Today we’re talking to Kristine Young, award-winning APAC customer success manager (CSM). Kristine’s unique perspective comes from first being a customer who implemented Board for retail and wholesale planning and reporting, transitioning to a consultant with the Board professional services team, and now working as a Board CSM. Her passion is data and the intersection of better data and improved business decisions.
Combining technical knowledge and business acumen, Kristine thrives on having thought-provoking customer conversations, encouraging them to see opportunities and alignment with Board and their business needs. Three key takeaways from today’s discussion include:
- The importance of enablement tools
- Self-service reporting capabilities
- User Group benefits
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Being a former Board customer and current employee, you have unique insight into success pathways. In your current role, how do you enable customer success?
Successful customers are those who know how to use Board and understand its capabilities to support their application and expand its use within the business. When I first started in this role, customer feedback sometimes included perceived Board limitations. Simple things like, “I can only drill to the defined data; How can I see something else?” Or, “I always need to engage a consultant to make a small change to a report.”
I knew Board could do what they were asking, and I quickly identified the training gaps. I then conducted meetings to discuss setting up their own Board Center of Excellence (CoE) and have helped defined training paths based on the skills they are looking to learn. I’ve also provided insight into transferable skills to look for when aligning resources to manage their Board application. Skills like “can build macros in Excel” demonstrate logical thinking and a readiness to learn procedures, as the algorithms are based on Excel.
When a customer starts on their enablement journey, I always recommend training in the Board Academy as a first step. I help identify the modules they should complete to give them the skills they are looking for in Board. The newly launched Academy training is also a key topic of ongoing customer touchpoints.
The Board Community is another valuable customer resource that I always highlight. There is so much information available—from Q&A forum opportunities to Best Practices and How-to Guides to the Idea Exchange, and more. It’s also a central location for links to the Board Manuals, Academy, and Support which are additional tools on the customer enablement pathway.
From various customer interactions, I identified we were missing training just for the end user. Due to my own training skills and Board knowledge, I developed a one-hour training course that was run just for end users to show the features that come standard in Board. For example, Bookmarks, My view, Quick layout, and data entry shortcuts were highlighted in my customized training sessions. As a result of the positive feedback, this type of training is now readily available in the Academy for all to access.
For me, knowledge is power. By giving my customers the knowledge on how to use Board, I am making sure they have the power to use their platform to its full potential, allowing them to make the best decisions to drive business success.
Board has many useful features and functions. What are some standout features for customers?
My goal is to equip Board users with knowledge, showing them how to leverage available tools to meet their business needs. One key feature I often highlight is the ability for users to easily create self-service reports using the Quick Layout feature together with My View & Presentations. The Self-Service functionality of Board is highlighted during the sales process to empower the End User, and it can then be overlooked after their implementation is complete.
Additionally, Presentations can be used to build reporting packs that can be shared internally with other Board users or distributed via email as a pdf report. They can also be used for everyday reporting. With Presentations, the end user can save multiple formats of the screen with the axis changed to different reporting requirements. They can also use Presentations to save reports in specific formats or with selected criteria. They can then organize reports based on their business processes, customizing their Board experience and building their own self-service reporting.
The My view feature is another favorite—allowing the end user to save a change to the report format for future use. They can also change the axis of a report using the Quick view feature on the data view. The My view feature only allows the end user to save one format per screen.
Let’s talk about success. Tell us about a recent success that other customers might benefit from.
When I started in this role, one of the goals I set for myself was to host a User Group event to encourage customers to speak with other customers and build relationships. When speaking with customers in our business review meetings, I am often asked how other customers are using Board. How have they implemented a specific use case, what is their best practice, or how are they enabling their team of Board Champions?
It is human nature to want to know how other people are doing things so we can learn and do it the same—or even improve it. Customers are looking for inspiration on how to improve business processes using the Board platform. In October 2024, with help from the Board team in Australia, I launched two in-person User Groups —one in Melbourne and the other in Sydney. We had a great turnout and positive feedback! Topics covered included Flex Grid, best practice UX/UI and Generative AI features in Board. The event concluded with networking and a fine-dining dinner experience.
From this event, customers exchanged numbers to meet and share Board examples. We’ve seen many customers advocating for Board and sharing their future Board plans. It was also a fantastic opportunity for long-term customers to speak with new customers about starting their implementation journey.
As a Board team, we had the opportunity to meet with our customers in person—some for the first time. Stronger personal connections were built, trust expanded, and rapport strengthened. That can be challenging in an exclusively virtual setting. I highly recommend in-person meetups to build relationships and enable learning. We are planning to continue the momentum and host another User Group in September or October this year, featuring a customer Board story. My new goals include increased customer attendance and potential expansion in other areas.
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Thanks to Kristine for sharing her customer success insights and tips! Let us know what you think about Kristine’s key points in the comments below.
