How NOT to 'Crap Out' in Legal Tech

Does anyone actually know how to play Craps? Seriously.

I spent last week with 2,000+ of my favorite legal operations pros at the CLOC Global Institute in glittery Las Vegas. While I’m not much of a gambler, I’m a visual learner who considers herself fairly intelligent.

So why am I wholly unable to learn Craps by watching it?

Then it hit me – this must be what our lawyers and legal professionals feel like when we drop a new feature-rich tech product in their laps.

No wonder they’re resistant! Even if they are motivated to use the new tool/ process/ system, no one likes to feel dim.

Here’s how not to ‘crap out’ with your legal tech adoption:

1.???Learn the Easy Wins.

In the Craps world, experts recommend newbies start with betting on the Pass line. Why? Because it’s easy to win. ?You get some confidence with the game without putting too much at risk.

Legal tech should follow the same approach – find the easy wins for your users. How do you identify the easy wins if you don’t work directly with these users on a day-to-day basis? I’m going to suggest something controversial – talk to them! And then…

• Assemble an informal advisory group. In one of my previous roles, I created a legal secretary and paralegal tech committee. This team weighed in on everything from defining the new tech we’d pursue (based on their pain points) as well as helped me understand how they work today.
• Put your users into buckets – based not on their titles, but on how they would be using the tech. For instance, a billing analyst and a legal secretary might overlap in certain functions (like printing the dreaded pre-bills). And a partner and firm leadership might both be consuming data from this system in the same way. Focus on the types of uses – instead of users – to find common needs.
• Figure out which user groups can get the most value from the new tech the fastest and start your adoption efforts here. If your legal secretaries spend 8 hours a month printing pre-bills, and your new tech will allow them to do it with a push of a button, start there! They have the most to gain from the change. On the other hand, if your partners are happy with their part of the process today, consider whether your new tech can leave that workflow intact (or match it exactly). Don’t mess with the people who are happy and you’ll cut way back on the hate mail your receive!
• List the top three functions for the users who can see the most gains quickly. Maybe folks in this “print pre-bills” group commonly print pre-bills for partners and save them as PDFs for email. This is the core functionality this group needs to know. Your goal is to find a couple of “easy wins” for each of the key user groups and start your users there. They’ll gain confidence in your approach and in the value of the new tech.

2.?????Break It Down.

No, not like MC Hammer (though, what a great video that was). I mean, break the functionality down to its simplest form and focus your training / rollout efforts there. Here’s a great example of what that looks like for the game of Craps . In this 4-minute video, the host breaks down the betting options to their simplest forms and helps the player understand very quickly where they might make the most gains or encounter the most risk.

If you can deliver value to a user with a 2-minute video, demo, or four bullet points, they will adopt the tech. By the same token, if you ask them to sit in a 45-minute live session on how to use Webex, they will suddenly lose your number and stop returning your emails. I’m happy to report that I am confident I can play Craps, at least in its simplest form, at the next CLOC Global Institute. All from a short, 4-minute video.

3.?????Make It Fun.

I don’t even like gambling, but Craps looks so dang fun. All the shouting and hive-fiving among strangers, blowing on dice, and the superstitions. I want to be a part of it.

People like fun things – even legal professionals. And yes, even lawyers.

Plenty of their work is hard and maybe even soul-crushing. If you can find some way to make learning and using the new tech fun, you’ll see much better adoption.

The “right” way to make new tech fun will vary a lot based on the tech, the culture at your organization, and your individual style. Can’t think of how to make pre-bills fun? Again, talk to your users. I bet you’ll get some good ideas.

Now that we’ve absurdly tied legal tech adoption to Craps, I’d love to hear from you! How do you make your tech adoption a success?