This is a story of how one American family decided to put a stop to one notoriously infamous issue in the world of law. Issue responsible for unhappy clients and law firms’ poor reputation. It is a tale of how the Client Bridge app radically changed the ever-conservative world of paragraphs and briefcases by bridging the information barrier between attorneys and their clients.
To put it shortly, the point of this story is that informed and educated clients make satisfied clients, which in turn means great references for law firms, bringing them higher profits. That is quite simply by enabling them to simply and transparently share information in real time.
Ongoing issue: Taciturn attorneys and disgruntled clients
“What’s going on with my case?” is by far the most frequent question from clients to their attorneys. Till they reach their attorney, there is nothing for them to do but wait – in the unknown.
Solution: Sharing is caring
Waiting in the unknown while finding yourself lost in the world of legal processes and complicated jargon makes people (unnecessarily) anxious and stressed. This stress is common to all clients of legal cases around the world. A family from American Philadelphia that is all too well familiar with this trouble came up with a solution.
‘Dean (one of the co-founders) came up with the idea for Client Bridge as he has industry knowledge with personal injury attorneys and their relationships with their clients. We also have a soft lead to a large percent of the market so we believe that we have an advantage in the space.’
They designed a mobile app. There clients can check the status of their case anytime and learn what further steps to expect. Attorneys can communicate online with their clients and share live information via their intuitive admin system. A few clicks required for operation make communication countlessly faster than lengthy calls. On top of that, the app is financially accessible, thus enabling law firms regardless of their size to make happy clients who provide them with great references.
Outcome: MVP in 5 months
It was June 2021 when we first sat with the client and heard their proposal.
‘We were recommended to work with Siesta by our friend Todd Crammer (Principal of Nexa Equity VC fund).’
To picture the situation, it was shortly after they’d ceased cooperation with a software provider from Washington who even after a year of time and tens of thousands of dollars had not been able to deliver the contracted solution. Quite understandably, after a wasted year and awful experience, the client was stressing about deadline and costs. We delivered both applications in the MVP mode (web admin app and mobile app for Android and iOS) in the team of 3 developers in October 2021.
Web application for management of legal cases
Cases overview screen
Web application for management of legal cases
Roadmap with detail screen
Web application for management of legal cases
Case countdown screen
Mobile application for Android
Case countdown screen, Keywords with detail screen
Mobile application for iOS
Chat screen, Roadmap with detail screen
Our work began with an analysis where we identified project goals and client’s requirements. Then, our UI designer drafted single screens in line with the brand manual that the client regularly provided with their commentaries in a shared environment. Next, in line with our hybrid approach, we prepared a roadmap with development milestones, which we would present to the client on regular meetings in the course of the project.
Despite the MVP scope being extended with several functionalities as the apps gained on their look, we still managed to deliver the project on the originally agreed date.
Since the launch of the MVP, we have extended the application with several additional functionalities that have been requested by the clients themselves (end users).
‘Our goal is to get the product out there and become a “household” name for personal injury attorneys. Eventually, we want to scale the product outside of personal injuries and to various legal cases.’
Client Bridge’s vision to connect attorneys with their clients has also appealed to competitors in the market. As a result, in 2022 we worked to integrate Client Bridge with Filevine, an application that thousands of lawyers primarily use for internal case management. The client is currently in discussions with several other firms whose applications they plan to integrate with Client Bridge. After all, satisfied clients are the most valuable thing any law firm wants. And a mobile app is the ideal user experience tool to achieve this.
Delivery above and beyond time and space
The Client Bridge project has proved to us as a startup to be important for several reasons:
- It was the first completed project for a foreign client. It also opened the door to the US market for us, thanks to the client’s social network
- The geographical distance and 6 hours time difference meant no barrier to us thanks to
- online tools (Slack, Google Meet, shared environment)
- the team’s commitment that has always tried to accommodate client’s conditions
- the team’s skills and experience of working in international environment
- We proved that miles do not limit us and we can work on interesting projects from anywhere. At the same time, the international experience also applied to the team as we partly worked in a remote regime for the whole time.
- It’s no coincidence that it was this project that made us to better define
- internal responsibilities
- formalize project management
- improve testing of intensively developed software
- Communication with the client is always pivotal to us and besides others enables us to access projects as business cases. From the beginning then, we were able to keep coming up with ideas regarding new functionalities and improvements mainly targeting users’ experience.
If you’re also looking for a consulting and development partner for a software solution you have in mind, do get in touch with us.
