Tom Mighell and I have recorded another episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast and it’s now available on the Legal Talk Network and on iTunes, with an RSS feed here. The episode is called “Simplifying Legal Technology Strategies” (show notes here), and it’s sponsored by Clio. A special thank you to readers of this blog who listen to the podcast – we’re very pleased with the growing numbers of downloads the podcast is getting.

Here’s the episode description:

Law firms tend to struggle with setting technology strategies. They get as far as forming technology committees, yet often give them little or no direction. Are there some simple ways to set your underlying technology strategy and keep your firm on course? In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss a simple approach to technology strategy based on familiar investment principles, the importance of diversification and an easy visual approach to help make things happen.

This podcast grew out of an article I wrote that appeared in April in the ABA’s Law Practice Today webzine called ““Putting Diversification at the Center of Your Firm’s Technology Strategy – Using a Simple Grid” (download PDF version here).

I’ve always found that law firms have, at best, some kind of vague and amorphous default strategy they use when making technology decisions. This approach does not serve them well. In the article and the podcast, I try to put forth a simple strategy I’ve found helpful that can be put together using one sheet of paper and a simple grid. I draw on analogies from investing, portfolio management and diversification and attmept to apply them to legal technology decision-making. Tom and I talk about the approach in some detail. This approach forces you to think in terms of risk and return (or cost and benefit). If you are trying to come up with some kind of strategy for technology decisions, let me suggest this as a starting point. It synthesizes a lot of the ideas I’ve had about legal technology over the years into one simple package.

We also take on the topic of “social media experts and gurus” in our “stuff Dennis and Tom have been talking about lately” segment. In part, it’s a semi-serious bit of whining about why, even though Tom and I have been using social media forever (i.e., more than 3 years), we never get referred to as “social media gurus.” More so, it’s a discussion of the history of web pioneers and early adopters as compared to the role of the “explainers” and teachers. My contention is that the early movers tend to be focused on “just doing it” and aren’t as able to clearly analyze, categorize and explain what they are doing, which is something that a later round of adopters can often see and set out. With my own blog, I was so concentrated on writing to reach a new audience that I didn’t think much about “best practices” and “rules.” If asked to speak or write an article on blogging, I might do that, but I noticed that others tended to study what bloggers were doing and systematize it. That sometimes resulted in the odd feeling I’d get when reading an article that indicated I was breaking all the “rules” of blogging for lawyers or, worse, that my blog wasn’t technically even a blog. Tom and I have a great conversation and I recommend it to you as a springboard for more discussion on the topic. Just a reminder: we always welcome your questions for future Q&A segments.

We end the podcast with our Parting Shots – practical tips you can use right away. Tom recommends a cool tool called Soluto that can help you speed up the start process when you turn on your computer. I take a moment to honor the passing of John Wooden and then give a great tip I found to help you turn spoken word recordings in iTunes into recordings that can be listened to at double speed.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think. Show notes for the podcast are here. And try some of the back episodes as well. You can also now follow the podcast on Twitter at @tkmreport.

[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]

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Now Available! The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together, by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. Visit the companion website for the book at LawyersGuidetoCollaboration.com. Twitter: @collabtools