In an iconic scene from 1999’s “Office Space,” product manager Tom Smykowski, believing he is being set up for a layoff, faces a duo of management consultants.
The consultants challenge Tom about his role as a go-between for Initech’s software engineers and customers. Why can’t the customers just speak directly to the engineers? the consultants ask.
“I’ll tell you why,” Tom answers. “Because engineers are not good at dealing with customers.”
He grows more and more enraged, eventually screaming the catchphrase: “I have people skills! … What the hell is wrong with you people?”
After more than a quarter century, it’s a scene that still appears in corporate satire. But its days of relevance may be numbered.
In a recent interview with Above the Law, LexisNexis’ Greg Dickason described how his company is taking major steps to encourage what the fictional Initech had been avoiding: direct interactions between engineers and their clients.
These often-separated groups are working closely together through LexisNexis’ new Customer Innovation Lab, where a range of people collaborate in real-time with clients to build new capabilities and refine existing ones. As the company’s chief technology officer, Greg heads up the initiative.
“Customers are not scary,” Greg said. “It’s just another person giving you an opinion. And I love to see that sort of interaction, where suddenly an engineer is talking directly to a customer, to a lawyer, and they’re all getting value out of that. My engineers get immediate excitement to solve real problems.”
Launched in August and with its flagship location in New York, the lab has already created dozens of working prototypes and designs — purpose-built AI models, a Protégé Vault for analyzing complex multimedia materials, and secure Protégé Workrooms for collaboration.
New prototypes are created and tested in a matter of hours, and then refined at the same velocity. To advance, they must clear LexisNexis’ robust standards for quality, accuracy, and security.
A day at the lab is full of “wow moments,” as the speed of AI enables nimble iteration among all stakeholders, Greg said.
“Give people space, and they will shine. If you just let people talk, it’s amazing what you get out of it.”
Here, Greg takes us through the innovations at the lab, notes how law firms can document ROI from tech adoption, and weighs in on what’s next.
‘The Art of What Is Possible’
The Customer Innovation Lab builds on LexisNexis’ “white glove service.” In that initiative, the company aims to create more of a partnership with clients, providing highly personalized service, including deploying legal engineers to guide buildout of AI legal workflows and drive meaningful AI adoption.
Legal engineers — individuals with a legal industry background who can bridge the gap between the legal and tech industries — play a particularly important role in the process.
The Customer Innovation Lab takes this concept a step further by adjusting — and even developing — technology in partnership with customers at law firms, law departments, law schools, the government, and the judiciary.
It’s all made possible by the speed of AI, particularly the shortening of the cycle between feedback and product updates. This cycle used to take months; now it takes a few moments.
“Customers tell us, ‘Protégé would be better if it did this,’” Greg said. “And we literally change it in five minutes.”
In addition to working with LexisNexis product users to refine their offerings or develop new features, the Customer Innovation Lab is helping some firms integrate Protégé with their own in-house environment. Other firms are engaging in blue-sky thinking, reimagining how law can be practiced.
“The lab is showing customers the art of what is possible by working with a provider like LexisNexis,” Greg said. “We have the resources and the capabilities to be able to achieve much more than, perhaps, we were perceived to be able to do.”
“It’s been exciting to watch, and I think that this is just the start of what we’re going to see this evolve towards.”
From ‘20% Valuable’ to ‘80% Valuable’
A project at the Customer Innovation Lab will typically involve the full cohort of stakeholders from the customer and the company alike.
From LexisNexis’ side, the team will include legal engineers along with UX designers, developers, and product managers. From the client side, the group will include lawyers and other end-users, legal operations professionals, and legal technologists.
It’s about collapsing the distance between the person facing a problem and the person building a solution, Greg said. At the Customer Innovation Lab, this distance has been completely eliminated.
“They say, ‘OK, now I want a timer here, and I want this there, and that’s a little bit too noisy, I want to pull that away,’” Greg said. “So you’re getting that very granular feedback, and then high-level topics as well, in the same conversation.”
The details in particular will help prove the ROI from technology use as specific tasks are documented. Additionally, a few small tweaks can “take something from 20% valuable to 80% valuable,” Greg said.
He points to the example of the upcoming Protégé Workrooms that allow collaboration across legal teams. The Customer Innovation Lab added a timer to track the time spent on tasks like research, drafting documents, and client correspondence.
An AI tool can then summarize what has happened in the Workroom over a set period of time, saving the work it would’ve taken a lawyer to figure this out otherwise.
“It goes from, ‘Yea this is a useful tool, but I could use Excel and Word and a Sharepoint folder,’ to, ‘Wow, this really is a step above that,’” Greg said.
Multimedia Vaults are another Customer Innovation Lab prototype being well received. As one example of its new features, the technology can scan a deposition video and flag timestamps where a witness made specific gestures or expressions — showing surprise in a facial expression, for example.
“That’s super exciting and it’s come about from some of the innovation we’ve done in the lab, and from understanding what customers are expressing they need,” Greg said.
Coming to a City Near You
In addition to the flagship Customer Innovation Lab in New York, LexisNexis has taken the model on the road.
At ILTACON in Nashville this August, the company debuted its first pop-up activation of the Customer Innovation Lab. Every time slot to visit the lab was booked within three days of pre-conference promotion, as clients lined up to experience live, working sessions with the LexisNexis lab team.
During the conference, the demand on-site exceeded availability to meet with LexisNexis representatives and served as a catalyst for more engagement. The conversations started in the lab at ILTACON then continued post-conference as the teams scheduled follow-up sessions to further iterate and deliver on the ideas discussed.
In light of this demand, the lab made an appearance this month at the Association of Corporate Counsel annual meeting in Boston, and LexisNexis is kicking off a roadshow with additional pop-up labs across numerous U.S. cities.
For Greg, the lab has already been a strong learning experience, particularly when it comes to understanding LexisNexis’ customers.
“I had made certain assumptions — I think we all do — about what our customers want, but the reality is there’s nothing better than just listening to them,” Greg said.
“And also, it’s fun. I think this is the most fun you possibly can have at the moment.”
Jeremy Barker is the director of content marketing for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with questions or comments and to connect on LinkedIn.
The post How LexisNexis And Its Customers Are Building The Next Generation Of Legal AI Together appeared first on Above the Law.
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