How Board’s Community Strategy Drove Millions in Measurable Value

When Holly Rieke joined Board as Director of Community, she faced a familiar challenge: the need to run a high-impact community program without a large team or deep technical support.

Board, the enterprise planning platform, helps customers make smarter business decisions by combining AI, analytics, and real-time economic insights. For its users, the platform is central to daily planning and forecasting. And the Board Community plays a key role in supporting them, offering practical guidance, peer knowledge, and quick access to answers.

The community sits within the Customer Success org and supports customers, partners, and employees. Holly and Senior Community Program Manager Miran Saric work as an embedded part of the CS team, driving engagement and surfacing feedback that shapes content and product strategy.

But to scale, they needed a platform that wouldn’t slow them down. “We weren’t going to get more resources at that time,” Holly said. “We needed something we could manage ourselves without waiting on a dev cycle whenever we needed to make a change.”

This is how Board built a sustainable foundation for community growth on Higher Logic Vanilla and turned a small team into a major driver of customer experience.

Choosing a Platform and Partner That Could Keep Up

The team’s requirements were clear: no developer dependency, no long lead times, and full ownership. “It wasn’t just about features,” Holly said. “It was about being able to move fast without a big team behind us.”

They were looking for flexibility, yes—but also a partner. Someone who could offer guidance, a roadmap, and a relationship built on shared goals. “Cost, ease of use, and strong out-of-the-box features were all important,” said Holly. “But what sealed the deal was the sense that everything worked together, and that we wouldn’t be on our own.”

Once they chose Vanilla, the partnership quickly took shape. The onboarding experience was hands-on and collaborative, with support that felt like an extension of their team. “Our CSM and support contact were really responsive,” Holly said. “They helped us navigate the areas we didn’t fully understand and offered suggestions when we needed to think through something differently.”

Access to Vanilla’s product team and participation in the Advocates program added another layer of value. “We’ve really enjoyed being a part of the program,” said Holly. “They do a great job of providing regular touchpoints and opportunities for Advocates to give direct feedback and influence the roadmap.”

Building a Community That Works for Members and the Business

The Board Community wasn’t built in one sweeping launch. It came together gradually: content first, then programs, then platform improvements. Every step was guided by what members needed and what the business could support.

Today, the community serves different parts of the customer journey through two main forum experiences.

One is tied to Board’s Academy and focuses on training-related questions. Members help each other with course content, share what they’ve learned, and ask for support. While the Academy itself lives outside the community platform, SSO keeps the transition seamless.

The main forum centers on peer-to-peer questions about using Board. It’s where members discuss features, share best practices, and troubleshoot together. It also acts as a central hub for product updates and direct feedback to the team.

Over time, that steady, intentional approach paid off in the form of measurable engagement, consistent growth, and millions of dollars in tracked value.

Here’s what helped make it work.

Establishing Content as the Foundation

Before publishing anything new, Holly’s team audited what already existed. They then worked closely with their internal Center of Excellence—Board’s in-house technical experts—to turn that deep knowledge into something scalable: more than 110 best practices, how-to guides, and FAQs.

That content is now a core part of the community experience, consistently ranking among the most visited areas of the site.

“The knowledge already existed,” Holly said. “It just hadn’t been documented in a one-to-many format. That’s what we set out to change.”

Creating Spaces That Invite Participation

Not every member shows up ready to post or start a conversation, and Board’s team gets that. So in addition to building a deep library of problem-solving content, they looked for lightweight, approachable ways to invite participation and build familiarity over time.

One of their notable efforts was the Community Captains program: an opt-in opportunity for members to share their expertise in visible but low-lift ways, like writing a blog or joining a video interview. In return, Captains gained credibility and visibility within the community.

“We wanted it to feel like a give-back opportunity, not an obligation,” Holly said. “And once someone shares and sees positive feedback, they’re more likely to do it again.”

In the first year alone, Captains contributed 18 pieces of content. Since then, the program has grown to include recognition at events, LinkedIn spotlights to help elevate personal brands, and exclusive opportunities to connect with peers.

Board also launched “3 Questions,” a short-form video series featuring customer, partner, and employee insights, and they’re developing a new series called “Build Along with Board,” focused on quick, practical answers to everyday questions.

The team has leaned into Groups as well, creating smaller spaces where members can connect more directly. Regional groups support in-language conversations (a major win for their global audience), beta testing groups offer a direct line to the product team, and onboarding groups help new members get up to speed with curated content and discussions.

Designing a Better Customer Experience

One of the biggest advantages of the platform, Holly noted, is the ability to make changes quickly. Using Vanilla’s Layout Editor, the team can do things like update page structure and styling, add CTAs, and tailor the experience for different audiences.

“Vanilla lets us stay flexible. We can test something, pivot, and respond to member feedback in real time,” she said. “I’d recommend it for small teams looking to build community in a fast, user-friendly way, especially if you don’t have dedicated IT resources. Keeping in mind, solutions don’t have to be complicated or expensive to be the right fit!”

They also run an always-on member survey that gives the team direct, ongoing feedback about what’s working and where improvements are needed.

Tying Community to Business Value

For Holly and team, building a great community experience was just the beginning. They also needed to show how that experience supported the business.

“We’ve always known community plays a role in the customer journey,” Holly said. “But to protect that investment and grow it, we had to find ways to measure and communicate the value in terms the business cares about.”

Using Vanilla’s API, the team integrated community data with their CRM platform to connect engagement to metrics like contract value and ARR. Customer success and partnership teams gained direct visibility into their accounts, seeing who was active in the community and how that engagement trended over time.

“It’s been proven time and again,” Holly said. “Customers who engage with enablement tools like community are more likely to stay and grow. Now we can actually show that in a way the business understands.”

Results That Speak for Themselves

Since launching, Board has seen steady growth:

• 64% growth in total members
• 46% increase in authenticated visits
• 98% increase in forum posts
• 12% increase in member discussions and comments

Those engagement metrics tell part of the story. Internally, the team also tracks cost savings through case deflection, using a formula that blends traffic, ticket avoidance, and cost-per-case to estimate support impact. In addition, they report on a broader internal metric they call “Community Influence Value,” which reflects how community activity supports customer health and growth.

The result is a measurable impact valued in the millions and a much stronger case for community as a revenue-adjacent function.

Feedback from member surveys reinforces that momentum:

• 96% rate their overall experience as positive
• 81% say they feel a sense of belonging in the community
• 50% are very likely to recommend it

“It’s not just the numbers,” Holly said. “It’s what they represent. People are showing up, finding value, and coming back.”