Metjip
How We Helped Dutch Law Firm Looijmans Juristen Go From 3 Wasted Years and No Working Solution to Releasing Their Employment Contract Management Software in 6 Months
4 Hours
60
%
reduction (daily) in legal admin time
SME clients
23
%
growth in SME clients
MVP in 6 months
(vs 3 years, 2 software parties, and no working solution)
Client
A Dutch law firm specializing in employment law and contracts, Looijmans Juristen is well-reputed in the south of the Netherlands for their transparency and strong understanding of SME legal needs.
Industry
Legal
Region
Europe
Products and Services
Employment Contract Services, Consulting and Litigation
Client's Strategic Focus
Looijmans Juristen’s strategic focus on the SME segment stems from the passion of Founder Aukje Looijman to help SMEs navigate the often-perceived complexities of legal and compliance for small businesses.
In recent years, the firm has made a strategic shift to grow its consulting and litigation business while innovating on its staple of employment contract services for clients, to benefit their business and their clients.
In recent years, the firm has made a strategic shift to grow its consulting and litigation business while innovating on its staple of employment contract services for clients, to benefit their business and their clients.
Product or Project Spotlight
The MetJip product, a software product idea conceived by Founder Aukje, to automate and simplify employment contract services for themselves, while also providing a novel custom employment contract management SaaS product for SME clients.
Context for Product Need
In the lead up to this software product need, there were numerous issues experienced involving their employment contract services process, the needs and service experience of their SME clients, plus the potential for business growth across their other services.
Slow, messy employment contract services process where clauses must be manually located- No structured templates, so manual locating of past contract files on computer to piece together new custom contracts for clients
- Manual errors in copying clauses from old contracts and producing new contracts
- Potential of legal fines for clients as a result of not updating contracts, errors and delays
- Growth in volume of contracts handled daily and impractical to handle with limited team
- Time consumed providing employment contract services manually made it difficult to take on higher-revenue-generating consulting and litigation work
Epiphany
She knew there had to be an easier way to find a clause applicable to new contract situations, make new contracts faster for clients, and with less mistakes, while allowing the client to update past contracts based on company law changes in the country and build their own contract templates for specific needs. The first thoughts of a software product idea had taken form in Aukje.
The Challenge
The challenge in solving this problem was twofold as experienced by Looijmans Juristen.
There were no off-the-shelf software products that could handle their custom contract templates need for specific client contract requirements.
Productizing and digitalizing a component of a professional services business like Looijmans Juristen’s employment contracts can be challenging for a software firm.
The Slow Death of a Founder's Dream: Hope and Passion Killed
The complexity as Aukje learned the difficult way, working with 2 different software development firms across 3 years (one in the Netherlands itself, and the other in Ukraine), was in understanding her exact idea and requirement to then convert it into a practical tech solution.
This required that the party first understood the legal contracts domain, could develop the necessary business logic for the problem, and then uncover how it can be applied through a tech/digital solution.
Both solutions built didn’t match her requirement and were incomplete. They were stalled efforts. It is a tale involving much heartache and tribulation, broken promises, etc. You can learn the fully story here;
This required that the party first understood the legal contracts domain, could develop the necessary business logic for the problem, and then uncover how it can be applied through a tech/digital solution.
Both solutions built didn’t match her requirement and were incomplete. They were stalled efforts. It is a tale involving much heartache and tribulation, broken promises, etc. You can learn the fully story here;
Aukje’s Story
We explore the story of a fallen Founder from the Netherlands. A tale of broken promises and war breaking out in Eastern Europe, we narrate how her pride and purpose were restored after a last-ditch effort to build her legal product for the SME underdog.
Diagnostic Method
The challenge in solving this problem was twofold as experienced by Looijmans Juristen.
Discovery to understand current employment contract services process and problems- Leveraging existing process maps and collaboratively developing customer journey maps
- Applying jobs-to-be-done framework to draw up job maps for expected client activities
Diagnosis
Through our diagnostic method, the reason a client would buy the product became evident as well as the nature of the issues experienced previously.
We reaffirmed that being able to create and manage custom and dynamic contract templates was the client's actual need.
Past software firms didn’t focus on contracts as the core and didn’t address it first, as their understanding of it was low
The ability of the software firms to develop the logic necessary to drive Aukje’s unique product idea, was inadequate.
The Solution
Starting with Custom Employment Contract Templates and Progressing to Build a Fully-Fledged Legal SaaS Product for SMEs
In addressing the errors committed by the previous two software firms they had contracted, we first considered the very core of the product: designing dynamic and fully customizable contract templates for different types of SME legal documents like employment contracts and internship agreements.
In addressing the errors committed by the previous two software firms they had contracted, we first considered the very core of the product: designing dynamic and fully customizable contract templates for different types of SME legal documents like employment contracts and internship agreements.
Critical Areas of the Solution & Insights
The solution integrated logical steps to enable customized contract templates primarily through a list of questions presented, where the relevant clauses begin to appear on screen within the contract template, based on the answers given.
The legal professionals at Looijmans Juristen no longer had to worry about locating clauses from different existing templates manually, plus the possibility of errors in the process, in putting together a single custom contract.
The templates could be reviewed digitally, with comments and digital signatures added, and were legally binding.
Through our diagnostic method, the reason a client would buy the product became evident as well as the nature of the issues experienced previously.
Business Outcomes Unlocked
From No Working Solution to MVP in 6 Months, Simplifying Legal Services for SMEs and Growing Client Consulting Time.
Wasting no time at all, Beta Launch analyzed and addressed the root problems, guiding Looijmans Juristen on the best way to approach their SME Legal SaaS product and delivering it in quick time.
Wasting no time at all, Beta Launch analyzed and addressed the root problems, guiding Looijmans Juristen on the best way to approach their SME Legal SaaS product and delivering it in quick time.
Reduced daily legal admin time by 4 hours, growing their consulting and litigation capacity by half- Grew their SME customers by 23%
- Lowered spending on product management and software engineering, by developing MVP in 6 months
