Discovery is where a Litify implementation is won or lost. It’s a series of working sessions where your team walks the project team through how work really happens at your firm, so Litify can be configured around your processes instead of the other way around.
This guide explains what discovery covers, who should attend, what you’ll be asked, and how to prepare.
What discovery is for
Discovery has three goals: understand how your firm works today, agree on what should change, and separate what the new system must do from what would be nice to have. What the team learns becomes the design your firm approves before any configuration begins.
The sessions you can expect
Every project is different, but discovery usually starts broad and gets more specific:
- Existing systems overview. A high-level walk through the life of a matter, from the first call to closing, including the systems involved along the way.
- Intake. How leads arrive, how they’re qualified, how retainers are signed, and how intakes become matters.
- Matter management. How each practice area or case type is worked, including tasks, deadlines, teams, and milestones.
- Documents. Where documents live, how they’re named and organized, and which ones are generated from templates.
- Calendaring and deadlines. How events, court dates, and reminders are tracked.
- Time, billing, and expenses. How time and costs are captured and how fees are handled.
- Reporting. What leadership and managers need to see, and how often.
- Integrations. The other systems Litify needs to work with.
- Data migration. What data exists today, where it lives, and what needs to move.
The kinds of questions you’ll hear
Here’s a sample of the questions that typically come up early in discovery:
- How do new intakes arrive today, and roughly how many come in each week or month?
- Who works an intake, and does that differ by practice area?
- How are leads qualified? Is there a formal questionnaire or an attorney review?
- How is a qualified intake converted to a matter, and how is the matter team assigned?
- How are deadlines and calendar events tracked?
- How are expenses entered, and how are cases settled?
There are no wrong answers. “It depends” and “we do it differently every time” are useful answers too. They show where the new system can bring consistency.
Who should attend
- Your project lead, at every session.
- Subject matter experts for each area: the people who do the work, not just the people who manage it.
- A technical contact for sessions on integrations and data.
- Decision-makers, at least for the overview and any sessions where scope choices come up.
How to prepare
- Complete Litify’s online training for each topic before its session, so time is spent on your processes rather than basic features.
- Pick an example matter that best represents your process from beginning to end, and be ready to walk through it.
- Bring real materials: intake forms, questionnaires, document templates, reports, and screenshots of your current system.
- Fill in any pre-session questionnaires your implementation team sends.
- Note your pain points. The steps that cause the most frustration are often where the biggest improvements are.
What comes out of discovery
After discovery, the project team documents a solution design describing how Litify will be configured for your firm, along with the requirements the build will be tested against and a map of how your data will move. Your firm reviews and approves the design before the build begins. See our Litify implementation timeline for how this fits into the overall project.
Getting ready for a Litify project? Start with preparing for a Litify implementation, or learn about our Litify implementations.
Frequently asked questions
What is Litify discovery?
Litify discovery is a series of working sessions where a firm’s staff walk the implementation team through their current processes, so Litify can be configured to fit how the firm actually works.
Who should attend Litify discovery sessions?
Your project lead, subject matter experts for each area, a technical contact for data and integration topics, and decision-makers for sessions that involve scope choices.
How should we prepare for Litify discovery?
Complete Litify’s online training for each topic, pick an example matter to walk through, and bring real forms, templates, reports, and screenshots from your current system.
What is the result of discovery?
A solution design describing how Litify will be configured, the requirements used for testing, and a plan for how data will move, which your firm approves before the build begins.
