Innovation projects can enable productivity and free up time for higher-value tasks — but only if you handle the project correctly. Here are three key questions to ask if you’re implementing new tech.
In industries like law, where entrenched practices (and sometimes professionals) can be slow to change, successfully introducing new technologies and solutions to streamline workflows can deliver a huge competitive advantage.
Knowing which solutions will make a difference, however, and which your users are most likely to adopt, isn’t always easy. We generally use the term “change management” to refer to the steps you take to generate awareness and proper usage of tools. While change management is often seen as jargon for “training,” we see it as one of the biggest challenges facing traditional industries.
There’s no guarantee that your projects, no matter how useful or well-intentioned, will see success. But there are things you can do that can give you the very best chance. First and foremost is asking the right questions.
At iManage, we’ve found that focusing on three key considerations at the very beginning of an innovation project can help set you on the right path — and increase your chances of implementing changes that give your firm a real competitive advantage.
Question one: What’s the problem?
Innovation projects can be exciting endeavors, but it can be easy to get swept up in that excitement. That’s why the first and most fundamental question you should ask is “why?”.
Quite often, we’ll see firms identify a solution they like the look of and then explore the benefits it can provide, but this is far from the most effective way of approaching meaningful change. In fact, it’s the definition of putting the cart before the horse. The best innovation projects start from a pain point and work towards solving it. So, ask yourself: “What problem am I trying to overcome?”.
Often, people say things like “we will only know what problem it solves when we deploy it”, or “people need to see what the art of the possible is”. But you can answer both of these questions without going through the expense of deploying a tool. Instead, you can have discussions with users to gauge how much they care about a problem or not.
To help with this, we highly recommend bringing in a technology or solution design professional to lead your innovation projects. A solution design expert can take an analytical approach to identifying the real issues within your firm. They will look at things with fresh eyes and account for every area of the business, which means solutions won’t just be designed to cater to your lawyers. Instead, they will consider the needs of every user, including procurement, sales, IT, marketing, and HR teams. Which brings us to our next question…
Question two: Who are the right project stakeholders?
Ensuring you have the right stakeholders involved from the beginning of your innovation project can be the difference between success and failure. It’s vital that you don’t just focus on lawyers, but instead consider a full range of roles and opinions — not least to avoid confirmation bias.
Your stakeholders should include budget holders, as these people will ultimately approve the costs of the project. Sponsors and influencers are also key, especially in industries like law where people can be resistant to change. These people will play a key role in ensuring your solution is embraced from the top down. It’s also important not to overlook your internal IT teams who will have a greater understanding of how your new implementation might work in synergy with your wider IT landscape.
Perhaps most important of all, you should always involve skeptics in the process. It’s the best way to understand the criticisms and objections other people will raise. And when you’re aware of these things early on, you can assess if they are valid, plan how to overcome them, and get ahead of the game — ideally creating a solution that pleases everyone.
To make sure you have all these boxes ticked off, it’s important to establish:
- Who is responsible for doing the work?
- Who is accountable if things go wrong?
- Who will be consulted, and to what extent?
- Who will be informed of progress?
A failure to account for these different stakeholders can have some significant consequences, like running out of money, making promises you later realize you can’t keep, or your project simply getting blocked by influential parties. Which leads us to our next question: How do you make sure these people buy into your idea?
Question three: How do I build a business case?
Once you’ve identified your stakeholders, it’s time to build a business case to get funding and top-down support for your project.
A business case helps you categorize your priorities and concerns, and establish key partners, activities, resources, value propositions, user relationships, channels, cost structures, and revenue streams. In essence, it should contain every consideration that’s integral to your project’s success.
Your goal should be to use both quantitative and qualitative analysis to talk in specific terms about the value the solution will add. You should focus on pain points, what they are costing your firm, and what about them needs to improve.
An example might be: “We are losing X amount of revenue when our clients refuse to pay our fees in due diligence because of inefficiency.” Or: “We spend 2000 hours preparing paper court binders at the cost of $50,000 a year.”
These metrics are vital, as they are inarguable proof that a problem exists. But qualitative and anecdotal data is also an important part of painting this picture. How do these inefficiencies affect the people in your firm? Make sure to talk to people across different departments to get a full picture of what’s happening. It’s not uncommon in legal firms to have people leave their jobs and seek out more tech-savvy employers because inefficient processes become too labor intensive. So be sure to draw attention to the human element of the story.
Once the problem and those it’s affecting are established, it’s time to explore the solution landscape. Summarize the solutions that are available — are your competitors already using one, or is there an opportunity to be a pioneer in this space? Is it better to buy an off-the-shelf solution or build one from the ground up? And what are the associated costs with each approach?
Finally, make sure you identify, and are transparent about, any risks involved. When you’re upfront about risks and rollout plans, you reduce surprises — and increase trust.
Want to learn more?
At iManage, we work with firms around the world who are navigating change and trying to modernize legal work. We’ve learned that asking the right questions at the start of your transformation can set the tone for success. Whether you’re assessing stakeholder readiness, building a business case, or pressure-testing a problem, those early conversations are where meaningful innovation begins.
Get in touch with us to learn more.
About the author
Gia Tammone-Park