{"id":30468,"date":"2024-05-10T13:43:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T17:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=1015008"},"modified":"2024-05-10T13:43:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T17:43:18","slug":"legal-tech-lists-3-reasons-your-website-redesign-will-be-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2024\/05\/10\/legal-tech-lists-3-reasons-your-website-redesign-will-be-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Legal Tech Lists’: 3 Reasons Your Website Redesign Will Be A Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mushroom-cloud-6272410_1280\"Editor\u2019s note:<\/span> This is an installment in the \u201cReference Manual of Legal Tech Lists Vol. II,\u201d an eBook set for release this summer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re a marketing director, six months into a new job that represents a big advance in your climb up the corporate ladder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or maybe you\u2019re the named partner of a small firm whose website hasn\u2019t been redesigned in 10 years. Maybe you\u2019re just someone with a curious fetish about web design.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever your circumstance, if you\u2019re facing down the prospect of a site redesign for your firm, you\u2019re probably trepidatious. And if you aren\u2019t, you should be.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because planning a website redesign and choosing a consultant to design and build the thing can be a harrowing, depression-inducing process.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the spirit of ensuring that your journey to a new website is lined with roses and not stinkweed, here are three things you can do to court website redesign catastrophe \u2014 and three ways to avoid that fate.<\/span><\/p>\n

#1) Issue an RFP and Expect to Find the Best-Fit Consultant<\/b><\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking: \u201cBut the issuance of RFPs is standard practice across our industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes. It is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And it is a deeply flawed standard practice that ensures the right law firm\/web design partnership will seldom happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an earlier <\/span>post<\/span><\/a>, written for agency owners, I explained why RFPs are such a poor investment of resources.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Boiled down, the principal points I made were: Firms don\u2019t share relevant pricing information; firms don\u2019t give a thoughtful list of expectations; and, because of these factors, the process will scare off quality vendors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe this contention, do some research online. You\u2019ll find an abundance of articles such as <\/span>this one<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>this one<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>this one.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The Solution<\/b><\/p>\n

Luckily, there are alternatives to the standard \u201cwrite the RFP and they will come\u201d approach, and these will greatly increase your firm\u2019s chance of finding the ideal digital partner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a really big one: <\/span>Conduct the interview process before you write anything formal.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

You read that correctly.<\/span> You can flip the typical RFP process on its head and end up with much better results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And you\u2019ll get something you probably won\u2019t get from an RFP response: The chance to hear from someone knowledgeable about what you’re seeking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#2) Focusing Solely on Price<\/b><\/p>\n

Let me tell you a little story from my own professional life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We got a call once from an in-house marketer, inquiring about a web redesign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When someone calls us for a redesign, we know there\u2019s history to mine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this circumstance, my first question to the prospect was: \u201cSo, you obviously have an existing site, designed by another firm. Can you tell me why you\u2019re reaching out to us today and what the status of the relationship with that agency is?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this circumstance, the answer I got back was revealing. The client had already mentioned in the beginning of our conversation that they were \u201cprice sensitive.\u201d Things were broken with their prior agency, she said, because a cycle of failures had transpired.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past, she had given a work scope to her former agency, who would execute based on that scope (and, always under the pressure of keeping costs low.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Again and again, they would execute that scope, but, in the client\u2019s way of thinking, it had not been fully executed. The agency then revised their work and sent an additional bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you lead with costs, you will ensure the following:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Quality-driven consultants won\u2019t respond to you out of principle. They don\u2019t win their commissions on price and don\u2019t want to join the race to the bottom to win your work.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Putting your potential consultants in the impossible position of needing to win on price alone will mean that the crafty ones will create a very limited and tightly defined contract: One which is unlikely to be achievable. Then \u2014 when the job goes out of scope \u2014 they\u2019ll start billing you more. The end result will be that your firm will pay more than your original, unrealistic, budget anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Solution<\/b><\/p>\n

    Much like the antidote for the first section on RFPs, the antidote to \u201cleading with price\u201d is to, well, not lead with price.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Seek out a preferred list of consultants in advance and interview them. Find out how their communication and design process works with their clients. Review their completed jobs. Interview former clients of theirs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    In short, learn as much about each one of your potential agencies as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    And, just like above, then you can put together a scope document, which can include a requirement for some insight on pricing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The beauty of this approach is that, by the time you get prices back, they will probably make a lot more sense to you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    #3) Not Thinking Through How Your Firm\u2019s Website Will Be Used Internally<\/b><\/p>\n

    Another oversight I\u2019ve seen happen many times when we\u2019re working with potential clients relates to the future site\u2019s use by internal staff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    This is an issue which is common, especially with smaller clients.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Not thinking ahead about how internal staff will be using the backend of your firm\u2019s website can balloon out-of-scope costs, later on in development. (Or even after the website has been launched.)<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Solution\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

    As you work through the selection of a consultant and refine your scope, you need to figure out how your internal staff will be using the website once it\u2019s built.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Will they be responsible for uploading every attorney\u2019s new bio? Is there regular firm news or legal insights which staff will be responsible for posting? Additionally, how much skill does your internal staff possess? How comfortable are they with technology in general?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Digital agencies are capable of creating highly customized dashboards for their clients, which make uploading templated information very, very easy. But those customizations cost additional money upfront and need to be acknowledged and planned for.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The Bottom Line<\/b><\/p>\n

    Perhaps the best way to approach the choice of your next redesign partner is as simple as the process used to buy a big-ticket personal purchase.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    If you were buying an expensive used car, for instance, would it be wise to just fill out a bunch of forms online with local dealers and wait to see what comes back?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    You probably wouldn\u2019t do that. You\u2019d probably try to learn as much about the vehicles available in local inventories, you\u2019d interview the reseller about the vehicle\u2019s past, and, finally, you\u2019d spend time driving and kicking the tires of every vehicle you\u2019re considering purchasing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    That\u2019s what scoping a new website redesign project and choosing a consultant should look like.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    David Hitt is the President of Splat, Inc.<\/a>, which he founded in 2001, after earning degrees at both Wesleyan and Cornell. He takes a holistic, objective-focused approach to digital marketing and design in order to guide businesses in turning their needs and goals into successful outcomes. When he isn’t captaining the Splat ship, David is an avid fan of comic book universes, as well as a competitive bowler.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    And how you can avoid this fate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136517,"featured_media":1015014,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[102,22,1292,1417,112,7],"class_list":["post-30468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-biglaw","tag-in-house-counsel","tag-legal-operations","tag-lma","tag-small-law-firms","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n'Legal Tech Lists': 3 Reasons Your Website Redesign Will Be A Disaster - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2024\/05\/10\/legal-tech-lists-3-reasons-your-website-redesign-will-be-a-disaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Legal Tech Lists': 3 Reasons Your Website Redesign Will Be A Disaster - 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