The 2-minute drill. It’s a do-or-die scenario where teams can step up and show what they’re truly made of, and all the best teams are known for how well they can execute in this pressure cooker scenario. Likewise, the best eDiscovery teams are at their best when asked to face near-impossible challenges with somehow-even-more-impossibly-tight deadlines. So, with that in mind, what can we learn from the best football teams, and how do we apply it to eDiscovery teams? How can legal teams figure out if their vendors are set up for a successful 2-minute drill before they actually need one?
The Team Has Multiple Skillsets at the Ready
When a team has both a strong passing game, a strong running game, and a QB who can scramble, it keeps a defense on their toes. The best “2-minute drill teams” of eDiscovery likewise have different skillsets at their disposal. A good eDiscovery team has a lot of different experts across many different disciplines, trust and respect between those disciplines, and effective communication at all levels.
The Team Knows How to Work Together
Imagine a 2-minute drill where the quarterback, O-line, receivers, running backs, and tight ends all came from different teams. Even if they were all great at their respective positions, they’re not going to work the same way as a team that is practicing/playing together all year long.
This is why it’s not just important to have a variety of top-tier experts doing your discovery, but a team that knows how to work together. If your vendor is great at processing, but farms out all their forensics to a sub-contractor, they might have a hard time getting those forensics answers they need when they need them, even if it’s a great forensics contractor! A team that can quickly get the right experts on board right away is preferable to a team that has the experts, but they’re siloed off and not used to working together. This is also where having a consistent, trusted partner in eDiscovery pays dividends, as legal teams that are constantly switching between a long roster of vendors may face more challenges.
They Lay a Strong Foundation From the Beginning
The 2-minute drill is only relevant in close games. Therefore, being good at a 2-minute drill is useless if you go into the last 2 minutes already down by 30 points. Too often, legal teams overestimate what kinds of last minute changes can be made. For example, a production is more than just clicking “native” or “image” on a menu; it can take hours for teams to prepare documents for production, and changing your mind after you’ve started the process takes even more time.
Part of why eDiscovery practitioners are constantly stressing the importance of looping us in as quickly as possible is that the more we can do in those early stages, the better chances of success in the 2-minute drill if one is needed. Not to mention that in an ideal world, you keep your 2-minute drills to a minimum. If you do a good enough job in the earlier stages of your project, you hopefully don’t need one at all because YOU’RE the one that’s winning by 30 points with 2 minutes left.
The Team Knows How To Calculate Risk
There are certain plays that are just bad ideas regardless of how desperate you are. We’ve all seen games where a team got sloppy and turned the ball over because they tried to force a play that wasn’t there.
So much of eDiscovery is about managing risk. It’s often not a choice between “the right way” and “the wrong way,” but a choice between “Plan A that has THESE tradeoffs” and “Plan B that has THOSE tradeoffs.” The same is true in a 2-minute drill. The people who are good at calculating risk during “normal” times are going to be good at calculating it during the 2-minute drill. Part of those calculations include knowing which plays come with too much risk and avoiding them, even if you’re desperate.
They’re decisive enough to go “no huddle” if necessary.
One of the first things football teams let go of in a 2-minute scenario is the huddle. Is the huddle nice? Sure! There’s a reason that they’re commonplace when there is time to spare. But when the game is on the line with 2 minutes left, teams have to rely on instincts and experience to carry them. What looked like “careful consideration” before suddenly looks like “overthinking” now. Someone has to make a decision, and they probably have to make it with less information than they wish they had.
If a team has a solid foundation of eDiscovery fundamentals, including varied expertise, good risk calculation, and seamless communication, they are more likely to be able to make quick, yet informed decisions if they find themselves in the 2-minute drill scenario.