Lessons from Building a Customer Strategy Board: A Q&A with Andrew Fitzgerald, Global Account Based Marketing, Kyndryl
We spoke with Andrew Fitzgerald about Kyndryl's journey building their Customer Strategy Board, focusing on the practical "if I knew then what I know now" insights that matter most. Whether you're an advisory board program manager six months away from launching your first board or looking to refresh an existing program, Andrew's experience offers hard-won wisdom.
>> Want the nutshell view? Read Andrew’s 10 tips here.
>> Want to hear from other customer advisory board leaders? Read more interviews here.
Q: What is the origin story of Kyndryl's Customer Strategy Board?
It started with intentional culture-building, not specific ROI goals
AF: Kyndryl is a little unusual. We're relatively young—less than 4 years old—but we were spun out from a larger, older organization. When we spun out, for the first 12 months we were completely preoccupied with getting the company going. But a conversation started within marketing about a potential customer board.
It was about: We're building up a new company here...trying to be very intentional about the culture we create and about being an organization that places customers at the heart of what we do. We wanted to understand how the spin-off was affecting customers, and where to go next.
Wouldn't it be a good thing to ask our customers what they think of our strategy? Help them understand where we're going, get their thoughts about whether it's the right direction to serve their needs.
We got buy-in from our CMO to take it to our chief executive and company president. The conversation quickly became, "Yeah, of course that's sensible. Why wouldn't we do that?"
Q: How critical is executive buy-in, and what does it look like in practice?
Without the top executives fully committed, don't bother
AF: I can't imagine doing this well without our two most senior people in the company bought in in the way they are. It's not like the CEO just drops in—he spends the entire day with the board. If you don't have that buy-in, I'd question why you're doing it.
Our leaders with previous advisory board experience bought in quickly. Those who did not have that previous experience needed a little more explanation.
“Feedback from the Customer Strategy Board is a great way to provide legitimacy for the changes [our leaders] need to drive in the organization.”
The feedback we get from the Customer Strategy Board now regularly gets used in kickoffs and sales enablement events. It’s a great way for our leaders to provide legitimacy for the changes we need to drive in the organization: "Our Customer Strategy Board tells us this. Our customers are telling us this is what we need to do." It's different when you can say that versus just, "I want you to do XYZ." That really adds credibility.
Q: How did you signal the caliber of conversations you hoped to achieve?
Deliberate naming, vigilant enforcement of the "no selling" rule, and consistent follow-up
First, simple as this is, we called it a strategy board. It is not a product board, where we just tell you about a product and you tell us what you like.
Second, we are also very deliberately: Not. About. Selling. We tell our people not to sell; we call it out in the meeting if they stray.
“We are very deliberately: Not. About. Selling. This is a listening exercise. We hear feedback and run with it.”
This is a listening exercise. We hear feedback and run with it. Every meeting we go over what members said at the last meeting, and what we’ve done with it.
Q: You delayed your first meeting for recruitment. Why was that worth it?
The makeup of the board is everything—don't compromise
AF: We had a target date that we chose to delay because we wanted the right people. We were prepared to wait for them. It was the right thing to do. The makeup of the board is key.
The really valuable people are difficult to get hold of. They're very careful about where they choose to invest their time.
We had basic parameters around account size and future potential, and diversity of geography and other factors. You need to balance those ideals with who you can get, but we'll wait for the right people to get quality conversations.
Q: How has your membership evolved since launch?
Quality over quantity becomes even more important over time
AF: The composition has changed quite a lot since we started—due to retirement or job changes, not because it wasn't worth members’ time. We’re fine having a smaller meeting with good participants who really engage. If you genuinely want a conversation about strategy, you need the right kind of people in the room.
“Board members have a real sense of community…we want to maintain and add to. We’ll wait for the right people to get quality conversations.”
Board members that have been with us for a while have a real sense of community. Dinner is like a college reunion. We want to maintain and add to that community without being too much like a club you can't get into. One of my ongoing challenges is keeping that vitality going, while finding new participants.
It's the prioritization of quality over quantity.
Q: How do you measure success?
Face-to-face validation carries different weight than surveys
AF: We see value based on the reaction of senior leaders that participate in it. If they didn't see it was worth their time and money, we wouldn't keep doing it.
It’s doing what it needs to do, helping our senior leaders figure out and reinforce what they need to do. Usually, they’re brought in to client meetings either to make a deal or fix an issue. The board is different—a very direct experience for our senior leaders.
“The board is different—a very direct experience for our senior leaders. We all run satisfaction surveys and NPS and so on. They are less personal. When you can say, ‘A room full of our most important customers looked me in the eye and told me this,’ it carries a different weight.”
There's something different about the level of feedback you get. We all run customer satisfaction surveys and NPS and so on. They are a little less personal. When you can say, “A room full of our most important customers looked me in the eye and told me this,” it carries a different weight.
Although the board wasn't formed with a specific revenue outcome in mind, we’re certain it’s helped us do business.
Q: What's your current strategic focus with the board?
Foster members’ ability to think beyond individual requirements
AF: The big strategic imperative for us is growing our business. So, we're talking about aspirations for the business, and the underpinnings of how we will deliver and sell.
I think it's about enabling council members to think bigger than individual requirements. We want them thinking beyond their company and acting as if they're invested in our joint success. It's about mutual success.
Q: What does "mutual success" look like in practice?
When board members watch your stock price with pride
AF: I'm sure some of our council members watch our stock carefully and hopefully feel a sense of pride when it moves in the right direction. The board is intended to have that impact. At the end of the day, it has to be valuable for us, but it has to be worth the customers' time, too.
“We want board members thinking beyond their company…invested in our joint success and hopefully feeling feel a sense of pride when the stock price moves in the right direction. The board is intended to have that impact.”
I come back to: customers tell us it's worth their time. They get to bend the ear of our CEO in a way they wouldn't usually. I think they genuinely get satisfaction from seeing things change.
Q: How has the board matured over time?
We’re now in the groove...and the quality of conversations gets better every meeting
AF: We're in a cycle now of how we run the board. Meetings every six months, and between each meeting there are three checkpoints with our CEO, president, and other senior leaders. We talk through participation, the agenda, building out content, wrapping up feedback from the board, and putting follow-up actions in place.
“We’re in a cycle now. It takes time to mature. As long as you constantly think about how to make it better for both customers and us, then it can continue to improve.”
People get better at things over time. They need to get to know other members, need to get to know the value. It takes time to mature. The members know us better and can give better feedback, and we get better at framing conversations. As long as we constantly think about how to make it better for both customers and us, then it can continue to improve.
Q: How do you handle transparency about what you won't act on?
Honesty about limitations builds more trust than false promises
AF: We get suggestions from customers in the interviews that we choose not to do anything with. But we're quite transparent about that. We don't promise that everything the customers want to talk about will be included in the board meeting, and we direct the conversations with customers to the kinds of areas that we're interested in exploring.
I was strongly in favor of a third-party to help us negotiate all of these things, and Farland Group is really good at this. That independence really helps to smooth things out.
So, we haven't really had those conflicts where customers want to talk about something, and we want to talk about something else. With Farland, we've always managed to negotiate that well and come up with an agenda that works for both sides of the board.
Q: What's your advice for someone starting a board today?
Be intentional about co-creating something different
AF: You need to be pragmatic and intentional about the people you want and the kind of conversation you want. Don't compromise on that.
“With Farland, we've always come up with an agenda that works for both sides of the board. [It] genuinely feels like a co-created effort between our team at Kyndryl, Farland, and the customers…with a willingness to work together and do whatever it takes.
Customers tell us this is a different board than what they've done before. It's a point of pride.”
We genuinely wanted to craft something different and thought deeply about that, as opposed to simply going with a turnkey approach. Other potential external facilitators just said, “This is how we run a board.” With Farland, the board we have genuinely feels like a co-created effort between our team at Kyndryl, Farland, and the customers…with a willingness to work together and do whatever it takes.
Customers tell us this is a different board than what they've done before. It's a point of pride to hear that.