The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/448505
individuals from each major practice area. Designing the base template took about three months. The process could have been accelerated, but this schedule worked with our timeline, including the planned delivery of hardware. We knew of several practice areas that would have distinct needs and requirements. With the base design complete, we set up a secondary committee to refine the design to meet more specific requirements for the practice areas. This secondary committee comprised the original group, a technology partner, a "technologically "friendly representative from each practice area and administrative staff from each of our offices, ensuring a cross-section of knowledge, experience and technical ability. Committee members were encouraged to seek feedback from others in their practice area. We kept meetings short to ensure focus and attendance. For efficiency, we only scheduled meetings when a milestone was reached, making it necessary to convene before proceeding with the next stage of the design. It was an administrative challenge to keep everyone on this time-consuming, non-billable task, but the ultimate result was a customized and highly workable product interface. KEY DESIGN CALLS IT's objective in this process was to incorporate the practice groups' most critical requests. Meeting all requests and preferences was not a viable option. We engaged the consulting services of KHA Global to assist us with this process. It can be more effective to have an outsider, especially one that has extensive experience rolling out this type of platform, explain to the committee why certain requests and suggestions might not be prudent. Their expertise helped us avoid common pitfalls and potentially costly mistakes. They were also able to provide direction if we ran into a dead end. Countless decisions are made in the design process, which vastly affect the end-user experience and workability of the platform. For example, we decided on a policy that prohibited users from customizing or adding/deleting to the root-level folder of the final design. This was to ensure a consistent first-level structure across the firm. These firm standards and consistent unchangeable root-level structures strongly encouraged compliance. In addition, all users, including senior partners, had the same rights and privileges, making it clear that consistency and compliance were critical. Once the designs were built, they were again reviewed and modified appropriately. Our outside consulting resource was a tremendous value during this process. WWW.ILTANET.ORG 21