Legal Intake Optimization
Legal Intake Optimization
Cartiga - Legal Wizard
Role:
Senior Product Designer / Creative Lead
Timeline:
6 months
Team:
PM, Engineering, Legal Ops, Data
The Challenge
Cartiga sought to modernize its legacy Legal Wizard platform, which enabled law firms to generate case documents. The experience was clunky, manual, and prone to errors, leading to frequent user complaints, lost productivity, and a high volume of support tickets. Business Impact: • Lengthy, error-prone onboarding for law firm users • High customer support burden • Revenue loss from incomplete or abandoned document workflows • Outdated experience damaging brand reputation
My Approach
1. Data-Driven Discovery What I did: • Analyzed product analytics to identify major workflow drop-offs and error rates • Facilitated interviews with legal admins and high-frequency users to surface usability pain points • Benchmarked best-in-class document automation tools for inspiration Key Insight: Users were frustrated by complex flows, repetitive data entry, and little guidance—most wanted more “automation” and fewer “gotchas.” 2. Cross-Functional Alignment My leadership role: • Led journey mapping workshops with engineers, legal ops, and stakeholders to map bottlenecks • Established a feedback loop with client-side superusers for iterative input • Translated legal compliance needs into actionable design requirements Collaboration approach: • Worked with engineers to scope technical feasibility for intelligent form autofill • Partnered with Legal Ops to validate every workflow against compliance standards • Coordinated with client stakeholders to align on key success metrics 3. Intelligent Design Solutions Core design strategy: • Smart Intake Forms: Used conditional logic and intelligent defaults to speed up data entry • Guided Flows: Broke down complex steps into digestible, guided micro-tasks • Automated Review: Built-in checks for errors before submission, reducing back-and-forth Design decisions: • Created a unified dashboard to track document progress at a glance • Improved mobile responsiveness for on-the-go legal teams • Added real-time support prompts and user education tooltips
Success Goals
Clarify
Intake Process
Increase
Quality Leads
Accelerate
Connections
Optimize
Data Accuracy
Enhance
CRM Implementation
Improve
User Satisfaction
Legal Intake Optimization
Cartiga - Legal Wizard
Role:
Senior Product Designer / Creative Lead
Timeline:
6 months
Team:
PM, Engineering, Legal Ops, Data
The Challenge
Cartiga sought to modernize its legacy Legal Wizard platform, which enabled law firms to generate case documents. The experience was clunky, manual, and prone to errors, leading to frequent user complaints, lost productivity, and a high volume of support tickets. Business Impact: • Lengthy, error-prone onboarding for law firm users • High customer support burden • Revenue loss from incomplete or abandoned document workflows • Outdated experience damaging brand reputation
My Approach
1. Data-Driven Discovery What I did: • Analyzed product analytics to identify major workflow drop-offs and error rates • Facilitated interviews with legal admins and high-frequency users to surface usability pain points • Benchmarked best-in-class document automation tools for inspiration Key Insight: Users were frustrated by complex flows, repetitive data entry, and little guidance—most wanted more “automation” and fewer “gotchas.” 2. Cross-Functional Alignment My leadership role: • Led journey mapping workshops with engineers, legal ops, and stakeholders to map bottlenecks • Established a feedback loop with client-side superusers for iterative input • Translated legal compliance needs into actionable design requirements Collaboration approach: • Worked with engineers to scope technical feasibility for intelligent form autofill • Partnered with Legal Ops to validate every workflow against compliance standards • Coordinated with client stakeholders to align on key success metrics 3. Intelligent Design Solutions Core design strategy: • Smart Intake Forms: Used conditional logic and intelligent defaults to speed up data entry • Guided Flows: Broke down complex steps into digestible, guided micro-tasks • Automated Review: Built-in checks for errors before submission, reducing back-and-forth Design decisions: • Created a unified dashboard to track document progress at a glance • Improved mobile responsiveness for on-the-go legal teams • Added real-time support prompts and user education tooltips
Success Goals
Clarify
Intake Process
Increase
Quality Leads
Accelerate
Connections
Optimize
Data Accuracy
Enhance
CRM Implementation
Improve
User Satisfaction
Simplifies Attorney Selection and Intake.
Simplifies Attorney Selection and Intake.
Simplifies Attorney Selection and Intake.
Approach
User & Attorney Insights
Conducted interviews and analyzed user behavior to understand pain points for both prospective clients and attorneys. Mapped critical touchpoints and gathered feedback to prioritize improvements.
Simplified Intake
Redesigned the intake form with clear steps, dynamic logic, and accessible language. Questions adapt to the user’s situation (depending on accident type/location), making the process faster and less overwhelming.
CRM Integration
Worked with developers to connect the form with a custom CRM, so attorneys could seamlessly track, manage, and follow up with leads. The dashboard supports lead status, document management, and communication.
Injury lawsuits. Made simple.
Injury lawsuits. Made simple.
Validation & Iteration Process
Testing methodology:
Developed clickable Figma prototypes to test the full workflow with users
Conducted A/B tests on navigation and error-checking patterns
Iterated weekly based on client and internal feedback
Decision-making framework:
Prioritized features that reduced time-to-completion
Used analytics to validate which changes had the biggest impact on user efficiency
Regular retros with the team to stay laser-focused on goals
Results & Business Impact
Quantified Outcomes:
30% reduction in support tickets related to document creation
45% decrease in average document completion time
User satisfaction scores up by 40%
Higher conversion rate: More users completed document workflows end-to-end
Qualitative Impact:
Clients reported less stress and fewer errors
Legal teams saved significant time, freeing up resources for higher-value work
Support team workload dropped, enabling focus on complex casesKickoff & Collaboration
Strategic Learning & Reflection
Biggest insight:
Automation and clear guidance were transformative—reducing not only user errors but also staff frustration.
Process innovation:
Established a legal design QA checklist that became a new standard for subsequent features.
Leadership growth:
Learned to balance rigorous legal compliance with ambitious usability goals, and to present metrics to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Process & Validation
Audited analytics and feedback to pinpoint drop-off in the intake flow.
Interviewed users and attorneys to surface specific pain points and wish-list features.
Prototyped and tested a dynamic form with conditional logic, shortening the path to completion.
Designed a CRM dashboard for attorneys to track client intake and funding requests.
Iterated based on user testing and attorney feedback, A/B testing new flows and messaging.
Why This Project Demonstrates Senior-Level Design Thinking
Business Alignment: Focused on key KPIs—efficiency, satisfaction, and conversion
Cross-Functional Leadership: Ran workshops and continuous feedback loops with diverse teams
Human-Centered, Scalable Solutions: Blended legal rigor with practical usability
Quantifiable Outcomes: Results show direct impact on business and user experience
Proactive Collaboration: Ensured the solution met technical, legal, and user needs without compromise
Impact & Results
Qualified leads increased by 20% and user drop-off fell by 35%. Attorneys reported higher satisfaction with the CRM, and more funding requests moved to approval faster.
Reflection
This project reinforced the value of co-creation with both users and internal teams. By focusing on real attorney/client pain points, we built a system that works for everyone—not just the business.
"Our redesigned intake experience led to a 20% increase in qualified leads and a 35% reduction in user drop-off."
A streamlined mobile onboarding experience makes it easy for clients to start their case from any device.
A responsive CRM dashboard empowers attorneys to manage leads and track case status on the go or at their desk.
Seamless document upload enables attorneys to quickly submit and monitor funding requests in one place.
Next case
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