A firm-wide rollout, and an empty dashboard
The firm signed for licences across its fee earners after a successful pilot. IT deployed the product, the knowledge team ran two training sessions over lunch, and an announcement went out from the managing partner. Three months later, your usage data shows a small group of enthusiasts using it daily, a larger group who tried it once, and most fee earners who have never opened it.
The firm has not complained yet. But renewal is nine months away, and the finance director will be looking at cost per active user.
Your customer success lead looks more closely and finds the pattern is not even. Real estate is using the product on most new lease reviews. Litigation has barely touched it. The corporate team tried it on one transaction, hit a problem with a document format, and stopped. None of this was visible from the firm-wide total.
Why fee earners do not pick it up
Fee earners measure time in billable units and adopt new tools when those tools obviously help with the matter in front of them. A firm-wide rollout rarely makes that connection.
- Training was generic, not tied to the work of each practice group.
- The product sits in a separate window, not where matter work happens.
- Partners did not ask their teams to use it, so it feels optional.
- Early users found one rough edge and did not come back.
- Nobody at the firm or at your company sees usage by practice group, so nobody acts.
What low adoption costs
Low usage makes renewal a price conversation, or a cancellation. It also hides the product's real value: a practice group that could benefit is never shown how. And unused licences become an argument against the next legal tech purchase, which affects your reputation in a small market where knowledge and innovation leads compare notes.
The enthusiasts are at risk too. When the tool is seen as one person's hobby, they stop championing it.
Timing makes it worse. Firms often roll out new tools in quieter months, then a large matter lands and everyone falls back on familiar habits. If the first weeks after rollout pass without anyone noticing which teams have not started, the moment is gone, and restarting adoption later is harder than getting it right the first time.
How we build adoption into the product
What we build ties usage to the firm's structure and brings the product into the moments where it helps.
- Adoption tracking by practice group, office and fee earner level, using the firm's directory groups, so gaps are visible.
- Moments of use identified with the knowledge team for each practice group: for example, a new lease review in real estate, or a first disclosure review in litigation.
- Prompts in the flow of work where your product integrates: a suggestion in Outlook when a relevant document arrives, or in the document management system when a matching document type is saved.
- Practice group adoption reports for practice heads and the knowledge team, showing active users, typical uses and gaps, in plain language.
- Short, practice-specific guides and templates, delivered inside the product to users in that group.
- Feedback capture after first uses, so rough edges that put people off are reported and fixed.
| Practice group | Moment of use | Where the prompt appears |
|---|---|---|
| Real estate | New lease received for review | Outlook, on the email with the lease |
| Corporate | First draft of a disclosure letter | Document management system, new document |
| Litigation | Large document set received | Matter workspace in your product |
| Employment | Settlement agreement draft | Word, from the firm's template |
We deliberately keep prompts rare and relevant. A tool that nags gets switched off.
Three months later
The knowledge team sees an adoption report showing real estate and employment well ahead, corporate barely started. They talk to the corporate practice head, who agrees to a short session on disclosure letters with the team's own templates. The prompts appear when new disclosure drafts are saved, and corporate usage starts to rise. The finance director sees usage growing across groups, and the renewal conversation is about extending to a new office.
Are your licences gathering dust?
- Most licensed fee earners have never used your product.
- You cannot see usage by practice group.
- Training was the same for every group.
- Your product does not appear where matter work happens.
- Practice heads have never seen an adoption report.