In mid-2022 SafeBase created our Customer Advisory Board. Our goal was simple: assemble our passionate and vocal customers so we can learn from them - learn more about their pain points, what features would create value, and what industry trends are impacting their organization. In return, our CAB members joined for a community of similar-minded security leaders, a space to share feedback on SafeBase, and an avenue for an inside-look into what we are building.
Our CAB members are a star-studded cast. We have trust leaders from: LinkedIn, Crossbeam, ServiceTitan, Abnormal Security, Jamf, Axonius, Confluent, Split, and Sigma, to name a few
Historically, all of our previous CAB events were virtual. While the Zoom world that most of us still live in provides an easy way to connect, we saw a huge value in coming together in person. So from February 28th - March 2nd we hosted a CAB offsite in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona (as you will see in photos below our plan for sunny AZ was spoiled with a cold spell… but minor setback…)
During our time in Scottsdale - we had four planned sessions. These included:
- How others are leveraging SafeBase where we explored how different CAB members use SafeBase. This was an opportunity to explore new functionality and how different companies use different SafeBase differently (for example - using CRM integration with Salesforce or HubSpot).
- We then explored the topic of ‘Customer Trust’ - how do we define it, where does customer trust sit within the organization, and what does this mean in practice (what are the day-to-day implications)?
- After these two sessions, we dove into where SafeBase is headed, which started on our vision and sharing our upcoming roadmap. Given our proposed plan we collected input from CAB members and refined our go-forward plan.
- Lastly, our capstone session was a fireside chat with Jim Alkove, former Chief Trust Officer at Salesforce. Jim discussed the shifting role from security to a trust leader, and implications for our own CAB members.
With these sessions SafeBase received invaluable input and feedback (how lucky are we to hear directly from so many diverse CISOs and leaders?!). And our CAB members shared the value they got from attending:
It was great to meet the SafeBase team in person and the other CAB members. I felt it helped build our relationships and comfort / trust with each other, which lead to great conversations about SafeBase product offerings!
[Wonderful to see] how other people are solving the same problems as us with SafeBase.
Great to expand my network and learn best practices of SafeBase from other CAB members. Connecting with the SafeBase team in-person was super helpful.
As I reflect over our in-person CAB - I have to acknowledge my immense gratitude. Gratitude to the SafeBase team in planning, gratitude to our CAB members for taking time away from work and family to help grow SafeBase, and gratitude for everyone’s openness and enthusiasm.
Tips and Takeaways
Putting this event together taught me a lot, so I wanted to share a few tips for others hoping to hold a similar event with their advisory board or stakeholders:
- Have a clearly defined session plan and topics - but build in space for the conversation to go into unchartered territory. These instances were where we learned the most, and really pushed our thinking.
- Encourage participants to challenge each other. We worked hard to create an environment where people weren’t expected to give the “right answer” or validate SafeBase’s thinking. Instead we encouraged contrarian perspectives! How else will we grow successfully?
- Plan sessions and conversations on what your participants want to learn and talk about. This meant we first asked our CAB what they were most interested in discussing (we did a survey and 1-1s in advance). From these top requested topics (what emerged - how others are using SafeBase and a preview of upcoming roadmap), we then crafted the sessions. As a result we had a more fruitful conversation by having a strong pulse on our CAB member’s interests.
- Ensure you have events and time outside of the conference room. In short - make the event fun and not just business. How many events have you been to where all you see of Chicago, or Dallas, or <insert random city here> is the inside of the hotel? To explore Scottsdale we had meals in the old town, and did a Jeep desert tour (see photos below!) 🌵
And now for a few pictures to showcase our Scottsdale CAB! Again - cheers and thank you again to our CAB members 🥂🏜️
