The 30-60-90 adoption curve for legaltech rollouts
Every legaltech rollout in our portfolio is measured at three gates: day 30, day 60, day 90 after go-live. What we measure, what the targets are, and what the numbers usually look like.
Every legaltech rollout in our portfolio is measured at three gates: day 30, day 60, day 90 after go-live. We measure adoption, quality, and satisfaction, then publish the numbers to the steering committee. This is what the gates look like and what reasonable targets are.
Day 30: do users know how to log in. Sounds trivial. It is not. At thirty days, the only adoption metric that matters is whether users have actually opened the tool, completed the onboarding flow, and produced at least one piece of meaningful output. The number we target: 75 percent of trained users have logged in at least three times. The number we usually see at this gate without intervention: 35 to 50 percent. The gap is closed by a campaign that names specific users who have not logged in, contacts them directly (not by mass email), and resolves whatever blocker is in their way. It is unglamorous and effective.
Day 60: do users complete a workflow without falling back to the old way. The temptation at this stage is to celebrate. Logins are up. The dashboard is green. Then we look at whether users completed an end-to-end workflow in the new tool, or whether they reverted to the legacy system or to Word and email. The number we target: 60 percent of in-scope workflows completed in the new tool. The number we usually see: 30 to 45 percent. The gap is closed by identifying the workflow steps where users fall back, fixing those steps (usually missing functionality or undocumented integrations), and rerunning the measurement.
Day 90: do users prefer the new tool. The hardest metric, the most subjective one. We measure it with a five-minute survey delivered by the workflow leads (not by IT, not by the vendor), and we read the free-text comments. The number we target: 70 percent net positive sentiment. The number we usually see without intervention: 40 to 55 percent. The gap is closed by addressing the consistent themes in the free text, which are almost always about specific workflow friction, not about the tool itself.
What we do not measure at any gate: total usage hours, number of clicks, total time saved. These are vanity numbers. They look impressive in a slide deck. They do not predict whether the rollout succeeds. The three questions above do.
What changes at month four: the cadence shifts from a weekly review to a monthly one, the dashboard moves from the rollout team to the BAU operations team, and we exit. If we have done our job, the next year of operating the tool sits inside an established cadence that the client owns. If we have not, the dashboard turns red within six months and the next renewal cycle starts looking nervous.
The 30-60-90 cadence is not new. It has been used in operating-model work for decades. What is new is the discipline of applying it to legaltech specifically, where the temptation to declare victory at go-live and walk away is enormous, and where the people who notice the dashboard turning red rarely have the authority to fix it. Build the cadence in early. Hand it off to someone who can keep it running. Then leave.