Even the largest, most established companies must continuously evolve to meet changing consumer demands. Consider McDonald's - amidst growing competition from higher-end burger chains, they recently made over 50 upgrades to their iconic burgers, completely overhauling long-standing industrial production methods in favor of quality.
As the article excerpt highlights, McDonald's recognized the need to improve their core product offering in order to compete in a crowded market where consumers have ample alternatives for a quality burger experience.
This holds an important lesson for legal tech leaders. Regardless of your company's size or status as an industry leader, you cannot afford to rest on your laurels. Carefully analyzing the competitive landscape, proactively addressing customer pain points, and checking any biased assumptions about what legal professionals need in their solutions is imperative.
Making small, incremental improvements over time may seem inefficient, but as McDonald's has shown, taking the time to substantially improve your core offering can pay major dividends in standing out from the competition. The best legal tech solutions don't just complete tasks, they understand legal workflows and help professionals practice law better.
By regularly re-evaluating your solution with fresh eyes, conducting user research to pinpoint areas for improvement, and striving for cognitive empathy of user needs and frustrations, you can continue providing the high-quality experience today's legal marketplace demands. If a huge company like McDonald's recognizes the need to significantly upgrade their core offering, it's clear that meeting changing consumer expectations is an ongoing process, even for the most established leaders.
"The more than 50 tweaks on its burgers add up to the Chicago-based company’s biggest upgrades in decades to its core menu. With increased competition in the burger market—especially from higher-end, fast-casual burger chains such as Five Guys—executives decided to revamp some of the industrial-scale techniques that have produced cheap, uniform burgers. In some cases, McDonald’s is reviving practices it scrapped long ago in a push for efficiency" (WSJ article, No More Dry Burgers: McDonald’s Overhauls Its Biggest Item)
