Recently, a legal technology company released a highly anticipated new version of its software. As trial technicians, we were excited, because it promised several new interesting features. But we did not immediately upgrade our system. Why? Because over the years we have learned three key lessons about upgrading software: new features are not always useful features; new features can (at least initially) make software work poorly; and the most important feature for any courtroom software is reliability.
Our decision to wait proved wise. Shortly after the company released the upgrade, we saw problems with it firsthand. At trial, the opposition’s trial technologist, who was using the new version, was plagued with problems. Despite using a new laptop, there was often a significant delay before documents and video clips displayed on screen. On several occasions his computer completely crashed. The new software caused so many problems that, at one point, the opposition asked our technologist who was using the previous version of the software to display exhibits for them. In humiliated gratitude, the tech sent us a thank-you e-mail that said, “I wanted to die today.”
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