Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to co-teach a class with Léo Murgel, SVP & COO, Legal & Corporate Affairs at Salesforce for UC Law SF (the artist formerly known as UC Hastings Law) on "Fostering a Culture of Innovation Using Legal Technology."
Léo laid out the framework for design thinking, bringing in his experience from over a decade of leading legal ops for one of the most innovative software companies of our generation. I shared a case study that applied that same framework to the process of bringing in technology for the legal & sales teams at DoorDash. And we ended with a simulation exercise that asked the students to solve a very commonly experienced problem -- supplier onboarding -- using the design framework.
Some takeaways from our class:
- driving innovation is everyone's responsibility (it is often neglected and thought of as someone else's job)
- legal professionals are in a unique position to bring in tools that accelerate business outcomes b/c they are working with every team and in a unique position to identify pain and see where the biggest opportunities are
- have a bias for action when getting a prototype/pilot out to test (perfection is the enemy of launching pilots). You can learn more from a day of testing than a month of whiteboarding.
- having time-based constraints are great forcing functions during this process
- you don't have to do it all yourself - aligning yourself with other leaders who are bought into the problem and motivated to solve the issue means you can tap into budget, resources, and thought-partnership.
Thanks for the opportunity to share our learnings with the class, Drew Amerson and Alice Armitage!
#legalinnovation #legaltech