Customer Advisory Boards are back in a lot of 2026 planning docs. Not because they’re trendy. Because teams are trying to keep customers longer, grow the right accounts, and get a clearer read on what customers actually need. That’s exactly what a solid CAB will do for you. The problem? Creating a good one is easier said than done.

I mentioned this during the webinar: I ran the CAB at my last company. I made avoidable mistakes, and the program struggled because of them.

That’s why last week’s CAB webinar with Evan and Marina from Boardstream was helpful. They’ve run more CABs than anyone I know. They’ve seen where programs get stuck. They’ve fixed those issues. And they shared what actually holds up when the program has to do its job and not fall apart three meetings in. 

Let’s walk through the biggest takeaways from the webinar:

1. Most CABs fail before the first meeting

Most CABs don’t fail because of the meeting itself. They fail because the structure underneath the meeting wasn’t there. Teams move fast. They pick a date, build a deck, send invites, and assume the purpose will take shape once the group gets together.

I did this at my last company. We focused on logistics and skipped the part that would have made the CAB stable.

Marina put it best:

Marina Ilishaev

Chief Marketing & Operating Officer, Boardstream

“Launch isn’t the first step. Build is.”

The build stage forces alignment on decisions that seem small but determine whether the CAB works:

• Why are we doing this? The specific job the CAB supports, not a broad statement.
• How does it tie into company goals? Retention, expansion, product adoption, roadmap clarity, advocacy. There has to be a real connection.
• Who owns the program? One owner who manages preparation, communication, and follow-through.
• Which executives sponsor it? Without sponsorship, the CAB gets deprioritized.
• How will decisions be made and shared? What gets brought back internally, what gets acted on, and how those decisions are communicated to customers.
• What do members know before they show up? Why they were selected, what you expect from them, and what the group is (and isn’t).

When these pieces aren’t clear, the issues show up later.

You see:

• inconsistent attendance
• customers unsure why they were invited
• internal teams treating the CAB like their own agenda
• meetings that drift because the purpose wasn’t locked in

A few people on the webinar said this matched their experience. They were trying to fix the meetings, but the real issue was the setup. They had to pause, reset expectations, and rebuild the foundation.

Getting this part right doesn’t guarantee everything will go smoothly. But it removes most of the avoidable friction and gives the program a chance to work the way you intended.

2. A CAB only works when it supports the company’s goals

Evan said the line that grounded the conversation:

A lot of programs drift because teams create CAB-specific metrics that have nothing to do with the business. Attendance numbers. Meeting ratings. Surface-level engagement. It all looks fine on paper, but none of it helps the company make better decisions or keep the right customers.

If your company cares about:

• keeping customers longer
• growing the right segments
• increasing product adoption
• aligning executives around the roadmap
• having customers who can speak publicly when it matters

…the CAB should be built to support those outcomes.

When the work ties back to company goals:

• the CAB isn’t competing for attention
• ownership becomes clearer
• internal teams stop pushing their own agendas into the room
• customers understand why this group exists

One attendee mentioned their CAB started in CS, but Product and Marketing pulled it over after the first meeting. It wasn’t a territory problem. The CAB didn’t have a defined purpose, so every team tried to use it for their own needs.

When the CAB is aligned to company priorities, that doesn’t happen.

3. Membership should be based on strategy, not shiny logos

Teams often overthink membership. They chase big brands or try to build a room that represents every segment. But a CAB isn’t a marketing asset. It’s a working group. And it only works if the people in the room match the job the CAB is meant to do.

Marina came back to the same point repeatedly:

Choose members based on what the CAB is supposed to help you understand or decide.

Operational guidance that’s worth keeping close:

• Match seniority. Mixing Directors and VPs leads to quieter conversations because no one wants to overstep.
• Choose the right person, not the right logo. A big brand with the wrong participant slows the whole room.
• Set expectations early. If a company keeps sending substitutes, they’re not committed. It changes the dynamic for everyone else.
• Expect absences. Around 20% of members will miss each session. Plan for that.
• Keep the group manageable. Fifteen to twenty members is usually the right range. Enough perspective without losing focus.

People asked about SMB vs enterprise, execs vs users, and industry-specific groups. Evan’s guidance was straightforward: start simple. Run one group well before you expand. Too many teams build complexity into version one and struggle to make the CAB useful.

4. Exec CAB vs User CAB (and why prospects don’t belong)

A question that came up often: Should executives and users be in the same group?

The answer is no. Marina said it clearly:

Those discussions require different people, different agendas, and different expectations. Combining them forces the conversation into the middle, and no one gets what they need.

Prospects also don’t belong in a CAB. If you want a forum for prospects, create an executive council or an industry group. A CAB is not a sales motion.

5. The first meeting sets the tone for everything that follows

The first meeting determines whether the CAB feels structured or scattered. Most teams try to cover a lot of ground. They bring demos. They run through roadmap slides. They take feature requests. It feels efficient, but it works against the purpose of the group.

The first session is about clarity:

• why this group exists
• how you’re going to use their time
• what kind of conversations you want going forward

Evan made a point I wish I had internalized earlier:

A strong facilitator keeps internal teams from dominating the discussion. They make sure customers don’t talk past each other. They maintain the right level of conversation so the group doesn’t drop into the weeds or drift into unrelated topics.

People in the chat asked what to do when an internal executive talks too much or when a customer won’t engage. The guidance was consistent: set expectations early and reinforce them. The tone of the first meeting carries through the entire program.

6. Cadence matters less than follow-through

Quarterly is the most practical cadence. One in-person kickoff and three virtual sessions. Executives prefer a mix of formats, and it keeps the workload manageable.

But cadence isn’t what builds trust.

Follow-through does.

Marina shared a rule that every team should use:

That slide carries more weight than most teams realize. It shows that the CAB isn’t just a place where customers talk and nothing happens.

Between meetings:

• send short updates
• run quick surveys
• follow up 1:1 when needed
• only share information that’s relevant

The goal is to keep momentum, not to overwhelm members with communication.

7. Incentives matter, but not for the reasons people expect

Teams sometimes overthink incentives. They assume the right perks will drive engagement. In reality, CAB members show up because they get value from being there.

The reasons that matter:

• access to your leadership
• a clearer view into where the company is heading
• a peer group they can learn from
• a space to pressure-test their own thinking

Travel reimbursements, dinners, and early product access help, but they’re not the main motivators.

Set expectations during the kickoff. Make attendance norms clear. Keep agreements simple so procurement doesn’t slow the program down.

8. CABs inform the roadmap without controlling it

A concern that came up during the webinar was that CABs can start to dictate the roadmap. That usually happens when expectations aren’t set early enough.

Marina said it directly:

Evan added the missing step:

A healthy CAB process looks like this:

1. collect what you heard
2. validate it across more customers
3. make a decision internally
4. close the loop with the CAB
   

Customers don’t need every suggestion to turn into a feature. They want to know their input was taken seriously and not ignored.

9. Measuring CAB ROI

Every team wants a clean way to measure CAB ROI. There isn’t one. CABs influence a lot of decisions and behaviors across the company, and most of the impact shows up indirectly. That doesn’t mean you can’t measure it. It just means you shouldn’t expect a single metric to tell the whole story.

The most reliable signals are practical:

• Retention improves when conversations improve. CAB accounts usually renew at higher rates because they have more context and more trust. They understand how you think, not just what you ship.
• Expansion becomes easier when customers help shape direction. When customers understand why you’re investing in certain areas, they’re more aligned with how the product evolves. That shows up in adoption and upsell.
• Advocacy becomes more natural. CAB members often volunteer for references, case studies, or events because they already feel connected to the company. They don’t need a sales pitch to get involved.
• You make fewer avoidable mistakes. A CAB won’t make decisions for you, but it helps you pressure-test assumptions before investing too much time or money in the wrong direction.

There are also metrics that give you a directional read on program health:

• NRR/NDR for CAB vs non-CAB accounts
• Expansion dollars tied to CAB customers
• Number of advocacy acts from CAB members
• Product or roadmap decisions that originated from CAB discussions
• Attendance and engagement trends over time

The goal isn’t to build a perfect dashboard. It’s to see whether the CAB is:

• shaping priorities
• strengthening relationships
• reducing risk
• improving decisions

If those things are happening, the CAB is doing its job.

10. The operational realities that matter

Running a CAB isn’t complicated, but it does require consistency. A few operational details came up during the Q&A that most teams underestimate.

• Execs who send substitutes create problems: When an executive misses multiple meetings and sends different people every time, the dynamic shifts. New people don’t have context. Regular members disengage. It’s better to reset expectations with the exec than to let the inconsistency continue.
• CABs need two internal owners: One person handles prep, communication, and follow-up. The other handles facilitation and internal alignment. If you only have one owner, something always gets dropped — usually the follow-through, which is the part customers care about most.
• If your CAB stalls, don’t wait it out. Relaunch it: A lot of teams try to “salvage” a struggling CAB by tweaking agendas or adding content. But if the structure is unclear, those changes won’t solve anything. A clean reset with a clear purpose, updated membership, and better expectations is almost always the right move.
• You may eventually need more than one CAB: As the company grows, an exec CAB and a user CAB often become necessary. They serve different purposes. The mistake is creating both too early or forcing one group to do the job of two.
• Debriefs matter more than teams think: After every meeting, internal teams should spend 20–30 minutes reviewing what they heard, what themes emerged, and what decisions or follow-ups are required. Without a debrief, CAB conversations get lost and nothing changes.
• Documentation should be simple and consistent: Customers don’t need a polished summary. They just need clarity on what they said, what you’re doing with it, and when you’ll revisit it. The companies that do this well create trust quickly.

If you want to connect the CAB to GTM, tools like UserEvidence make the loop easier. You can run short surveys before and after sessions, publish outcomes that matter to go-to-market teams, and track how customer conversations shape decisions over time.

CABs aren’t difficult to run, but they do require structure and follow-through. When those pieces are in place, everything else becomes more predictable.

The part that summed it up

Evan said it clearly:

Marina added an important point:

That’s the real value.

A CAB isn’t another program or calendar invite. It’s a group of customers who help you understand what matters, make better decisions, and build trust in a market where trust is harder to earn.

If you want more predictable revenue in 2026, a well-run CAB is worth the effort. And Boardstream has a CAB readiness assessment worth taking to get you up and running.

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