From Lisbon to Legal Tech: 
A Look Into CaseMark's Blitz Strategy 

Picture this: a team of engineers and a marketer huddled around a Kanban board in a sunlit room in Lisbon. We’re at our company offsite, planning our next moves in the ever-evolving world of legal tech. Little did we know that this planning session would spark a change in our approach to product development.

The Lisbon Revelation

As we wrapped up our planning, our sole marketer squeezed in her upcoming marketing campaigns between the carefully arranged engineering tasks. It was a lightbulb moment. I realized our engineering-centric view might be causing us to miss something. Were we truly focusing on what mattered most to our customers? What if we could align our efforts more directly with the moments that truly impact our customers' experiences?

Enter the Blitz Strategy

Inspired by the high-impact nature of marketing blitz campaigns, we decided to adapt this concept to our product development process. Thus, the Blitz strategy was born – a short, intensive, and highly focused effort aimed at creating significant points of impact for our customers.

But why "Blitz," you might ask?

Traditional sprint cycles, while useful, often overemphasize engineering concerns and can create rigid structures that don't always align with customer needs or market opportunities. Our Blitz strategy aims to shift our focus directly to points of customer impact.

How the Blitz Works
There are a few core principles in how we approach a Blitz:

Customer-centric focus: Each Blitz revolves around a specific point of impact for our customers. For instance, we might focus on streamlining the case summarization process, making it faster and more accurate.

Cross-functional collaboration: We bring together our engineering, product, and marketing teams. This holistic approach ensures that we're not just building features, but creating comprehensive solutions that our customers will love and know how to use.

Flexibility and autonomy: We give our teams the freedom to determine the best way to achieve the Blitz's objectives. This autonomy fosters creativity and allows for innovative problem-solving.

Rapid iteration: The focused nature of Blitzes allows for quick feedback loops. We can test, learn, and improve faster than ever before.

Reduced friction: By focusing on smaller, manageable goals, we reduce the friction caused by overly complex or lengthy development cycles.

Why This Matters For Our Customers

By focusing on high-impact points, we're able to:

• Respond faster to customer needs: When we identify a pain point, we can mobilize quickly to address it.
• Deliver more relevant features: Our cross-functional approach ensures that new features are not just technically sound, but also practical and easy to use.
• Provide a more cohesive experience: By aligning our efforts across teams, we create a more integrated and intuitive product ecosystem.
• Stay ahead of the curve: The flexibility of our Blitz approach allows us to quickly adapt to new trends or technologies in the legal field.
  

Why This Matters For Our Team

CaseMark is a remote first company, with employees from Portland, OR to Boston, MA and beyond to Tunisia, Slovenia, and Poland!

Communication becomes even more important with dispersed teams. The Blitz strategy allows us to align and collaborate each week on a common goal, while allowing us individual autonomy to work on tasks asynchronously.

We’re able to see our individual and team progress each week on our Kanban board. It’s important for people to feel appreciated and recognized for their work.  We celebrate the start and completion of each Blitz. The employee who made the most significant contribution to the completed Blitz is given naming rights for the next Blitz.

Our first Blitz was Pastel de Nata, in honor of our Lisbon offsite.
Our second Blitz was Maple Bacon Bar, reflecting our Portland, OR headquarters.
Our third Blitz was Bombalouni, a sweet donut popular in Sidi Bou Said, selected by a Tunisian engineer.

The Moon and Legal Tech: An Unlikely Parallel

‍Just as countless impacts over time have shaped the moon's distinctive surface, each successful Blitz shapes the landscape of legal technology. We're not just creating isolated craters of impact; we're constantly reshaping the terrain, making it more navigable and useful for our customers.

As we embark on this new journey, we're excited to see how these focused, high-impact efforts will compound over time. We believe that this approach will not only improve our products but will also push the boundaries of what's possible in legal tech..

Stay tuned for updates on our Blitz campaigns and the impacts they create. Together, we're not just adapting to the future of legal technology – we're creating it.