Chutzpah

Legaltech News publisher Zach Warren uses this Yiddish word to describe one of the qualities needed to launch a legaltech Startup. In addition, he says, it takes vision and the ability to think oneself into the situation of the desired user as precisely as possible. There's a lot of truth to that.

Many founders fail at even describing their customers. You often hear "all lawyers" or "all attorneys". Maybe one should also generally move away from this customer group-based mindset and instead ask the question, "what pain are you trying to solve with your new product?" Then it's time to show your colors.

One example: from the current study by Wolters Kluwer, one can read that the standardization of contracting is a very important topic for law firms and for corporate legal. But why is that? Is it about the speed at which new contracts can be created, or is it about ensuring quality? In the former case, systems like Bryter or top.legal can actually help by analyzing the most important contracts and putting them into a question-answer grid with all the options provided. In the second case, it is more about the internal workflow and ensuring that all valid templates and text modules are actually stored and, above all, maintained in a defined location and that all employees are obliged to access only these quality-checked modules.

Certainly, the answers will mostly be ambiguous. But the message is: you have to understand your customer very well and know his pains as good as possible before you start developing a new software product. And exactly the same applies to customers facing the introduction of new tools. First define the pain and then deal with possible solutions!

With these meaningful words, Leginnside says goodbye to summer vacation. We will be back in mid-August. Stay healthy!

Show factor

In his column "Lost in innovation," the highly respected Markus Hartung expresses doubts about the innovative power of both law firms and their clients, the legal departments. There is no other way to explain the fact that both staff numbers and per capita turnover at law firms continue to rise, but so does the number of employees in legal departments, Hartung says. Innovation would require a permanent, joint process analysis between law firms and their clients, and there is no sign of this.

So far, so undisputed. But is this relationship really only a professional one? I claim, no. The value of consulting services (both of lawyers and of tax and business consultants) is, after all, also determined to a considerable extent on an emotional level. The particularly aggressive lawyer's letter to the opposing party, theatrical meetings, and even heavy documents - they all serve to convince clients of the extraordinary qualifications of "their" lawyer and of his overwhelming commitment to the cause.

The question remains why clients play along here. The answer is probably differentiated: some because they want to - the behavior described above gives them self-justification that they have made the right choice. And the others? - they are probably to be found in the rapidly growing group of clients willing to change, as described in the current Future Ready study by WoltersKluwer. 

Everything will stay the same until it will change.

Chutzpah

 

Never in my life would I have thought that the word "chutzpah" existed in English. The editor of Legaltech News, Zach Warren, uses it to describe one of the character traits it takes to launch a legaltech startup. In addition, he says, it takes vision and the ability to think as precisely as possible into the situation of the desired user. There's a lot of truth to that.

Many founders fail at even describing their customers. You often hear "all lawyers" or "all attorneys". Maybe you should also generally move away from this customer group-based mindset and instead ask the question, "what pain are you trying to solve with your new product?" Then it's time to show your colors.

One example: from the current study by Wolters Kluwer - I already mentioned it last week - you can read that standardization of contracting is a very important topic for law firms and for corporate legal. But why is that, really? Is it about the speed at which new contracts can be created, or is it about ensuring quality? In the former case, systems like Bryter or top.legal can actually help by analyzing the most important contracts and putting them into a question-answer grid with all the options provided. In the second case, it is more about the internal workflow and ensuring that all valid templates and text modules are actually stored in a defined location and that all employees are obliged to access only these quality-checked modules.

Certainly, the answers will be mostly ambiguous. But the message is: you have to understand your customer very well and know his pains as well as possible before you start developing a new software product. And exactly the same applies to customers facing the introduction of new tools. First define your pains and then deal with possible solutions!

PS: Even if founders have defined the parins and found a solution, it will still be a very long journey that requires a lot of chutzpah.