A follow-up to “There’s a Significant Problem with QBRs“

Six months ago, I published an article about my frustration with traditional QBRs at Google Cloud. I’d been going through the motions, delivering polished retrospectives, while feeling like we were missing the point entirely.

So I proposed an experiment: ditch the decks, grab some whiteboards, and ask one question: What could we help you achieve?

I expected pushback. Maybe a few curious clients willing to try something different.

What I didn’t expect was what actually happened.

The Results

Let me start with the numbers, because that’s what everyone wants to know:

• 8 strategic planning sessions conducted across different accounts
• 90% executive attendance (C-suite or VP-level minimum)
• 6 expansion opportunities identified that would have never surfaced in a traditional QBR
• 3 early renewals signed, with clients specifically citing these sessions as the reason
• Average session length: 90 minutes (vs. the typical 2-hour QBR slog)

But the real impact wasn’t in the metrics. It was in what happened after we left the room.

What Changed

In traditional QBRs, action items were usually assigned to us. “Follow up on this ticket.” “Investigate that integration issue.” “Send us the documentation.”

In these strategic planning sessions, action items were assigned to them.

Because we weren’t talking about problems with our product. We were talking about their business challenges. And suddenly, they were the ones who needed to make decisions, allocate resources, and drive initiatives forward.

We shifted from being service providers being held accountable… to being strategic advisors holding them accountable.

How the Approach Evolved

The initial experiment was simple: no decks, just whiteboards and one question.

But over six months, we refined it into something more structured. Here’s what works:

Pre-Session: The Strategic Brief (2 weeks before)

We stopped showing up cold. Instead, we now send a one-page brief with three sections:

1. Current State Snapshot – Not a full review, just 3-5 key metrics that matter
2. Market Context – What’s changing in their industry that affects them
3. Provocations – 2-3 strategic questions we want to explore together

This isn’t homework for them. It’s signaling: We’ve been thinking about your business. This isn’t a status update meeting.

The Session: Three Phases (90 minutes)

Phase 1: Context Alignment (15 minutes)
Quick level-set on where they are. Not where they were last quarter, where they are right now and where they need to be in 12 months. This is the only time we reference metrics.

Phase 2: Strategic Exploration (45 minutes)
This is where the whiteboard comes out. We explore 3-5 strategic opportunities or challenges. The key question shifts depending on what matters most to them:

• “What’s the biggest obstacle to hitting your goals?”
• “What would change if you could [X]?”
• “Who are you competing with for resources/budget/attention?”

Phase 3: Roadmap Alignment (30 minutes)
We co-create a simple roadmap for their initiatives. Then we identify where we fit into that roadmap. Where can we accelerate their timeline? Where can we de-risk their execution?

Post-Session: The Strategic Summary (48 hours after)

No 30-slide deck. A one-page summary:

• What we heard (their priorities)
• What we’re committing to
• What we need from them
• Next milestone check-in

And here’s the critical part: We send this to everyone who was in the room, including the executives.

What We Learned the Hard Way

Not everything worked perfectly. Here’s what we had to figure out:

1. You can’t do this with everyone.
Some clients just want a compliance review. They need the documentation, the audit trail, the checkbox. That’s okay. But those aren’t the accounts where you’ll drive expansion.

2. Preparation is 10x more important.
When we showed up without doing our homework on their business challenges, the session fell flat. You can’t facilitate strategic thinking if you don’t understand their strategy.

3. The first one is always awkward.
Clients expect a QBR. When you show up with markers and a whiteboard, there’s confusion. You have to explicitly reframe expectations: “We’re not here to review last quarter. We’re here to design next quarter.”

4. You need executive buy-in AND yours.
This only works when both sides bring decision-makers. If we’re talking strategy but no one in the room can commit resources, it’s just theater.

The Bigger Shift

Here’s what I didn’t anticipate: This changed how our clients see us.

In traditional QBRs, we were the vendor being evaluated. In these strategic planning sessions, we became the advisors helping them think.

One client told me: “This is the first time a vendor asked us what we needed instead of telling us what they delivered.”

Another executive said: “We should be paying you for this separately.”

(We’re exploring that.)

What “Strategic Planning Session” Actually Means

This isn’t just a rebranded QBR. It’s fundamentally different:

Traditional QBRs ask: Did we deliver what we promised?
Strategic Planning Sessions ask: What do you need to achieve that you can’t do alone?

Traditional QBRs are:

• Backward-looking
• Product-centric
• Vendor-led
• Compliance-focused

Strategic Planning Sessions are:

• Forward-looking
• Business-centric
• Collaboratively-led
• Growth-focused

The goal isn’t to prove value. It’s to create value, in real time, together.

Where This Goes Next

I’m not declaring victory. Six months isn’t enough data to call this “the new way.”

But here’s what I know: Every client who’s done one of these sessions has asked to do it again. And several have asked to do them more frequently.

That tells me something.