1. Innovation is not all about you using Google Docs instead of Word, or Slack instead of email

2. Even if it was, getting Google Docs or Slack is not the hard part. Unearthing long-standing processes and adapting them to fit with those new tools is the hard part
3. Innovation is about looking way beyond "tools" and thinking about how you can be a better business regardless of snazzy tools

4. So the first step is to think of "how can we be a better business?". More profit? Better culture? Probably lots of things. Name them. Discuss them.
5. Then you ask, "how can we achieve a business goal, and how will we measure it?". Then go on a hunt and find pockets of the business where you can start doing stuff

6. You'll find out LOADS AND LOADS as you start doing stuff. Doing stuff is the best way to find out things
7. As you find out more things, you'll get better and better at doing stuff. That's why the "whole shebang" tactic doesn't work. You need to learn first.

8. Innovation is about always refining what you are doing and always measuring yourself against targets
9. When you do stuff, be completely agnostic about whether your successes are brought by technology or process improvements. It makes no difference

10. No matter what you do, you NEED to get inside the shoes of the key people. Get inside their minds as much as you can
11. In legal, and any other industry, you WILL encounter roadblocks because nobody likes to change. Work out what makes people tick. Measure your success. Broadcast successes to build trust. That will help deliver change
12. Too many lawyers still think innovation is either (a) them using Slack, Trello and Google docs, or (b) doing super cool robotic stuff with AI

13. They need to understand (a) is not as simple as it sounds. It's TOUGH - decades of practice has built up that needs to change
14. They need to understand that (b) is often just a PR stunt. If that's what you're going for, that's fine - but be honest with yourself: it's PR, not innovation

15. Both (a) and (b), are pointless unless you can relate them to your metrics on how you can be a better business
16. Finally, don't overpromise and don't do anything if the only goal is self-promotion. People see through that. Don't try to be the hero. Let your users be the heroes. Your job is to guide them
(This thread spurred on by the realisation that quite a lot of people see those who work in legal innovation as glorified IT Support)

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More from @jackwshepherd

4 Nov
Still some law firm partners joining webinars as innovation experts even though their experience is really on advising tech clients, not instilling change in a law firm. It’s GREAT when they do u/s these things and can combine their legal skillset with product/change/etc skills
Also it’s fine if they don’t have those skills, everyone should still speak up about their thoughts. My issue is more acting as if they are experts on everything and not having an understanding of the real issues at play (and not knowing they don’t have that understanding)
It’s always very obvious when this is the case...ppl think innovation is “telling IT to give me access to Google Docs”, talking as if tool = innovation, and not even mentioning the underlying business model of #biglaw firms
Read 5 tweets
9 Aug
I hope that at some point in the future, we "componentize" legal documents. What I mean is: move from one huge document to lots of smaller documents that collectively make up the document. I've had a fun day playing around with this in @obsdmd
I firmly believe that we won't (and probably shouldn't) be switching away from Word anytime soon. I also believe lawyers need to use Word properly before more sophisticated tools are developed. My opinion: for complex contracts, lawyers do not want anything other than Word
But in the midst of a heat wave on a Sunday afternoon, that doesn't stop me wondering what the future could hold...
Read 16 tweets
5 Aug
Had some interesting discussions this week on things lawyers often miss when using Microsoft Word. Here are some things I think are pretty important that most people don’t know about
This is probably teaching the legal tech community to suck eggs. But just want to make the point that the reaction I usually get when I tell people about these is, “oh wow that’s clever”. That’s where most are at
1️⃣ Split window view. You can have two windows open for the same doc and scroll them independently. Definitions (start of doc) on the left, clauses etc on the right (middle of doc). Means you don’t flick back and forth all the time
Read 9 tweets
24 Jul
It’s been an interesting few months for e-signatures in law. Just my opinion: none of the platforms are yet in a place where they really cater well “out of the box” for transaction signing processes run by law firms. Anybody looking at this area I welcome your thoughts
1️⃣ First and foremost, a signing process is a mission critical thing for lawyers. Once we trigger the signing process, things become pretty urgent and people get scared. Responses need to be snappy where people are having technical issues
2️⃣ Many transactions involve 100s of signatories in different time zones. Often documents need to be executed at a specific time. We can’t wait to trigger the process until the document is fully ready. People need to get signatures in advance + delegate authority to release
Read 22 tweets

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