Background A few years ago while attending a professional development meeting for emerging company attorneys, one of my colleagues shared an interesting pain point about the legal practice. As a senior partner for an emerging companies practice, one of his primary roles is to coordinate the efforts of other attorneys in order to support the … Continue reading Product Exercise: Making a better email experience
How I Think About the Future of Law
In light of COVID-19, the global legal profession has had to rapidly adjust to a new work paradigm. In response to this, We (the legal profession at large) have been finding new solutions and trying to think strategically about how legal services should continue to change in the future. Many of the best minds in … Continue reading How I Think About the Future of Law
Claiming Backlog Bankruptcy
Background When I first started as a product manager, I spent several weeks orienting myself with how to manage my team's product process. At first, my priority was just to keep my head above water and make sure that I could be effective for my team. However, once I got my bearings, I started to … Continue reading Claiming Backlog Bankruptcy
Improving the Onboarding Experience
I know this is stating the obvious but product onboarding is crucial to set the stage for high user engagement and ultimately retention. The following is a feature I worked on at Gust to improve the Gust Launch customer onboarding experience. Background The initial workflows in Gust Launch incorporate and form the corporation. These consist … Continue reading Improving the Onboarding Experience
Quantifying Your Team’s Morale and Productivity
When I was first promoted as a product manager, I was given a role description. Specifically, there was one sentence that still sticks with me, “release stuff that matters to us and our customers while keeping your teammates in the zone.” That simple sentence told me as much about what it means to be a … Continue reading Quantifying Your Team’s Morale and Productivity
Balancing Qualitative and Quantitative Insights
Getting information from your customers/users is critical to quickly test and improve your product. However, this is often easier said than done. In the early stages of a product it can be hard to determine what impact (if any) your features are having. Further, if sufficient time is not put into thinking about what will … Continue reading Balancing Qualitative and Quantitative Insights
Legal Tech isn’t Special
Flippant title aside, hear me out. Having attended a number of legal tech events in the past 4 years, there seems to be an underlying assumption that legal tech has a very unique, maybe even insurmountable, set of challenges. When you look at law firm business models, legal consumer research, and the ethical/regulatory landscape, it … Continue reading Legal Tech isn’t Special
Lawyers Should Learn Something Other Than the Law
Something I have been thinking about for a while is the concept of a “hybrid lawyer.” These are individuals that are legally trained attorneys that can extend their knowledge cross-functionally. The predominant area where I have seen this in the legal industry is in software development and data science/analytics. While I do believe that those … Continue reading Lawyers Should Learn Something Other Than the Law
We Need a General Communication Process
When we gain new information, context is key. During my last year in business school in my Professionalism Class we had a guest lecturer, Greg Merten. He is a former VP at Hewlett Packard and led the colossal rise of Inkjet printing. What he spent his time describing to us was a communication process that … Continue reading We Need a General Communication Process
My Path into Product
My journey into product management was a lot more timing and luck than a deliberate path. I have come to realize though that a circuitous route to product management is more the norm than the exception. Here is a little bit about how I found my way into product management. During law school, I focused … Continue reading My Path into Product