).
When I launched a CAB, I gave the inaugural members a term of 12-18 months. I checked in with them at the 12 month mark to see if they wanted to continue or drop from the cohort. This worked quite well for me as it allowed me to onboard new members without starting a new group from scratch, which helped with culture and norms. I agree that an NDA is necessary. I also followed the structure of 4 CAB meetings/year (1 in person at the user conference, 3 virtual).
I'm happy to share our charter as well. Send me an email at Emily.Coleman@solarwinds.com and I can send the file and our strategy deck.
