PRODUCT @ ATHENNIAN
I don’t have much experience with lawyers, but whenever I’ve had to deal with them, I’ve had to sign documents or contracts. Have you ever stopped to imagine what documentation control looks like in a legal office? Thousands of paper documents can be used within a firm and these records must be kept for long periods, filed, and stored, based on legal requirements. Thankfully digital transformation is about to change all that, with the help of up and coming legal-tech Athennian, who is automating archaic processes with a single source of truth, all at the touch of a button.
Athennian is a cloud-based legal entity management software used by law firms, legal departments, and corporate secretaries for entity governance. The platform automates subsidiary and entity management, transforming compliance, governance and transactional workflows and digital signatures. They were founded in 2017 by CEO Adrian Camara, a corporate lawyer who saw an opportunity to digitize the corporate transaction experience and streamline legal documentation to kick excel spreadsheets to the curb.
They currently have 2500 users and 400,000 business entities managing on its platform. Their goal is to attain one million entities using its platform and $100 million of recurring revenue. They recently secured $41M in financing and are focusing on Application Programming Interface (API) which would enable them to integrate more software into their platform, making it a “one stop party shop”, so to speak. They currently have about 90 employees and are planning to hire several hundred new employees over the next couple of years.
Product @ Athennian
I spoke to Jordan Rindahl, who modestly identifies himself as “Product @ Athennian”, though he would commonly be known to the outside world as Director of Product. This might also be because he wears many hats within this lean start up Product team and simply tackles the work wherever it needs to be done. He joined Athennian as a Product Manager in May 2020 and was promoted to Director by December 2021.
His team is comprised of four Product Managers and one Product Designer who is mainly responsible for user experience. More recently he has been working closely with the Executive team to review and discuss relevant metrics and trends to assist in strategy discussions as they navigate the turbulent waters associated with a tech start-up during this high growth period.
What Does This PM Do?
Athennian is on a mission to equip Paralegals with “superpowers”. Jordan tells me that the bulk of his time is spent with engineering and operations and putting specs around stories to build a great software product. Product plays a pivotal role in aligning to the company’s aggressive growth plan. For instance, they are currently trying to expand their customer base by breaking into the USA market. This involves doing discovery work with US customers and identifying how their tool can fill the gaps in the market.
They are also trying to incorporate integration tools into their software so that users only need to update records in one place rather than multiple locations. Roadmaps created with their Canadian customers assist them in continuously improving functionality and strengthening the workflow process from end to end.
Detective Work
A good Product Manager asks WHY … constantly, he tells me … and often it can take up to five different attempts to understand the problem. When asked if people get annoyed with such persistence, he says that the players acknowledge that it helps them isolate the problem. It takes group thinking and collaboration to find a solution, he tells me. He observes that people often start with a solution rather than problem identification, characterizing this as short-sighted; “people’s biggest limitation is not using their imagination”.
They strive to understand the what and the why before building it and make data informed decisions. During high growth mode there is an expectation for a quick turnaround on developments, but it is not always possible. It is a timely process, involving prototyping, testing, and designing before going live, and of course, all the while keeping quality and coordination in check. Iterations and enhancements also need to be validated for their return on investment. Not all customer requests can be honoured, for instance: product development needs both business and customer payoff.
people’s biggest limitation is not using their imagination
This Ain’t Lip Syncing
As a non-techie, I noticed that the infamous meeting word was referred to as syncing. In my estimation, there couldn’t be a more fitting word to describe this goal of communication. The meaning of sync is, as explained by the Cambridge dictionary, “if two things are in/out of sync, they reach the same or related stage at the same time/at different times”. I love the symbolism of this word being imbedded into their interactions as a constant reminder that they’re all in this together. To keep communication flowing and obtain updates, he has regularly scheduled syncs with all the stakeholders in the company: bi-weekly sync with Support; monthly sync with Sales, monthly sync with Marketing, monthly sync with Finance. He has a daily scrum stand-up with Engineering, and alignment syncs as required to discuss problems, discovery, and retrospectives.
Interestingly, they have a mandate of “No Meeting Thursdays” to foster a culture of creativity and productivity, so at least one day is dedicated to focused thinking and work.
Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge for Product is timing and delivery: helping people understand the roadmap and prioritizing activities. Product Support often bring issues to Product to address and, depending on where they are in the roadmap, will determine the timing of resolution. Jordan strongly recommends that you learn to say “no” when requests can’t be implemented. He advises to be realistic and forthcoming and not to build false hopes.
PENDO
How do they know what’s working and what needs improvement, you ask? They use a fabulous tool called Pendo, which is an analytics tool that lets software makers embed a wide range of tools that can lead to both a better product experience for users and new insights for the product team. They can anonymously gather analytics and observations about usage habits and trends, as well as customer feedback through interactive communication like sharing screen shots or explaining functionality step by step, for example.
With the data analytics gleaned through Pendo, they shape their story for assessing risk and making decisions for such things as product iterations and enhancements, trends, and functionality, as well as monitoring metrics on the dashboard.
How Technical Does One Need to Be?
The role of the PM is to help people make decisions. Having some technical knowledge obviously helps you to converse with engineers but it is not essential. Technical knowledge will accumulate and improve over time with experience and exposure. Instead, it is more critical for the PM to bring empathy to the technical team. In addition, to advance into progressively challenging roles, developing business acumen is advisable to perform business analysis, converse with Finance and participate in strategic discussions with management.
Words of Wisdom
Like any stellar PM, the advice he had for a newbie starting on the PM journey, was to be curious! He encouraged me to do lots of reading, and recommended the book Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love, by Marty Cagan.
In addition, he directed me to read an excellent blog written by one of his enthusiastic Product Managers, aptly titled “5 things I did to become a Product Manager”. Here she identified these steps, which sound like good advice to me:
1. Work somewhere that has a Product department
2. Become a SME
3. Demonstrate using data to inform decisions
4. Take matters into your own hands
5. Educate yo’ self
Conclusion
I take comfort knowing that I’m on the right track by educating myself and increasing my knowledge and exposure to the Product world. While I’m sure Jordan’s job is far more complex than I’ve captured here, this snapshot has proven to be insightful to the pressures, challenges and joys that can be found in Product Management, and I have a whole lot more to learn.
References
Cambridge dictionary (n.d.). Sync. In Dictionary.Cambridge.org. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sync
Athennian.com. (2022). Retrieved April 23, 2022, from https://www.athennian.com/post/how-the-right-software-can-help-you-manage-heavy-volumes-of-client-demands
ProductPlan. (2022). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.productplan.com/glossary/pendo/
Pendo.io. (2022). Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.pendo.io/product-experience/
O’Regan, P. (2021, September 21). The LCN Interview: Adrian Camara. LCN Legal. https://lcnlegal.com/the-lcn-interview-adrian-camara/
Simpson, M. (2022, March 30). With New Funding, Athennian Hopes to Follow in Clio’s Unicorn Footsteps. Betakit. https://betakit.com/athennian-closes-42-million-series-b-hopes-to-follow-in-clios-unicorn-footsteps/
Wong, H. (Apr 22). 5 things I did to become a Product Manager. Medium. (https://medium.com/@haliwong/5-things-i-did-to-become-a-product-manager-d97c839d446e
