Digital White Papers

30 WWW.ILTANET.ORG | ILTA WHITE PAPER KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT A clearly articulated project intake process ensures consistent, strategic decision-making, preserves the program's integrity and prevents disappointment and disillusionment – all critical to keeping people interested in continuing to envision and submit ideas. Whether ideas are sourced through online submissions, crowdsourcing events (like innovation challenges and hackathons) or brainstorming workshops and retreats, the intake process should address: » The problem or opportunity the project is designed to address. » The impact the problem or opportunity has or will have on the organization. » The desired outcome and likely benefits. » How the project will achieve them. The intake process also needs a rigorous methodology for evaluating proposals. A rating sheet that assigns a numerical score for each of a set of predetermined factors important to your organization will help compare the relative value of projects and rank them against the organization's current priorities. Although this will vary across organizations, common factors include potential impact, efficiency gains, cost savings, revenue generation, new clients or work sources, reputation enhancement and likelihood of success. Approved projects should then follow the organization's general project management methodology, including kick-off and other meetings, requirements gathering, stakeholder identification and inevitable resistance to change. Champions within the practice groups and departments help generate ideas, advance projects and embed new processes, services and products. Depending on the structure, the initiative's team may be dedicated full-time to an innovation unit or department or brought in on a case-by-case basis to develop specific solutions. Either way, multidisciplinary teams of lawyers and paralegals, legal assistants, technologists, marketing and sales people, data analysts or scientists, designers and others should be assembled. Remember, the broader the diversity of knowledge, perspective, skills and experience, the more likely the team is to generate novel ideas, approaches and solutions. Even initiatives with a dedicated core team will likely need to involve others, including lawyers, from throughout the organization when specific projects call for their subject maer expertise or specialized skills. Because geing lawyers to devote their already limited time to innovation projects can be challenging, some firms provide billable hour credits, bonuses or vacations to encourage lawyers to invest time on projects. But never underestimate the cool factor when luring talent to projects; many lawyers are aracted to innovation for less tangible rewards, like developing niche expertise, gaining prominence in the firm or community or simply working on something different and exciting. Designing a Process You will need a process for receiving and reviewing ideas, evaluating their feasibility and likelihood of success, weighing their relative value and seing priorities. Having this process in place before the initiative begins will keep your program from spinning out of control. A Practical Guide to Disciplined Innovation and Other Oxymorons A clearly articulated project intake process ensures consistent, strategic decision- making, preserves the program's integrity and prevents disappointment and disillusionment .

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