Problem
Audience-initiated (scheduled or recurring) whiteboards can run slower than expected or fail to start on time when they process very large audiences.
In some cases, a new scheduled execution may be delayed or blocked because a previous execution is still running.
Cause
Whiteboards require a group as an initial audience. If this group contains a very large number of members and no segmentation is applied at the audience step, the whiteboard processes the entire group before filtering contacts into different paths.
Even if only a small subset of contacts ultimately qualifies for further processing, the whiteboard still evaluates every member of the initial audience. This significantly increases processing time and resource usage, especially when multiple whiteboards run in parallel.
Resolution
To improve performance, apply segmentation at the audience step of the whiteboard.
By combining the group with a segmentation:
Only contacts that match the segmentation enter the whiteboard
The whiteboard processes a significantly smaller audience
Path selection and message processing are limited to relevant contacts
This reduces execution time and prevents long-running whiteboard instances from blocking subsequent scheduled runs.
Result
With audience-level segmentation in place:
Whiteboards process fewer contacts per execution
Path-based logic runs more efficiently
Scheduled and recurring whiteboards are less likely to overlap or block each other
Overall whiteboard performance improves, especially in environments with large groups
Additional Information
Using segmentation at the audience step is recommended when:
Groups contain a very large number of members
Only a subset of contacts is expected to continue through the whiteboard
Multiple whiteboards run concurrently based on large audiences
Document Technical Reference: h6jdq