April 2019 Legal Design Challenge Scenarios to improve contracting A collaboration between DWF, LEx Open Source, Radiant Law and Wavelength Law First things first The Legal Design Challenge To kick start the challenge we gave a sample contracting lifecycle to each of the six teams. In March 2019, inspired by the idea of using collaboration and design The lifecycle aimed to cover the major activities from end to end and the teams were asked principles to improve contracting, DWF, LEx Open Source, Radiant Law to review and add their comments, thoughts and additions. and Wavelength Law hosted a Legal Design Challenge. Contracting Lifecyle Attendees from a wide range of in-house legal Anyone can take these outputs away to use in Contract strategy Contract creation and Implementation and Exit/renewal teams, law firms and legal service providers their organisation, either as they are or as a and selection execution management came together alongside procurement, contract basis that can be tailored or improved further. management, innovation and design experts to Equally anyone is free to discard the outputs Strategy/business plan Contract request/ Systemise and monitor identify problem areas and share their ideas on but use the design approach and tools to create authorising obligations and performance potential solutions. something different. Variations As part of a commitment to making this know- All that we ask in return is for people to build on Market analysis Review and approval Risk and dispute how open source, this publication is our way of the momentum that has been created, carry on management sharing the findings. the conversation about the value of design and Termination plan The outputs are designed to be a starting point keep collaborating to improve contracting. Commercial position Negotiation of contract and Manage changes, renewals that can hopefully kick start a wider range of including redlines commercial terms and improvements activity, which utilises the value of collaboration Renewal process and design principles to improve contracting in Vendor selection Award Governance the industry. In reality The management of documents, Pricing and risk governance data capture and monitoring decisions run It’s important to consider the different “The outputs are designed to be a runs along the are important throughout stakeholders and what they want through the lifecycle the process starting point that can hopefully kick lifecycle to achieve from the contracting process e.g. finance, business team, start a wider range of activity...” procurement, sales, legal, With multiple It’s important to data, compliance, IT, security owners and stages, consider specific external Six scenarios to corporate memory is an regulation input which can drive important element elements of the process and differ from industry re-design contracting to industry We asked six diverse teams to think about the key challenges in contracting and identify areas to re-design, here are the scenarios they came up with. The Workbook 1 3 5 With all the teams agreed on what the base contracting Making sure the right information is available to Making sure business owners find it easy to Making sure there are clearly understood rules the right people at the right time. implement the contract roadmap post signature. and more frictionless interactions. lifecycle should look like and include, the challenge moved on to applying design principles and a sequence of tools. 2 4 6 10x improvement in the time it takes to close the Educating key teams in the business to ensure Making it easier to manage the contract by The aim was to identify areas across the This section recreates the workbooks that contracting process. they have a simple and clear articulation of the tracking the data. contracting lifecycle that could be improved each of the teams used on the day for the ongoing obligations. and suggest practical ways to do it. design process. The outputs are unedited and unvarnished, with the aim of showing how the tools were used and the wide range of outputs that came up across the teams. 2 3 The Workbook Workbook 1 Use the problem statement sheet and the ‘fishbone’ Scenario diagnostic tools to identify the problem areas, desired 3 Use the Impact vs. Effort matrix to help to prioritise the ideas on the list. Ideas that fall into outcomes and underlying causes. box 1 have the best chance of success. Anything that falls into box 4 should be discounted. Problem statement: Information given to the business requires multiple Prioritisation 1 instructions from multiple stakeholders. Plot numbers left onto matrix below Desired outcome: Right information to the right people at the right time with an audit trail by clause. 1 5 4 8 2 10 7 2 Large 3 17 Problem causes 11 14 6 9 Brainstorm as many ideas from everyone in Mindset 2 1 the team and create a list. At this stage Lack of ownership Lack of prioritisation My way is the right way no idea is a bad idea so everything should Size of impact 12 15 Loss of interest Lack of collaboration No buy-in to change be captured. Must win, I know best Not seeing the big picture Understanding who Small 13 attitudes makes the decision Ideas for potential solutions 4 3 No shared No clear objectives or Reward structure 1 Standardised data - industry standards, schema, data structure, understanding of risk too many conflicting drives inconsistent taxonomy, ontology that starts to form the building blocks. Hard Ease of implementation Easy profile and alignment objectives behaviours 2.2 Industry contract standards - external knowledge that needs to be Process incorporated into considerations as an ‘agreed basic’. 4 Get the whole team to vote on the ideas in box 1 and choose a maximum of three to work Personal vs. business Need for speed vs. risk Regulatory challenges 3.3 Better knowledge management (collate know how, knowledge share, objectives profile platform). on in more detail. Use the solution grid to think about the actions that need to be taken to deliver the solution. Value of retaining Politics between Competing priorities 4.4 Leadership training to help frame how business is transacted and corporate knowledge departments risk managed within the organisation. How to drive best practice and considerations. Bringing the best ideas to life Too much top down decision making 5.5 Define a legal team’s value proposition (in house) and publicise. Tech Solution People Process System Other 6.6 Refining roles – approval, responsibility and accountability within No data strategy/ Lack of integration/ Too much communication the business as ‘go to’ include extent of remit. Standard operating Engage with people at the Define, measure, analyse, Aim to automate repeatable Decide the priority for limited data captured duplication of effort by email procedures. coal-face to understand improve, cement. Document and predictable tasks. approach. Pick the area or 7.7 Governance framework - ownership and accountability that the impact of their work, the 'as is' and the 'to be' Design system and subject matter and divert No single source of Legacy ways of working Tech confidence/need supports delivery of contracting framework. understand the blockers, the based on an understanding architecture that builds resource to support the truth dominate for training contribution that is made of the target operating towards best solution but activity. Understand that this 8. A formally articulated business strategy - golden thread that runs 8 and the connections across model that brings together ensures momentum. Don't let change is fundamental to No central record Document version and Data security concerns through the activity. against action control the business. Map customer all inputs. perfection be the enemy of business change. Understand 9.9 Playbook for job of work that draws together key measures shared journeys with pain points the good. Base line product the knowledge that is being No data strategy/limited data captured continuously throughout the contract lifecycle, that articulates overlaid. Understand the 'so should allow 'add-ons' for AI used and aim to capture as middle ground together with deal breakers/redlines, key contacts and what' of the activities and (in whatever format) as they build. People dependencies, decision makers i.e. all material info in one place. the drivers/motivations. are developing. People don’t Information provided Not enough good project 10.10 Object orientating, clause auditing and workflow platform that Project management Recognise the skill set Tool kit should be a set of System agnostic but it Value chargeable versus understand their by different people in management allows business to drive based on common ways of working that instructions different formats toolkit. and value that project basics that apply universally must be complementary to overheads may influence manage the exceptions driving value. management can bring. and then varied by business existing architecture. User how the business responds Competing Different skill Corporate knowledge 11.11 Standard operating procedures - embedding process for driving May be dedicated resource area/activity to deal with the defined and input from users to change. Key to success is requirements in terms requirements to achieve can create single points consistency and then automate in areas to then overlay technology or skill set. Building out the exceptions. System needs to along the way. Not a top adoption and integration to of time and workload outcomes not recognised of failure such as buzzword subject. multi-disciplinary teams. be integrated with finance down solution. Also identify ensure that they are aligned. Skills needs to be extended and reporting to give an the gaps ahead of time of Recognise the contract Unclear roles and Input required from a wide Unsure who is making the 12.12 Culture mapping and identifying issues/blockers across the past mandatory Prince 2 umbrella view and 'value add'.