User advisory boards are pivotal in enhancing product and service development by providing direct access to user perspectives and needs. They offer early feedback, minimizing the risk of investing in features that may not resonate. Involving users fosters loyalty, enhances adoption, and contributes to iterative improvements, ensuring ongoing relevance and competitiveness. Beyond validating market demand, advisory boards mitigate risks, enhance brand image, and aid strategic decision-making, making them indispensable in the dynamic landscape of product development.

To keep the team focused on taking an outside-in approach to product design we needed to provide the designers with multiple opportunities to get insights from people who understood the unique challenges that come along finding and hiring talent. We already had a bi-monthly customer advisory board and we already did a ton of research and testing with our users. However, we had very tight timelines and wanted to be able to get insights and feedback at a regular cadence. One of the ways we were able to get continuous feedback was to form an SME advisory board whom we meet with every two weeks. These sessions were used for gathering insights, ideation, and usability testing.

Planning and Goal Setting

After gathering insights from the designers on the team we outlined our goals for setting up a SME advisory board. This step was crucial because we would need to appeal to both design leadership as well as the leadership team of our SMEs. We also needed to outline how the relationship would be mutually beneficial.

The goal of setting up the SME advisory board could be summed up into one statement.

As the design team, we need to be able to quickly collect feedback, gather insights, and test concepts with users regularly so that we can hit our tight deadlines but the process of defining a research plan, developing research guides, recruiting users, conducting a series of interviews/tests and synthesizing results might not always be the best solution. We need to be able to work with subject matter experts who can advise the team so that we can move in the right direction so that when we do invest in user research we get a more productive outcome.

For the subject matter experts, the benefits are clear because they use our product. By investing time into the development of new products and enhancements we will be able to design solutions with your team in mind and ultimately increase productivity for your team.

Our goals for setting up an SME advisory board are:

1. Get usable feedback from subject matter experts on concepts and designs through testing.

2. Co-create solutions with subject matter experts through design thinking and ideation sessions.

3. Increase productivity of the in-house recruiting and partnering with them so that the solution keeps their needs in mind as well as our customers.

Identify Stakeholders

Through workshops with the research team, we identified three main user types that we wanted to get feedback from as part of the SME advisory board Recruiters, Hiring Manager and members of the Customer Success Team

Admittedly identifying potential subject matter experts for our team was not that challenging because we all worked with recruiters when we were hired so I already had a relationship with some members of the recruiting team. Additionally, almost all the teams at the company hired talent so most managers at the company have worked as hiring managers at some point. We also worked with folks who previously sat on the customer success team so we were able to make use of those connections to find the right people to talk with as well

The challenge, however, was in the nuanced details of the roles. Recruiters at the company were divided by department so you may have a recruiter who specializes in hiring for the product and technology team and another recruiter who specializes in hiring for the finance team. Same with hiring managers, each department handled hiring differently. As for customer success, they were divided into teams as well based on the business area and the type of support needed.

Through some collaboration with the research team, product team, as well as members of the talent acquisition team and customer success team we were able to focus on who would be able to provide the most productive feedback. We took into account context, frequency, and variety in our selection process. We also needed to focus on finding folks who would be willing to invest a portion of their time in a project that isn’t directly tied to the work that they do.

Recruitment and Onboarding

Recruiting stakeholders was aimed at the managers of the people who we wanted to join our team as well as the participants themselves. We needed to appeal to the managers so that they felt comfortable allowing their team members to spend time on this initiative but we also wanted the participants to be willing and invested.

By outlining the cadence and the type of work we expect to do together we were able to paint a picture for the participants so that they understood the level of commitment as well as the benefits and outcomes we would expect.

Onboarding Process

In the first few working sessions, we walked the team through the design thinking process so that we could allow new members to ask questions and get an understanding of how to participate. We took time going through the double diamond design thinking diagram and explaining what types of exercises they can expect to work on with us at each stage in the process. Providing examples was very helpful, citing that we might do a card sorting exercise or a sketching exercise like crazy 8s helped get the team excited to participate.

We also spent time working backward and reviewing some key takeaways from research that was performed before setting up the SME advisory board so this way we were all generally on the same page. This was valuable because it allowed the SMEs to poke holes and question some of our current working knowledge.

Building Engagement

We worked together to figure out what the right cadence and format of the meetings would be most successful. Together we figured out that meeting every 2 weeks during the first 6 months of the project would be a successful format to start out with. From there we could gauge how successful that format was and iterate on the solution.

Meeting regularly had many benefits. We were able to get feedback and insights from the team very quickly, we were able to reduce the amount of time spent on research assets, and most valuable of all we were able to build relationships with the SMEs which helped develop the level of active participation in each session.

Before long the group was deeply engaged in discussions in each session and the quality of not only our designs but how we prioritize our work was elevated.

Clear Communication Channels

We mostly used Miro to capture insights and work collaboratively with the team. We would also share our insights back to the team via mail or Slack channel so that we can catch anything we missed. Outside of our regular discussions, we would have one-off smaller meetings with a hand-picked audience to tackle specific problems.

Overcoming Challenges

Although we were able to develop a positive relationship with the team which led to higher quality participation we also experienced a challenge keeping members active on the board. With other priorities and projects of their own, it is totally expected that we would lose engagement from some members from time to time. We also had some members who parted ways with the advisory board early on. Although I wish we were able to keep all the members of the board together so that we can reap the full benefits of the team I think this actually helped to whittle down the team to its core members and those who were most engaged in the project.

Another challenge we had was organizing and planning the work. The team I lead had several projects happening at once so work needed to be prioritized and designers needed to be coached early on so that when the biweekly meeting came along they knew what they were going to present/facilitate during the call. We overcame this challenge by setting regular meetings so that I could stay close enough to the work so that I could recommend exercises and coordinate work between the design team.

Conclusion

Overall setting up the SME advisory board was a rewarding experience. I learned a lot about starting a team from the ground up. Finding the right audience meant getting people with diverse perspectives as well as a strong work ethic so that we could get the best possible result.

It also helped develop my own perspective on the value of building relationships. Without developing a strong relationship with the recruiting team they wouldn’t have been so willing to work with me to create the SME advisory board, likewise, without encouraging feedback and candor within the SME advisory board we wouldn’t have seen the participation increase over time. The SME advisory board ran for about 8 months at which time we took an extended pause so that we could evaluate its success and determine how we might iterate on the solutions so that the next phase for the SME advisory board is even more successful.