Reinventing LegalTech Adoption — The Menu
By Tamir Samman, Director of Customer Success, Casetext
Your firm selects a technology which addresses its business and attorney needs. The vendor requests a list including the full names, email addresses, offices and positions of the firm’s end-users and subsequently issues passwords. Several launch presentations are then scheduled, and the vendor provides their readily available customer service contact information to the users. Suddenly, adoption occurs!
Has this ever happened at your firm?
If we all know this approach doesn’t work, then why are so many legal technology companies repeating this failed approach? Perhaps out of ease? Wishful thinking? Carelessness? Most concerning may be due to a lack of imagination.
Firms are not only buying the technology solution; they’re buying into the company vision, the culture, the future of the product, the founders, and the personnel. The measure of an excellent technology company isn’t simply the technology solution; it’s also the quality of the employees and their ability to creatively work with firms to ensure adoption.
Savvy firms are creatively addressing technology adoption. At ARK, Marlene Gebauer, Director of Knowledge Management at Greenberg Traurig, presented her firm’s success story, gamification, an initiative which resulted in substantial and sustained increases of Casetext CARA A.I. usage. Jeff Rovner, Chief Knowledge Officer at O’Melveny & Myers, eloquently presented O’Melveny’s “Push” solution, “Ommnicient,” where highly relevant and timely information is delivered to the attorney at the moment of need.
At Casetext, we believe that legal technology companies must also take ownership of adoption. We agree with Jeff: “We can’t hold KM hostage to so many chance events.”
Our solution is to offer client firms The Menu.
What is The Menu?
We know that when it comes to adoption, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We work with our clients to find the strategy that will work best for them. The Menu offers firms three strategies, each of which can be tailored to the firm’s firmwide culture as well as to their office-to-office culture.
Here is a brief description of what’s in The Menu(and if you’re interested in reading The Menu, send me a note and I’ll send you the booklet):
The Casetext Client Success team drafts three launch proposals:
1) Firm-Wide Launch: A customized program for all litigation personnel.
2) The Influencer Program: Firm hand-selects early adopters who will champion and evangelize CARA A.I. prior to a firm-wide launch.
3) Game-Based Strategy: See Marlene Gebauer’s case study of Casetext Madness.
We then submit the proposals to the firm for review. Client firms typically modify language to suit the firm’s internal voice, review personnel and logistics, and then submit redlines to the Casetext Client Success team. The Casetext Client Success team then reviews feasibility and logistics and submits a final version of the selected option.
The Menu isn’t static.
We understand that a litany of events can affect adoption — practice seasonality, matter variabilities, and mergers to name a few. Our approach to these major events is to offer new menus well beyond the launch of the product. It is incumbent upon our team to understand the firm’s practice and anticipate change.
Technology adoption must not remain a burden which only law firms are required to undertake. Legal technology companies must take ownership as well. Adoption is a challenge and like most challenges, creative thinking from a dedicated team of professionals can lead to great rewards — greater efficiency, satisfaction amongst associates, savvy partners marketing artificial intelligence technologies to clients, and most importantly, greater appreciation from clients.
