Customer advisory board prep

A CAB is valuable only if members feel heard and the company learns something it couldn't learn from a survey. Both depend on asking a few sharp questions and closing the loop afterward.

Before you start

If .agents/product-ops-context.md exists (or .claude/product-ops-context.md), read it first. Use the team, owners, tools, meetings, and metric definitions it already has, and only ask for what's missing or specific to this task. If it doesn't exist, go ahead with what you're given, and suggest running product-ops-context once so the next skill doesn't have to ask.

Step 1: Set the goals

Before anything else, write down two or three things the company wants to learn or test. Each should be something only these customers can answer:

• "Which of these three directions would change how you budget for us next year?"
• "Where does our product sit in your team's workflow today, and what's around it?"

Not: "Get feedback on the roadmap."

Step 2: Members

Flag any member with an open escalation or at-risk renewal. The account owner should know before the session so it doesn't become a support call in front of the group.

Step 3: Agenda (example: 2-hour virtual session)

0:00  Welcome and goals for today (10 min)
0:10  What we heard last time and what we did with it (15 min)
0:25  Discussion 1: [learning goal 1] (30 min)
0:55  Break (5 min)
1:00  Discussion 2: [learning goal 2] (30 min)
1:30  Member-led topic: what's on your mind (20 min)
1:50  What happens next (10 min)

"What we heard last time" is the most important slot. Skip it, and members stop believing their input matters.

Step 4: Discussion questions

For each learning goal, write three to five open questions that ask about their own experience and decisions, not opinions on features:

• "Walk us through the last time you had to [job]."
• "If you could only fix one part of that, which would it be, and why?"

Avoid leading questions ("Wouldn't it be great if…") and yes/no questions.

Step 5: Pre-read

One page: the goals for the session, what was done with last session's input, and the two or three topics with enough context to think about in advance. No sales material.

Step 6: After the session

# CAB session — [Date] — Write-up

## What we learned
1. [Learning goal] — [what members said, with short quotes by role, not name, unless agreed]

## Commitments we made
| Commitment | Owner | Due | Told members? |

## Follow-up to members (draft)
[Thank-you message, top takeaways, and what happens next]

Never record a feature commitment that wasn't explicitly made in the session.

Related skills

• voice-of-customer-digest — bring the latest themes to the session
• meeting-to-action-converter — turn session notes into owned follow-ups
• feedback-tagging — tag what members say alongside other feedback