Successful teams don’t try everything at once. They don’t run broad experiments. They don’t rely on gut feel.They run tight, structured pilots that capture clear evidence. They use that evidence to make confident decisions. And they repeat the process.

From what we see every day at Mary Technology, this is how legal ops teams can drive tech adoption with clarity, consistency, and results that actually matter.

Start With Small, Well-Scoped Pilots

The fastest progress comes from pilots who deliberately narrow, not oversized rollouts.

A well-scoped pilot allows legal ops to:

Test technology on real matters
See how the workflow behaves in practice.
Capture evidence early
Avoid spreading change fatigue across the whole team.

A pilot should answer a simple question: Did this tool improve the specific task for which it was tested?

Legal ops teams that succeed keep pilots small enough to learn quickly but real enough to reveal impact. Most run for four to eight weeks, cover only a handful of workflows, and involve a select group of users. Nothing complicated. Nothing theoretical. Actual work, done on actual matters, with a clear before-and-after comparison.

This approach cuts through the noise immediately. Instead of guessing or relying on vendor claims, legal ops see tangible results, or they know when they are lacking. Both outcomes are valuable. More importantly, pilots like these build trust because teams feel supported, not overwhelmed.

Once the first pilot works, others want to participate. That is how adoption grows from evidence, not enthusiasm.

Select Users Who Actually Have Time to Test Legal Tech

This simple step is the most significant predictor of pilot success.

A tool can be exceptional, but if the chosen testers are too busy, the pilot produces no meaningful results. Legal ops teams that excel understand this early. They choose people who:

Have space in their schedule
Are willing to test thoughtfully
Can apply the tool to concrete tasks
Are open to giving feedback

And they give every tester absolute clarity:

What to test
How often to test
Which tasks to compare

When this structure is missing, pilots collapse. You end up with several weeks of inactivity, little usage data, and no conclusions. Legal ops teams that treat pilots like real projects - with owners, schedules, and expectations - get clean, reliable insights.

This is where internal champions form. Once users who have had time to test see improvements in their own workflow, they naturally share those wins with their colleagues. Adoption spreads because people trust people they work with, not because software marketing told them to.

Create Tight, Data-Driven Feedback Loops

Strong pilots rely on consistent, simple feedback cycles. Legal ops teams that get results do not wait until the final week to evaluate progress. They review continuously, using short loops that keep the pilot moving and remove ambiguity.

Most effective loops include:

Weekly or fortnightly check-ins
Clear usage data
Before-and-after comparisons on a defined task
Simple success metrics

These loops enable teams to adjust quickly and efficiently. They avoid the classic scenario where the pilot ends and everyone realises no one remembers what happened in week one.

A tight feedback loop keeps momentum alive. It also provides legal operations with the data they need to make informed recommendations to leadership. That evidence is what allows teams to secure budget, expand rollout, or move on to the next tool with clarity.

Close collaboration with vendors accelerates this dramatically.

Treat Vendors as Partners, Not Passive Providers

The strongest pilots emerge when vendors actively help shape workflows, monitor progress, and refine usage in real-time.

Legal ops teams that take a collaborative approach benefit from:

Faster onboarding
Better identification of early wins
Quick removal of friction points
More informed configuration guidance
Clear comparisons between old and new workflows

At Mary Technology, we work hands-on with legal ops teams during every pilot. We:

Help select the right matters
Review usage data
Surface quick wins
Identify roadblocks early
Provide feature timelines
Adjust workflows with teams in real sessions.

This partnership removes guesswork. It turns the pilot from a solo challenge into a shared project with aligned incentives. Vendors want the pilot to succeed. The fastest results are achieved when legal ops fully leverage that support.

Prevent Failure Points Before They Appear

Just as there are clear success patterns, there are also predictable failure patterns that legal ops can avoid.

Change Fatigue

A pilot cannot succeed if the team is already overloaded with new software, internal projects, or other significant changes. Timing matters.

Legal ops teams with the highest adoption rates:

Choose pilot windows intentionally
Limit competing initiatives
Protect tester bandwidth
Sequence rollouts rather than stacking them

A well-timed pilot receives attention. A poorly timed one disappears under pressure.

Technology Cannot Fix Disorganised Workflows

AI and other advanced tools amplify whatever workflow they are applied to.If the workflow:

Has unclear handoffs
Has no defined outcome
Lacks structure
Has inconsistent inputs

…then no tool will make a meaningful improvement.

Successful legal ops teams define:

The problem they are solving
The workflow steps that matter
The desired outcome
The metrics they will measure

Only once this clarity exists does the tool make sense. Without it, teams test the wrong tasks, draw incorrect conclusions, or assume the tool “doesn’t work” when the underlying workflow was never addressed.

Clarity first. Tools second.

Build Repeatable Fundamentals Legal Ops Can Use Across All Pilots

The legal teams achieving the most precise results with AI, automation, and workflow tools aren’t doing anything complicated. They’re executing the fundamentals consistently.

Legal ops teams that drive adoption well follow a pattern:

Set simple, clear goals
Choose a pilot group with actual bandwidth.
Define the tasks to test
Capture before-and-after data
Check in regularly
Collaborate closely with the vendor.
Compare outcomes transparently

This approach is repeatable across matters, practice groups, and tools. It removes randomness from the technology adoption process and replaces it with a straightforward, understandable approach that any team can follow.

And that is how legal ops teams can drive tech adoption with confidence; not by experimenting wildly, but by applying simple methods that scale.

What This Means for a Legal Ops Team Right Now

Legal operations teams sit at the centre of digital transformation across legal departments. They understand how legal technology integrates into real workflows, how teams behave under pressure, and where effective management can eliminate friction. This puts operations teams in the strongest position to run pilots that create genuine behavioural change, rather than superficial experimentation.

For operations professionals, structured pilots offer a straightforward way to link technology with measurable outcomes. A good pilot demonstrates how a tool enhances a legal team’s services, reduces rework, streamlines contract workflows, and fosters stronger communication with the broader business. It also helps leadership see how the investment supports long-term goals across law, risk, and operational performance.

Well-run pilots also give legal departments early wins they can share. When a small group can show how legal tech shortens turnaround times or clarifies management steps in a contract workflow, it builds confidence across the team. People understand the value because it directly impacts their actual work, not an abstract concept.

This approach also helps organisations avoid misplaced expectations. Digital transformation is not about replacing judgment or rewriting the role of the legal team; it is about enhancing it. It is about using technology to remove noise, standardise predictable tasks, and make it easier for professionals to focus on work that matters. When legal operations define the problem clearly, align the workflow with business needs, and use data to compare old and new processes, adoption becomes both predictable and repeatable.

In summary, with the proper pilot structure, legal ops can:

Capture clean ROI data
Build internal champions
Reduce the fear of new tools.
Prevent tool fatigue
Support structured decision-making
Show leadership clear outcomes.
Protect teams from unnecessary complexity.

For every legal department aiming to adopt legal technology without overwhelming its people, the message is simple: follow a method that brings structure, evidence, and collaboration to the centre of the process.

When legal operations lead with clarity, the entire organisation benefits.

Ready to Run Better Pilots With Mary Technology?

Mary Technology supports legal ops teams from day one with hands-on guidance, evidence-driven setups, and workflow tools designed with legal practice in mind.If your team wants to pilot smarter, roll out with clarity, and get real outcomes backed by data, we’re ready to help.

Book a demo and sign-up to Mary Technology today.

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