Managing Your Board

How to manage your matter-management board and using "stand up" meetings to review the board to identify obstacles and share information

Overview:

• In this video you will learn how to manage your matter-management board throughout the course of the matter, and importance of using Task Cards appropriately and effectively.
  • The video makes reference to previous previous Knowledge Packs and information contained in or attached to those: if you have not watched the all of the Knowledge Packs click here (insert link) to be brought to our index of available Knowledge Packs .
• You will also briefly learn about how Stand-Up Meetings can be effective tools to aid in expediting a matter, and improve communication and collaboration amongst the matter team.
• In a previous video you were shown how to create and Task Cards when using a matter-management board for a buy-side M&A transaction, from its inception. Specifically, a card was added to the board for creating and finalizing the Due Diligence Request List.
  • It is from this starting point and scenario that this Knowledge Pack begins, going into further detail on using Task Cards.

Managing Your Board:

• You have been shown how to create a Task Card, now you will discover how categorizing tasks helps with the overall presentation of information on the board and also with understanding at what stage the various workstreams are.
  • For example, when creating a task card related to creating a document (as per the video), it is always best to classify the task as belonging to a particular category. This categorization provides you and the matter team with a clear structure for the matter which is easy to navigate.
• The Task Card should define what the task is, (if known) who it has been assigned to, when it is due for completion (per agreed timelines), and to what category it belongs. If you are using a digital matter-management board it is likely that there will be functionality allowing you to determine the importance of the task, by providing a visual indication of importance on the Task Card.
  • In HighQ Collaborate for example (and as seen in the video), selecting the red exclamation mark indicates that a task is a priority.
• Task Card's on digital matter-management boards will generally also allow matter team members to comment on the task and attach related files or links. Again, such functionality provides a complete insight for team members on the status of the task and who is working on it
  • It is also essential that each team member has an individual user profile within the digital matter-management board you are using. This facilitates assigning tasks and escalating issues to individuals within the team, and obviously ensures that they have access to the latest developments on the matter.
• Attaching files or linking to them, ensures that team members have all the material documents and information necessary to perform the task, all in one area. Some digital matter-management boards will integrate natively with the most common document management systems ("DMS"), allowing for the smooth transfer of selected matter files to and from your board. Similarly, some DMS solutions will have their own built-in digital matter management boards which you can make use of.
  • The video provides some context and mock examples of how this functionality can be utilized to successfully expedite matter related tasks.
• Regardless of the type of matter the principle remains the same: Task Cards are moved left to right through the columns representing different phases of the matter you are working on. You’ll organize and label the columns in a way that best meets your project management and reporting needs.
  • If you have to move a card backwards on your board, then you’ve got a problem. Either the card was moved “right” through the process before work on the task in that particular phase had been completed, or the work had to be redone because of some kind of error.
• New cards will and should be added to the “To Do: Not Started” column on the far left, as and when they arise: It would be very unusual for a matter-management board to contain all of the tasks at the very beginning.

• Assigning tasks to team members is an essential an simple part of using Task Cards. Your matter manager or responsible lawyer coordinating the matter can quickly batch tasks to team members, and this can set the pace for the various workflows.
  • The video references Stand-Up Meetings: these are designed to be short and to the point meetings, in which each team member brings only the most important and timely information to the attention of the rest of the team by way of an update. You should consider deploying these on your matters, especially on fixed fee matters, where timelines and fees are acute