Welcome to Legal Ops Briefs—inspired by the mot-r mindset, this blog series of 3-minute reads gives in-house Legal Ops quick, operational insights. Each post will explore the tech, trends, and tactics that boost operational effectiveness and ease legal team stress—without adding to the noise.
Why Legal Tech Must Focus on Outcomes, Not Features
In-house legal departments are under immense pressure. Growing workloads, understaffed teams, and increasing demands from the business have made burnout and attrition more common than ever. It’s no surprise that many legal teams turn to technology as a lifeline. But more often than not, these tech investments fail to deliver meaningful improvement.
Why? Because we’re focusing on the wrong thing.
The Feature Trap
Most legal tech evaluations start with a feature checklist. Teams gather exhaustive lists of "must-haves," "should-haves," and "nice-to-haves," then score vendors based on how many boxes they tick. It feels thorough—but it’s misleading.
This approach assumes that more features equal better performance. It doesn’t. It overlooks how well the technology addresses real-world challenges—like unclear priorities, inefficient task allocation, and limited visibility into workloads. A solution may look great on paper but still fail to ease the burden.
Start With Outcomes, Not Software Capabilities
Instead of starting with features, start with outcomes. What operational improvements are you aiming for? Reduced burnout? Better client service? Streamlined workflows?
Enter the “Jobs to be Done” framework. It shifts the question from “what can this software do?” to “what do we need to achieve, and what’s standing in our way?” For example, one job might be “consistently deliver high-quality legal services under changing conditions.” Identifying what makes that difficult—like disorganized task flow or a lack of process—allows you to focus on tech that removes those barriers.
This is more than a language shift—it’s a mindset change. One that moves your team from chasing tools to driving progress.
Legal Tech Strategy Requires Competency-Based Teams
Another common misstep is who leads the tech selection. Often, it’s delegated to IT or vendor management—people with little insight into legal operations and no stake in the outcome. That’s a recipe for misalignment.
Instead, legal should lead, supported by a competency-based team. Think beyond job titles. Involve those who understand legal ops, service quality, change management, and technical integration. When evaluation aligns with actual needs and capabilities, decisions improve dramatically.
Future-Proof Legal Tech by Addressing Technical Debt
Outcome-focused thinking must also be forward-looking. Legal operations evolve—regulations change, teams shift, KPIs move. The tools you choose must be flexible and scalable.
Evaluating technical debt early is essential. Older platforms may offer feature parity but fall short in adaptability. Ask vendors the hard questions: Can this platform grow with us? Will it require major rework to support future needs?
Beware Second- and Third-Order Tech Consequences
One of the most overlooked aspects of legal tech selection is the ripple effect—what happens after go-live. First-order benefits like faster document turnaround are easy to spot. But downstream issues like added complexity, new silos, or steep training curves are harder to predict—and more damaging.
If a solution adds friction or burdens your team with hidden costs, even a well-intentioned implementation can backfire.
Measure Legal Tech Success Through Operational Impact
Success in legal tech isn’t about sleek dashboards or feature counts. It’s about results. Does your tool reduce administrative work? Improve team morale? Increase the value legal delivers to the business?
Skip the checklist. Instead, pilot tools. Align them with measurable outcomes. Make decisions that actually move the needle. Because the future of legal operations isn’t feature-driven—it’s outcome-driven.
Let’s Build Legal Teams That Work Better, Together
Join the conversation. Let’s talk about building legal departments that are not only more efficient—but more human.
What’s one communication breakdown you’ve seen in your legal team—and how could Legal Ops help fix it? If you could wave a magic wand and solve one systemic issue, what would it be?
mot-r is the Work Management System for General Counsel. It is designed to reduce overwork and elevate legal service quality of small to medium sized teams. With workflows, dashboards and granular reporting, it improves operational effectiveness and client service quality. Created by a team of enterprise software experts—who have a passion for reducing the human cost of legal work—mot-r is a trusted supplier to general counsel teams in financial services, healthcare, real estate, sports management and more. When you're ready to modernize how your in-house team works, we're ready to help.
Mike Tobias: Jun 10, 2025 10:45:58 AM