If your knowledge and library service were a tech startup, what would your information professionals do differently?
Instead, you’d start with a problem. You’d talk to users. You’d test new services with a small group of people and learn from feedback. You’d evolve your service continuously. Because in startup thinking, the only failure is never launching at all.
This isn’t some techy, Silicon Valley fantasy. For legal information professionals working in fast-paced, time-poor environments, a startup mentality offers a real-world strategy for building better, bolder, more resilient research services. Let’s explore further.
At first glance, legal tech founders and information professionals might seem like they’re worlds apart. Startups move fast. Library services are more cautious. Founders pitch investors. Info pros carry out research. But both are in the business of solving real problems under pressure, for end-users who can’t afford to be let down.
Both are problem-solvers. A legal tech founder might spot inefficiencies in contract review and build a tool to automate them. A research librarian notices people repeatedly carrying out competitive analysis and creates a template and process to follow. Suddenly, information gathering is more efficient.
Both serve users under pressure. A legal tech founder ships a working prototype because their investors want proof fast. A research assistant responds to last-minute BD requests with speed, context, and zero room for error. In both cases, the stakes are high and hesitation costs business.
Both succeed through trust and usability. If a startup’s solution is clunky or doesn’t fulfil its initial promise, it won’t succeed. If your research tool is buried five clicks deep in the intranet, no one will use it. Information services earn trust by being seamless, reliable, and easy to work with.
Startups win by understanding pain points and solving real problems. So do great research teams.
1. Start with the problem – not the platform
Don’t begin by rushing into implementing a new expensive tool or solution. Start by asking:
Identifying real problems leads to real solutions. Everything else is noise.
2. Ask better questions
Founders know that asking, “Would you use this?” is rarely helpful. Instead, they ask:
Ultimately, this is a classic librarian reference interview, where the information person digs deep into end-user behaviour and needs through open-ended questions.
3. Build your Minimum Viable Service (MVS)
A (MVS) is the simplest version of a service you can offer that’s good enough for end-user testing. Think like a founder: launch “just enough to test.” Pilot with a small, sympathetic group. Treat the rollout as a functional prototype, not a final service.
It’s easier to improve something live than to endlessly speculate on what might work.
In the end, this approach also avoids “big bang” launches that burn time and budget but fail to connect. Instead of designing something for the entire firm, scope a Proof of Concept (POC) for one team, practice group, or use case. Use real feedback to refine before rolling out to others.
Tech founders don’t build in isolation, they co-create with early users or beta-testers. Information professionals can do the same. What is the result? A service that evolves quickly, works better, and earns trust along the way
4. Use Feedback Like a Product Team
Every interaction is potential feedback. Pay attention. Notice how users interact with your service and listen to what they say. Comments like “I didn’t know that existed” or “I just Googled it” often reveal underlying gaps.
But not all feedback is equal. As The Mom Test reminds us, people sometimes tell you what they think you want to hear. Others may dismiss a new idea simply because it’s unfamiliar. That’s why it’s worth validating early reactions with follow-up, observation, or small-scale pilots.
5. Visibility is a growth metric
Startups can’t afford to wait to be discovered. They will use every strategy to promote themselves – they will seek professional sales and marketing advisors. You might not have access to marketing professionals but you should be promoting yourself wherever possible. Visibility isn’t accidental.
For example, document your impact and share it where it matters – practice group meetings, internal newsletters, stakeholder briefings. If they don’t see your value, they won’t know it exists. Be specific:
Tell stories that show value. Don’t wait to be asked but always have your value to hand for chance encounters.
6. You are the product (service) owner
Don’t wait for KM, IT, or senior leadership to hand you a roadmap. Research and library teams understand what users need, so you need to own it. You don’t need permission to lead. Take the initiative, share ideas early, and shape your team’s information management strategy roadmap from within.
Be proactive. Build small. Improve fast.
Boldness in research teams isn’t about big launches or visibility for its own sake. It’s about listening, adapting, and stepping forward, even when the path isn’t fully mapped. At the AALL Conference, Roosevelt Weeks challenged legal information professionals to “be bold” but not in the way you might expect. Boldness, he said, begins with listening.
“Sometimes being smart, we think we have all the answers. But oftentimes when they come up and say, ‘I need this,’ we start formulating an answer in our mind. We can’t do that.”
Weeks’ message was clear: being bold means resisting the urge to jump straight to a solution. It means slowing down, listening without ego, and innovating with empathy. Great research services aren’t built on assumptions, they’re built on conversations.
Whether you’re serving a partner at a top firm or a junior associate in a satellite office, the role of the information team is the same: remove barriers. Build trust. Create clarity. Make information easier to reach, and easier to act upon.
So, if you are channelling your inner entrepreneur, what does boldness look like in practice?
Great research teams don’t just support the business, they can help inform and shape it. Like the best startups, they stay efficient, user-led, and relentlessly curious.
If your research and information team were a legal tech startup, what would you change?
You’d start with the problem, not the platform. You’d talk to users before proposing answers. You’d launch something small, learn fast, and iterate. You’d treat listening as a skill not a formality. You’d build trust through action, not explanation.
This isn’t about becoming tech founders. It’s about recognising that information professionals already think like product people: analytical, responsive, and strategic. The difference is in how you act on those instincts.
Because the goal isn’t disruption for its own sake, it’s building research services that matter. And that takes courage, clarity, and the willingness to act before everything is perfect. Be curious. Be intentional. And when in doubt, always listen first.
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