DataGuard customer advisory board

What is the DataGuard Customer Advisory Board (CAB)? 

The Customer Advisory Board is a group of DataGuard customers who meet regularly to discuss their PIC challenges and their experience with DataGuard’s products. We discuss their future business goals and how they can be driven by privacy, information security and compliance. The board meets regularly in short working sessions. 

“The Customer Advisory Board gives us as customers the possibility to actively shape the future of privacy and compliance, and to adjust DataGuard’s products to our needs and requirements.” 

- Christoph Herold, Chief Transformation Officer, CBTL 

Members of Customer Advisory Board represent a range of different industries to ensure feedback from various viewpoints. From tech start-ups to food and beverage wholesalers, the Customer Advisory Board offers a platform for us to find synergies – and differences – in our customer’s PIC needs. The Customer Advisory Board is also made up of customers from a diverse range of job roles and backgrounds – founders, digital transformation officers and legal counsels, to name but a few! 

What is the purpose of the Customer Advisory Board?  

Our goal has always been to provide a best-in-class customer experience. By bringing together a group of customers to understand their specific challenges and to hear their feedback, we can collaboratively build a product that meets their exact needs.  

We don’t use the term “best-in-class SaaS platform” lightly. The reality is that building software that people love to use doesn’t just happen - it requires time, research and iterative development. The Customer Advisory Board is a vital part of our customer-centric product strategy.  

Who can be a part of the Customer Advisory Board?  

The Customer Advisory Board is open to all customers of DataGuard. We pride ourselves on being a diverse company and we endeavour to curate diverse groups for our Customer Advisory Board as well. 

Naturally, because the deep work sessions focus on specific compliance topics or the functionality of our products, we lean towards inviting customers who are not at the beginning of their journey with us. Customers who are further along in their journey will be able to contribute best to the discussions.  

These sessions are not about self-flattery, which is why we encourage customers who are not satisfied with our products or services to join the Customer Advisory Board as well. Hearing compliments from customers is nice, but this doesn’t help us build meaningful solutions to their problems. We value constructive feedback on areas where we don’t yet meet the mark.  

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” - Bill Gates

First Customer Advisory Board: Our Takeaways  

The very first DataGuard Customer Advisory Board took place in early 2022. Ten customers took part, as well as a small cross-section of the DataGuard team from Customer Success, Product and C-Level. Overall, it was a fantastic afternoon that generated incredible insights for our Privacy product.  

The session started with introductions. We then progressed to discuss some high-level questions about how the customers used our platform. Finally, we dove into their biggest Privacy-related challenges and how our platform could support them better. We also demoed a brand-new feature, which helps to customers manage Data Processing Agreements, to gather their impressions prior to launch. 

What went well 

• Remote set up: The meeting took place over Teams using a FigJam board (an online whiteboard) to collaborate. This went smoothly. Logistically speaking, it was much easier for customers to join – and for our team to organise - than an in-person event.  
• Demoing a feature helped to facilitate better feedback from customers by making our ideas less abstract. 
• Our customers really thought outside of the box and gave us some amazing ideas for product development. It was extremely encouraging for the entire team to see their level of engagement on the topic.  

What could have been better 

• The group of customers was slightly too large. Naturally some people spoke more than others and we didn’t get to hear as much from some participants.  
• In hindsight, we agreed that the session would have been even better with some subject matter experts from our Professional Services team present. These experts can help put complex topics into perspective and map the legal developments that have led to the business requirements our customers are dealing with.  

Upcoming Customer Advisory Boards 

We are now planning a swathe of Customer Advisory Boards to close out the year. The first session will focus on our InfoSec product. We also plan a more focussed session for our larger and often multinational corporate customers later in the year. In future, we will host focussed sessions with selected board members for different product lines and overarching customer segments. 

The next session will give us the chance to share our InfoSec product vision and upcoming features with our customers for their feedback. In addition, our information security experts will be present to provide updates and input on the topic. The customers who take part will have the opportunity to influence our roadmap and air their concerns and challenges. We will also keep the group limited to a maximum of 6-8 participants, so that everyone has a chance to contribute.  

Thanks again to the participants of the last Customer Advisory Board – we dearly appreciate your time and your contributions!  

Want to be a part of the next Customer Advisory Board? Learn more and sign up here.