DESIGN SPRINT

Referral Manager is a CRM tool designed to optimize client referrals and corresponding revenue among lawyers. The solution is the result of a design sprint, and a pivot from an initial concept which customers invalidated.

Design Highlights

  • Discovery workshop to identify the opportunity

  • Market research, customer empathy

  • Prototype design of 2 concepts, Reciprocity and Referral Manager

  • Design Sprint

  • Successfully pitched to leadership to fund pilot development

 

The Challenge

“Sorry Tom, I don’t have the expertise to support your case, but let me refer you to another lawyer who can help.”

Lawyers typically refer clients to other professionals in their network when they cannot meet a client’s need on their own. Over 25% of a US law firm’s revenue comes from referrals. However, the current process does not maximize “return on referrals”. Professionals leave money on the table by referring clients to sub-optimal partners or not referring anyone. Thomson Reuters Innovation Office funded research on the idea.


Our First Hypothesis Had Potential

We initially explored the idea of a reciprocity-based lead generation platform, with these 3 main capabilities:

  1. Organize referral networks

  2. Discover new business partners

  3. Become “referral-smart” and grow their business through referrals, based on a “reciprocity score” (an algorithm based on client referral history)

 

Our First Concept Based on Client Referral Reciprocity

 

But Customers Invalidated the Idea of Reciprocating Referrals.

Our initial prototype focused on a reciprocity score, which defined the likelihood that a lawyer will reciprocate a referral. Users unequivocally rejected that score as a reference for referrals. Lawyers will not refer a client to a partner they don’t know, nor do they trust a referral scoring system.  But they validated the need to better organize their referral network and discover new partners! There was potential to explore further.

Our 3 PROPOSALS TO THE INNOVATION OFFICE

 

Design Sprint

We presented early findings to the Innovation Office along with 3 possible avenues, and were granted to continue our research around a pivot. Subsequently, I organized and facilitated a 3-day Google Design Sprint workshop with a cross-functional team of 6 to reframe the problem and brainstorm.

Key items of the design sprint:

  • Reframe the Problem

  • Craft the User Story

  • Brainstorm Ideas

  • Create Storyboards

  • Vote & Next Steps

 

Day 1: Discover

Get on the same page. Following earlier discussions with the FindLaw team, we wanted to explore the idea of integrating a referral management feature into an existing CRM based on FindLaw’s platform. Outcome of the day:

  • Listed assumptions

  • How Might We exercise

  • New problem statement

  • Created users stories

 
 

Day 2: Brainstorm

Crank out lots of ideas. We ran through these exercises:

  • Mind Mapping

  • Crazy Eight

  • Storyboarding

  • Voting

 
 

Day 3: Decide

We decided on the top idea to design, and refined both assumptions and problem statement. We listed our next steps, including the design and test of our new prototype, below.

 

Final Prototype of Referral Manager

View the InVision prototype here.

 

This new solution was tested with a new set of customer interviews, during which customers validated the concept. It made sense and provided real value. We were able to confirm the idea with the Innovation Office, and get the product team to commit to building and integrating the feature onto FindLaw’s platform through the existing CRM.