How to Form a Strategic Advisory Board: Five Steps To Accelerate Product Success
“The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.” — Matthew McConaughey
Simultaneously facing one of the most significant opportunities and most difficult challenges in my career, I was frozen with indecision. I had no idea what to do. I needed advice. And while plenty were willing to offer it, the right advice was in short supply.
The dilemma? How to define and execute a strategy to transform a product into a platform and meet growing demand without sinking the company. In my case, everyone proactively offering advice gave similar guidance. Build your way out of it. Scale your engineers and go all in. Yet, in my gut, I knew that wasn’t right. HELP! What to do? Just as I reached a breaking point, a friend suggested a strategic advisory board.
As we all know, product decisions should not follow one person’s advice — so an advisory board made sense. How could I miss something so obvious? The real question then… how to identify people to join your advisory board? Instead of going alone, I phoned a friend.
Seemingly glad I asked, she cautioned me, “An advisory board is not the same as mapping and influencing your stakeholders or setting up governance. Stakeholders represent the people you need to ‘sell’ to gain support. An independent advisory board is not connected to the product, is willing to be brutally honest, and must be experienced in areas you are not. Look for those who don’t offer advice openly, those who have nothing to prove, those who are humble and avoid the spotlight.”
She continued, “Governance meetings are often filled with polite, reserved leaders who make decisions but haven’t necessarily sat in your shoes or solved similar problems in the past. They exist to shape not solve.”. The closing suggestion from my friend, “Never think of your strategic advisory board like a senate subcommittee; instead, think of it as the Jedi council.”
For those unfamiliar with Star Wars and the Jedi, the Jedi council was responsible for the Jedi Order. It consisted of twelve Jedi Masters who guided the order, coming together as a council to discuss matters important to the Jedi. In addition, the Jedi council provided advice and guidance on matters of intergalactic peace. So while you aren’t involved in such heavy matters, a council of senior subject matter experts who have lived in your shoes would be similarly wise.
So how do I form a Jedi, I mean strategic advisory council?
The good news, forming your advisory committee isn’t as difficult as finding and recruiting twelve Jedi masters. However, persistence, patience, and persuasiveness are required. In the wise words of Matthew McConaughey, “The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.” The people you want on your advisory board are those that are humble, often hidden, and sometimes quiet. They have nothing to prove to others. They may or may not be in leadership positions. In all cases, they are respected for their experience, ability to solve complex problems and navigate the organization to get the hard things done. As you get started, here are the five steps I follow:
- Scope it. Imagine the advice, guidance, and coaching you want from your strategic advisory board. Then write it down. Share your charter and what you are asking the board to do before contacting the first prospective member.
- Source it. Once defined, your next step is finding your advisors. Who would you ideally like to have advising, guiding, and coaching you through developing your product? Start with experience, problems solved in the past, connections, and the things you feel will make you successful. Then write a list of advisors, focusing on specific names of people you can access. Now all that’s left is to reach out. If you get a no, move on to the next person. Don’t expect everyone to be a yes.
- Schedule it. Don’t wait. Set the first meeting. Then send an agenda. And finally, share pre-reads and questions you have. Your goal is to make the most efficient use of their time to maximize the value you receive and ensure the advisors feel their time is valued.
- Start it. 80% of the battle is getting to the first meeting. You’ve secured your meeting, and it’s time to run the first session. Keep it to an hour. Stay on the agenda, control the flow, and ensure you get your questions answered. In other words, manage the meeting. And keep the first meeting from ending after you secure the next meeting.
- Secure it. After you run the first board meeting, you need to keep the members engaged. Engagement sometimes requires you to switch members out who aren’t adding value — for your sake and theirs. Send notes from the meeting with a thank you after. Your goal is to keep them thinking between sessions, open the door for questions between board meetings and ensure they come to the next one.
Remember, it’s all about the S’s baby. And in all seriousness, this will be hard work, but the payout is worth it.
A few further thoughts on whom to recruit
On my first go around, I made a few mistakes during my sourcing process. So here are a few tips from my years of trial and error to save you the pain.
- Recognize your level, don’t try to recruit the CEO. Your goal is to have the right people on the board, not the most senior. And if you are a product manager, think about people you can have an honest conversation with on your level. Don’t assume senior leaders are necessary.
- Focus on people who can give you solid suggestions and feedback, not political appointees. Sometimes you can get caught up in politics, thinking about stakeholders, the internal sales you have to make, and the influential people. They may be ok if they can contribute to the product strategy. If they can’t, pass.
- Ensure they know how to navigate the organization as much as they are subject matter experts in areas you have gaps. Again, while we aren’t looking for corporate politicians, we want a few familiar with navigating to a solution, in my case, scaling without bankrupting, at the company. Some of the most valuable advice I received was to consider X person, the work they are doing, how they may see your product as competing, and how to navigate the issue within the company.
Seeking an answer while avoiding bankruptcy, my advisory board suggested a piece of software, Elastic, that could accelerate progress at a lower cost. BAM — Thanks, advisory board, problem solved.
So, if we agree that you need one, what can you expect from your strategic advisory board?
There are three critical roles you can expect from your strategic advisory board. Let’s start with what they don’t do.
- I learned the hard way that advisory boards are not self-organizing. They don’t magically form when you need them. You are the board chairman and need to convene it as required.
- They won’t drop what they are doing to help you; you need to give them enough notice.
- They will not help you prepare and send materials in advance, including the agenda, pre-read, and questions.
Instead, treat them like a corporate board and give them the same respect. So, without further adieu, here is what you can expect.
- Advice and guidance. Expertise. Approaches to similar problems. How scenarios will play out, and how to navigate them.
- Coaching, not mentoring. Advisory boards will help you work through options and visualize the path forward. They will not mentor you in your career, at least in the capacity of a strategic advisory board.
- Navigation. Getting s*** done in the organization. They won’t navigate for you. They will provide possible paths and introductions.
What can you give in return?
While not expected, returning the favor is always a nice gesture. The advisors often meet new people and learn new ways of solving problems by participating. Send the notes after for their records. Call out parts relevant to each person. Say thank you. Offer to connect them to others in the organization they may want to meet.
In conclusion
Never go it alone. Never try to solve a big hairy audacious problem without an advisory board. And always keep straight in your head that the advisory board doesn’t work for you; you can’t assign them work; they are not an extra set of hands. My board rescued me and took me down a path I would have never considered. They can do the same for you.
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