Role: Lead Product Designer
Timeline: 7 Months
Company: Wolters Kluwer
Product Category: Enterprise B2B SaaS | LegalTech Platform
Core Team: Lead Designer (myself), 1 UX Researcher, 1 Engineer, and 1 Product Manager
Product Overview
To extend the LegalCollaborator platform, we introduced a dynamic auction bidding system. This empowered corporate legal departments to optimize law firm selection using real-time bidding—enhancing pricing transparency and streamlining procurement.Replacing manual RFPs with a centralized, digital solution.
The Objective
Enable legal departments to:
Solicit competitive bids from law firms dynamically
Choose transparency levels in auctions
Automate and simplify firm selection workflows
Key Features of Auction Bidding
Auction Types
No Transparency: Law firms can only see their bids and proposal details.
Partial Transparency: Law firms can view their bids and competitor bid values without competitor identities.
Full Transparency: Law firms can view their bids, competitor bid values, and competitor identities.
Auction Workflows
Auction Types
Create legal engagement → Select auction type → Configure auction parameters → Prepare scope of work, pricing parameters, and matter guidance → Send invitations to law firms.
For Law Firms
Accept invitation and indicate participation → Confirm conflict status → Submit initial response and participate in bidding during the auction.
Real-Time Auction Dynamics
Law firms receive notifications if their bid is undercut.
Allows real-time adjustments during the auction to stay competitive.
Interactive Auction Dashboard with live clock.
Outcome Integration
Ensures selected law firms align with pre-defined scope, pricing, and value requirements.
Notifications sent to the selected law firm for confirmation.
Benefits
Cost Efficiency
Promotes competitive pricing by allowing law firms to bid dynamically, reducing overall legal expenses for clients.
Improved Transparency
Flexible transparency settings ensure clients maintain control over the bidding process while fostering fair competition.
Streamlined Procurement
Automates and simplifies firm selection, reducing administrative overhead for legal departments.
Enhanced Decision-Making
Provides clients with data-driven insights during the selection process, ensuring the best law firm is chosen based on cost, expertise, and proposed value.
Use Cases
Corporate Legal Departments leveraging auction bidding for selecting law firms on large, complex cases to optimize costs. Law Firms aiming to secure engagements through competitive pricing and strategic bidding.
Next Steps for Post-Launch Iteration
User Feedback Collection
Gather input from clients and law firms on their experience with the auction templates and workflows.
Usability Enhancements
Refine the user interface for easier template selection and configuration.
Simplify the bidding process for law firms.
Performance Metrics Integration
Introduce analytics to track auction effectiveness, cost savings, and law firm performance post-engagement.
Support and Training
Provide training materials and support to help users adopt the auction features seamlessly.
This overview outlines the strategic and functional goals of the post-launch iteration, ensuring both corporate legal departments and law firms derive maximum value from the platform’s auction bidding capabilities.
Reflection
This feature challenged us to balance fair competition with confidentiality, while integrating real-time decision-making into a legal tech product. Designing for multiple transparency modes and live user interaction required careful flow mapping and data logic collaboration with engineering.