The problem
Product priorities at Finvi were set mostly from sales requests and support tickets. Our research reached end users, but rarely the executives who buy, renew and expand. We were designing well for the people using the product and guessing about the people deciding to keep it.
What we did
We built a research practice around Client Advisory Board meetings with the executives and leaders of our most valued clients, across multiple business lines.
- Structure. Quarterly sessions of 8–12 client leaders per business line, alternating in-person workshops and remote working sessions.
- Format. Each session pairs a strategic question ("Where does your team lose the most time?") with hands-on work: prioritization exercises, concept reviews and live prototype walkthroughs.
- Synthesis. Within a week, UX publishes a readout that maps themes to roadmap candidates, with quotes and confidence levels, reviewed jointly with Product leadership.
- Connection to day-to-day research. Board themes become hypotheses we test with end users. End-user findings come back to the board as concepts, so both conversations inform each other.
The board changed the question from "what did sales promise?" to "what do our best clients need next year?"
The outcome
- 3 of the top 5 roadmap items the following year came directly from board sessions
- Product now brings draft requirements to UX before planning, not after
- Clients on the board renewed at a higher rate than the overall base and asked to stay on
What I learned
Executives give their best input when they're asked to make trade-offs, not when they're asked what they want. And a board only stays valuable if members see their input show up in the product, so we close the loop at every session with "you said, we did."