This is a great article, it made me so excited and I jumped for joy many times upon reading it!
One of my favorite points it makes: Know the board members. Not on average. Every. Single. One. They’re all different.
I call it “stalk the board” (https://recipientlabs.com/go-retail/), but the article uses a more diplomatic term.
The reason? It is highly likely there will be a HUGE range of technical knowledge on the board.
A couple members are going to know, for example, exactly how cookies work. But a couple other members are going to have absolutely no idea whatsoever (“what’s a cookie?”).
The reason for the pre-meeting research is that you don’t want to answer a question from someone in the second group like you would if it were coming from someone in the first group. That’s just a guarantee that you’re going to piss them all off and they won’t like you or anything you have to say.
Stalk the board. You don’t have time for anything less.
This podcast episode goes into how to stalk the board (otherwise known as “research the board”), step by step, and what to, and not to, expect from your work:
