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Want to manage your WIP?

Do you find it hard tracking the status of all your open matters? Would you like to be able to see, in a glance:

• which matters need your attention,
• which files are stalled waiting for input—from your client, their others advisors, or maybe from opposing counsel,
• which matters are ready to close, and
• which are ready for final billing and archiving?

A kanban board can help.

As you’ll already know if you read our blog, The Lean Law Firm, we refer to these as Matter Management Boards. Why? Because unlike “kanban,” our term speaks directly to lawyers, paralegals, and legal project managers, and puts the concept immediately into context. Regardless of how what you call them, these boards are work and workflow visualization tools that compliment other legal project management tools many of you are already using.

Need to manage a complex file?

Instead of tracking your work in progress, maybe you’re managing a really complex acquisition transaction or litigation file, and you need to keep track of issues and individual tasks, of who’s doing what and where each item stands, so you can better stay on time and on budget.

A matter management board can help with that, too.

Matter management boards are super flexible. There is so much you can do with this simple visual tool. If you haven’t already seen it, here’s a link to a great introductory video that answers the simple question, “Why use matter management boards?”

We’re also doing an online workshop in mid-November, where we’ll take a really deep dive into how you can use these boards to manage your practice. If you want to stay in the loop about the course, sign up for updates. If you join the waiting list, you’ll be among the first to get all the details about the workshop (and a special early-bird discount).

Today, we’re going to give you a few tips on setting up a simple, physical matter management board. We’ll spend more time on digital boards in our November workshop.

What supplies do you need?

So, getting started with your physical board is easy. You’ll need some empty wall space—you can use the wall itself, or you could use one or more white whiteboards.

You’ll also need some tape to create the columns that represent the different phases of your project. Painter’s tape—the stuff that doesn’t leave a residue—works well, but you can get thin black tape that’s easy to use, comes in a variety of thicknesses, and looks really sharp. Look for “Grid Tape” at your favourite office supply store or online.

Then, of course, you need plenty of stickie notes in different colours. These become your task cards. The different colours are key - they allow you to differentiate between categories of tasks.

Finally, you’ll need permanent markers, preferably in medium or fine point, so you can capture all the information you want in the space available on each card.

That's it for supplies. Next, you’ll need to structure the board. How should it be laid out? How many columns do you need? What will each one represent?

How do you lay out your board?

The structure depends entirely on what you're trying to manage. What will best meet your project management and reporting needs? Think in terms of big buckets of activity.  If you’re tracking the key tasks involved in a transaction, your columns might include things like:

• Background and Preparation
• Term Sheet
• Due Diligence
• Drafting
• Negotiation
• Closing

If you're tracking the WIP in, say, a litigation practice, your big buckets might include:

• Research
• Discovery
• Motions Practice
• Filed
• Trial prep

You can choose the phases that make sense to you.

Check out our All-in-One Guide to Setting Up Your Matter Management Board. If you downloaded our checklist in the past, you’ll still want to get this new guide - it’s an updated and expanded version! It is the go-to source on structuring a board for legal matters. It includes our seven-step Board Builder Framework, a set-up checklist, and some sample templates for:

• an M&A deal
• a simple litigation matter, and
• a real estate transaction.

No matter what type of legal matter you need to manage, our templates will help you think about how to structure your board in a way that makes the most sense for you.

Next, you need to move on to the cards.

What do you put on the cards?

Decide on the different categories of task you want to track and assign each a different colour of stickie note. Keep it simple. Maybe blue for tasks related to drafting, pink for issues that come up, and orange for discovery or due diligence.

And then you’ll want to decide what information to captured on each stickie note. You’ll likely include, at least:

• a simple description of the task
• start date and end date
• who’s responsible for the task

The beauty of this tool is it is so flexible. You organize things to meet your specific project management and reporting needs.

We recommend you create a template that you stick on the wall as a reference guide showing people what information to capture. We know one firm that uses boards so often, they have custom-made specialty ink stamps that create defined data fields on the task cards. It’s a easy way to ensure consistency in the data presented on each card.

The different coloured stickies make it really easy to SEE the flow and progress of different categories of tasks across the lifecycle of the matter.

Physical boards can be set up pretty much by anyone anywhere. There’s no mystery to them, and the learning curve is pretty shallow. Our All-in-One Guide will get you started right away. Just raid your supply room for some tape, stickies, and markers…and find yourself an empty wall. Go on, get your own board set up, and come on back next time.

And that’s it for this week’s tip. Join us next week for more on building a more profitable and productive law practice.

Thanks a lot everybody!

—David

P.S. Remember, you can now watch this tip as a video. If you do, and you like it, please remember to like it and share it. And don’t forget to download our All-in-One Guide to Setting Up Your Matter Management Board with our Board Builder Framework. Set up your own board and build a more profitable and productive law practice by becoming more efficient.