WEBINAR Inside the Splunk Technical CAB Program: Turning Advisory Board Feedback into Product Innovation

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How do you turn your Customer Advisory Board into a driver of product innovation?

At Splunk, Technical practitioner-level CABs aren’t just a series of meetings — they’re a vital part of how the product team operates. With a product management mindset, Splunk’s Technical CAB program helps shape around 30% of new customer-facing products and features each year.

In this session, Barbara Janczer, Sr. Product Advisory Manager, will share how her team evolved Splunk’s Technical CAB into a strategic driver of product innovation and growth.

You’ll learn how Splunk:
→ Built a structured feedback cycle that turns Technical CAB insights into product enhancements.
→ Engages diverse customer roles in their CAB to inform broad and impactful product changes.
→ Benchmarks the CAB and built an AI dashboard for internal CAB management and tracking key CAB items.
→ Tracks feedback through internal systems and ties it directly to roadmap decisions.
→ Plans to expand the CAB program with executive and industry specific CABs to deepen engagement and align with customer priorities.
→ Collaborates across Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success to drive cross-functional alignment and accountability.
→ Created a strong CAB brand that drives engagement and customer advocacy.

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​​Webinar - Splunk Technical CAB​​

Webinar details

  • Title: Inside the Splunk Technical CAB Program – Turning Advisory Board Feedback into Product
  • Duration: 49 minutes
  • Featured speakers: Barbara Janczer, Sr. Product Advisory Manager, Splunk

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About Splunk LLC

Splunk, a Cisco company, helps build a safer and more resilient digital world. Organizations trust Splunk to prevent security, infrastructure and application issues from becoming major incidents, absorb shocks from digital disruptions, and accelerate digital transformation.

Webinar Replay

Some takeaways from the session with Splunk:

  • Practitioner-Focused, Product-Mindset – The CAB is run by the product team and centers on hands-on users like admins and engineers, driving feature-level feedback. Splunk also plans to launch an executive CAB and industry CABs.
  • Direct Product Impact – CAB insights influence 25–30% of Tier 1 & 2 product launches, from quarterly CAB virtual sessions (per product line) and 1 annual in-person CAB meeting.
  • CAB Management & AI Dashboard – Splunk benchmarks its program for continuous improvement and uses an AI-powered dashboard to track CAB trends and streamline meeting summary creation.
  • Structured Feedback Cycle – Every CAB initiative follows a meticulous customer feedback cycle to ensure continuous improvement and alignment. (Take a look at the customer feedback and benchmarking models in the video, minutes 17:06-23:35).
  • Engagement & Branding – Splunk ensures that their CAB meetings are interactive and enable members to share advice and feedback in multiple ways. Splunk also drives engagement through a CAB Hub (online community portal), a private Slack channel, an annual recruitment recommitment campaign — and a fun, branded identity that drives customer advocacy. (Go to the video at minute 36:32 for the CAB brand section).

 

Video Chapters:

00:00 Welcome and Overview
01:10 Poll: Current Status of Your Program
02:28 Introduction to Barbara and Splunk’s CAB Program
04:09 Poll: Target CAB Member Audience
05:04 A Product Mindset for a Practitioner-Focused CAB
06:16 Overview – CAB Membership and Meeting Cadence
09:07 CAB Key Outcomes
10:55 CAB Design (Travel Costs) – Q Does Splunk pay for CAB members for in-person CAB meeting?
11:27 Meeting Agenda – Q How are meeting agendas developed? + Engaging up to 30 people at meetings
15:05 Engagement Strategies – Q Ways to engage CAB members? + CAB Community Portal
16:36 CAB Meetings – Q Do you allow more than one attendee per company at your CABs?
17:06 Elevating the CAB Program – CAB Benchmark + Customer Feedback Program Cycle + AI-Powered Dashboard
23:25 Community Portal – Qs Can Customers exchange ideas in community portal? How do you encourage engagement in online community?
25:42 CAB Meetings – Q Do members hold back when recording a meeting?
26:12 Future Executive CAB – Q Do you plan to pay for T&E?
26:40 CAB Meetings – Q Do you record in-person meetings? How do you handle note-taking?
27:31 CAB Management Tools – Q Where does the CAB dashboard live?
28:05 Closing the Feedback loop – Q How do you close the feedback loop?
31:10 Community Portal – Q Are your PMs talking every day with CAB members in the online community?
31:47 CAB Benchmarking – Q How do you determine the shift in each initiative?
32:48 CAB Recruitment – Q How do you recruit CAB members?
34:52 CAB Membership – Q How do you handle “bad” CAB members who don’t show up?
36:32 Building a Strong CAB Brand
39:46 Actionable Tips for CAB Programs
41:32 Final Q&A and Closing Remarks