What Boards Actually Need
— and What to Leave Out
When you're a fast-scaling technology-enabled business, your board pack can either create clarity or confusion.
Too often, board reports are bloated with irrelevant, vanity metrics, buried in updates, and designed more to avoid scrutiny than to drive real dialogue. But a well-designed board pack does more than inform - it builds confidence, earns trust, and enables the kind of decisions that move a business forward.
As we like to say at Blue Ocean, boards (and therefore their board packs) should be all about “No Surprises”, and “Informed and Fearless Conversations”.
This Insights Paper shares a clear, practical framework for creating a board pack that works for high-growth technology and product-led companies. Whether you're a founder, CFO, or exec preparing for investment, this is about shifting from reporting to storytelling - and shaping the boardroom conversations that matter.
A great board pack doesn't just deliver data; it sets the tone. It demonstrates strategic focus, maturity, and transparency. And most importantly, it enables better decisions.
Why Board Packs Matter More Than You Think
Your board pack is often the clearest reflection of your leadership maturity. It signals whether you are strategic or reactive, in control or simply managing day-to-day chaos. It isn't just a reporting tool - it's a key moment to build credibility and create alignment. If you get it right, the board meeting will be a series of informed conversations and not just a series of updates such as this: “I spoke to lots of people and attended some meetings last month”. Have you been at board meetings like that? I know that I have!
Done well, your board pack becomes a powerful way to focus attention, share progress, highlight challenges, and invite the kind of feedback and support that moves the business forward.
Where Most Board Packs Go Wrong
Many board packs fall into common traps. They include too much data and not enough context.
Rows of numbers without a focus leave boards confused, not confident. Metrics often aim to impress or reassure rather than inform. Boards don't expect perfection; they expect awareness (“no surprises”) and a plan. Hiding risks or dressing up results makes it harder to have honest conversations when they're most needed (“, Informed and Fearless Conversations”).
Another common issue is the inclusion of generic KPIs without tying them to the current strategy. Metrics alone are not insight. More data are not necessarily better information. More data can hide useful insights.
Your board needs to understand not just what the numbers are, but what they mean in the context of where the business is going. How is our strategy performing?
What a Great Board Pack Looks Like
A strong board pack starts with a clear narrative: what's going well, what's changed, and where attention is needed. It presents top-level KPIs in context - growth, churn, CAC [CoCA], CSAT - not as standalone figures, but as part of a bigger story. It includes a commercial snapshot that shows revenue movement, burn rate, runway, and progress against hiring plans. Crucially, it surfaces key strategic issues that require input or discussion.
Great board packs don't shy away from risks. They frame them clearly, with context and a sense of how they're being managed. They also give a view of the team and culture: whether hiring is on track, whether leadership gaps exist, and what signals are coming through on engagement or morale. To see how boards can manage and report risks, check out the Insight “Harnessing Risk” here.
And finally, board packs look forward. They lay out the next one to three priorities and make clear how the board can help.
Design for the Board You Want to Have
The best board packs invite better questions (“Informed, Fearless Conversations”). They help shape the dynamic you want in the boardroom - one of strategic alignment, challenge, and trust (check out Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” for more on that).
Over time, a consistently well-structured board pack helps develop your board, align expectations, and build long-term investor confidence.
A Practical Template: The 8-Slide Technology enabled and product-led Board Pack
To make this real, I've included a simple board pack structure you can tailor to your business.
Click the image below to download the template:
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