Peer to Peer Magazine

47 WWW.ILTANET.ORG Reduce the number of firms engaged in this work. Working with 17 different firms was frustrating and inefficient. We designed a system wherein they now work with two (one for domestic projects and one for international projects). The two firms use a single shared tracking and reporting tool built on a SharePoint platform. Continually improve the process by making data-driven decisions. Microso wanted to capture data about the work in order to improve the system as a whole. To do this, we: » Established service-level agreements to set target response times. These data are captured and reviewed to measure performance. » Implemented contract analysis to identify which provisions caused the greatest deal friction. Experienced lawyers might have predicted which provisions were the hardest to negotiate, but intuition is no substitute for hard data. Designed To Prioritize People By starting with empathy, and using design thinking as a framework, our firm has not only helped Microso's in-house team focus on their highest and best uses, we have also markedly improved the way we serve our clients overall. Clients like it, and we'll keep working to do it beer. From a client-centered design perspective, that's (almost) all that maers. P2P The other principles remind us of the need to define the challenges and identify possible solutions through close conversations and "hands-on" work with clients. Rapid prototyping and testing of the possible solutions ensure the problem is, in fact, being solved. To be effective, this process must be done in collaboration with clients. Lawyers must offer and deliver legal services "designed for our clients and their tasks." This is empathy in action. Design Thinking in Action When our firm won an engagement with Microso through an RFP process, we started from a place of empathy and designed both a solution and a delivery model based on what the in-house team at Microso told us frustrated them. We designed intake protocols, workflows, templates and reporting tools based on our conversations and collaborated with them throughout to beer understand their needs. This involved discussing topics that are not oen part of the typical in-house/outside counsel relationship. It required a substantial time commitment from both parties. We learned that Microso wanted to deploy a "managed service" model for the negotiation and execution of procurement contracts. We learned, not without failure along the way, that their objectives included the following: Increase budget predictability. Using a fixed monthly fee provided budget certainty. Prior to implementation, their monthly fees varied by as much as 200 percent. Design Thinking: The Future of Prioritizing People in the Process FEATURES Have we become so focused on task codes and billable time that we have lost sight of the importance of taking time to understand the pressures clients face? Key Principles of Design Thinking Human-centered design principles include empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping and testing. These principles provide a powerful framework for change, and it all begins with empathy. 1 2 3 EMPATHIZE DEFINE IDEATE PROTOTYPE TEST

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