Community Advisory Board (CAB) — Annual Report (Year in Review)
The Community Advisory Board was established in 2017 to amplify the voices of our Community Champions within the Atlassian Community team. In 2020, we began publishing an annual report that provides insights into how the CAB has influenced the development of the Atlassian Community over the past year. I am excited to present the 6th installment of our Annual Report here. Interested in our previous reports? You can find them linked below for your convenience: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The CAB is made up of seven Community Champions representing different community cohorts, including Atlassian Marketplace Partners, Atlassian Solutions Partners, Atlassian Community Event organizers, forum contributors, and content creators.
Over the course of 2025, the following Community Champions served on the CAB:
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@Sam Nadarajan (2 year tenure ended in November)
- @Stuart Capel (joined in September)
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And our returning Emeritus member: @Larry Brock _Praecipio_
In 2025, we held 10 CAB meetings. Each month, we alternated between APAC- and EMEA/AMER-friendly meeting times to better accommodate our global CAB and Atlassian team members. The CAB focused on many important themes, including raising the standards for Champion selection, enhancing event quality and technical depth, tightening partner and speaker guidelines, and strengthening the connection between Champions, product teams, and Atlassian leadership. Throughout the year, we included representatives from Community Management, Champion Programs, Learning Design, and Community and Learning Leadership in our monthly meetings to gather feedback and insights from the CAB.
We also held our annual CAB Breakfast at Team '25 Anaheim, which is always a highlight of our time together at the event:
Major Themes from 2025
Raising the Bar for Champions (and Making It Sustainable)
CAB spent a lot of time on who becomes a Champion, what’s expected, and how we recognize customers and partners, discussing:
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Clearer, stronger requirements for new Champions, especially around consistent event and community engagement
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A more deliberate selection process for Forum Champions (with an emphasis on tone, helpfulness, and stewardship)
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Flexibility to allow Champions to specialize or hone in on a particular skill —for example, focusing on events, forums, content—alongside room for those who want to dabble in different activities
The direction: fewer surprises, more clarity, and more room to lean into the kind of contribution you’re Champions are energized by.
Events: Less Slide Decks, More Depth
If you’ve ever thought “this talk feels familiar,” you’re not alone.
CAB gave strong feedback that many Atlassian‑led sessions at events like Team on Tour and RovoCon felt too slide‑heavy and too similar across cities. In response, they pushed for:
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More deep‑dive technical content (not just high‑level overviews)
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A clearer difference between Team on Tour, RovoCon, ACEs, and other formats, so each has a distinct purpose
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More AMAs, fireside chats, and “bring your problem” sessions, where the bulk of time is spent in conversation and Q&A
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More customer and Champion speakers, fewer recycled keynotes
If you’re craving more live problem‑solving and fewer generic decks, CAB very much agrees with you—and is pushing us in that direction.
Making the Program Make Sense as It Grows
As the community grows, especially in large markets and online, CAB spent time on program structure:
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How to handle multi‑chapter cities without stepping on toes
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How virtual chapters can coexist with local chapters, so they complement rather than compete
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How to make co‑hosted events (across cities, with partners, or both) feel relevant and well‑run
The direction: a more specialized, well‑coordinated community of chapters, not a confusing tangle of overlapping events.
Guardrails for Partners and Speakers
CAB strongly reinforced something most community members feel instinctively: events should feel like community, not commercials.
That led to ongoing work on:
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Clear partner guidelines at ACEs—how partners can add value without turning sessions into sales pitches
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Improving speaker quality through training and light‑touch feedback, so attendees get more consistent, high‑quality content
Expect an ongoing push toward sessions that teach, demo, and problem‑solve first, and only sell if and when it genuinely helps.
Stronger Bridges to Product and R&D
Champions often act as a bridge between the Community and product teams. CAB leaned into that role in 2025 by pushing for:
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Better internal playbooks that show PMs and engineers how to work with Champions and community members (AMAs, betas, early feedback loops, etc.)
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Using async formats (like Loom videos) for one‑way updates, and saving live time for Q&A and real conversation
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Less scattered feature communication, and more tied‑together, digestible updates the community can actually use
You should see more chances to talk directly with product owners, and more context shared through Champions and community spaces—not just during launches.
Why This Matters (and How You Can Plug In)
Even if you’re brand new to the Atlassian Community, the topics they hammered on in 2025 are all about your experience:
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Better events (more technical, more interactive, less repetitive)
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Clearer paths into leadership and recognition
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Stronger connections to product and R&D
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A community that scales without losing its soul
If you want to shape what CAB talks about next:
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Tell your local CAB member what’s working and what’s not
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Share patterns you’re seeing (e.g., “talks feel repetitive,” “not enough deep‑dive content,” “confusing overlap between events”)
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Think about where you want to contribute—events, forums, content, mentoring, or product feedback
Those themes are exactly the kind of input the CAB has the opportunity to turn into action through the feedback they provide the Atlassian Community team.
A Huge Thank You to the CAB
None of this work happens by accident.
CAB members volunteer their time to give hard feedback, share what they’re hearing on the ground, and push Atlassian to do better for the broader community. That often means late‑night calls across time zones, thoughtful follow‑up notes, and a lot of invisible emotional labor on behalf of other community members.
To everyone who served on the CAB in 2025: thank you. Your candor, persistence, and care for this community directly shaped the improvements above—and will continue to shape what we build next.
Your 2025 CAB representatives as of February 2026 are:
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And our returning Emeritus member: @Larry Brock _Praecipio_
Interested in joining the CAB? Speak with your Community Manager!
To learn more about the Atlassian Champions program or to apply, visit this page.
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Loren Siegel
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