Intellext Platform | Natalia Tishina

ENTERPRISE AI SAAS CONTRACT NEGOTIATION PLATFORM

INTELLEXT

When I joined IntelleXt in February 2021, it consisted of 4 co-founders, 15 employees and a great idea.

The concept was amazing with many complex integrations that would even include AI, Machine Learning and it needed to be conceptualized into a working prototype.

RESEARCH

I researched the field to find similar businesses and find inspiration such as DocuSign, ZenDesk, FreshDesk, Litera and more. Then I contacted each team to understand the capabilities that our future system will have, such as the Machine Learning, Behavioral Research and Marketing teams.

FIGMA MOCK-UP

Together with the Product Strategist, CIO and a lawyer, we synthesized all the concepts into a working prototype demo ready for implementation.

UNBELIEVABLE RESULTS

This demo played a vital role in the acquisition of our first customer, a leading global aerospace manufacturer, helped receive funding as well as secure two global partnerships.

GOAL

Build a demo prototype for a client that includes a Contract Repository, Clause and Template Libraries as well as a Negotiation Flow in Figma

UX RESEARCH & INTERVIEWS

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Most of my work belongs to the intellectual property of the start-up Intellext, but I will try to be as descriptive as possible without showing the details

Our research included 11 interviews that lead to the conceptualization of 3 key personas, pain points, flow charts and sketches

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

What is your job title and the primary responsibilities of your role?

What methods do you use to negotiate? In-person, e-mail, phone, video call?

What software or technology do you rely on when reviewing or negotiating a contract?

How do you define or describe success in contract negotiation?

MAIN PAIN POINTS

Having to store too many contracts
Not having one place to store contracts
Inability to easily start a negotiation with an existing contract
Have more transparency during a negotiation
Using too many different tools in different places for one negotiation, losing time on communication
Not having one tool to communicate with the team and counter-party, see the terms
Missing deadlines due to an interrupted flow
Prolonging the negotiation process with research on counter-party as well as market research

These findings helped in the creation of a flow that would solve some of these problems. This is how these pain points were summarized into 3 main ones:

MISS CRITICAL MILESTONES

Fragmented, outdated collaboration tools: multiple stakeholders with misaligned incentives systematic distraction

CLOSE SUBOPTIMAL DEALS

Sub-optimal communication: aggregate knowledge is lost: misinformed strategy & decision-making

VULNERABLE BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

Ruthless competition transactional & superficial business iterations; static legal-centric post-contract relationships

PERSONAS

3 KEY TYPE OF USERS

1. LEAD NEGOTIATOR is the primary negotiator, who is the key decision-maker

The initial contract is sent to the Lead Negotiator
LN suggests new term changes
Reviews all comments
Makes the final call

2. APPROVER is a supporting role

Reviews and approves specific assigned parts of the contract
May comment and give feedback

3. TEAM MEMBER is a supporting role

Review the negotiation, participate in the discussion

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CONTRACT REPOSITORY AND NEGOTIATIONS

Research revealed that we will have two parts to our system. One for contracts currently in live negotiation and second for contracts that have already been been negotiated.

The goal was to create a very intuitive flow for first time users, so we could attract and keep more customers

SYNTHESIS OF MANUAL AND MACHINE LEARNING ONBOARDING

RESEARCH WITHIN THE COMPANY

MACHINE LEARNING

The Machine Learning Team was working hard on implementing automatic term extraction, however a flow with a manual flow needed to be created as well.

I created a user flow that included both, with ability to correct Machine Learning to minimize frustration from the user and give the flexibility for the user to make sure everything is right in the contract. One of the way I achieved it is with a WIZARD that would prompt the user to go through the contract and highlight needed terms with as little clicks as possible. With Machine Learning would only enhance and speed up the same flow.

Due to my NDA, this belongs to the intellectual property of IntelleXt and I am not allowed to publicly share it yet. I am happy to talk about it on the interview in more details.

BEHAVIOR RESEARCH

RESEARCH WITHIN THE COMPANY

5 NEGOTIATION STYLES

The Research Team introduced me to 5 negotiation styles that I considered when creating a negotiation flow. A blog series about 5 negotiations types was born and added to our marketing website

https://www.intellext.ai/negotiation-style-collaborate

As I can not share the full flow due to the NDA , here are a few examples:

Give users the flexibility to

Invite and assign their own roles
Discuss the whole contract opposed to limited parts of it
Suggest and accept term changes
Keep using tools they were previously used to, to avoid a steep onboarding learning curve
Provide additional suggestions and insights only to interested users
Use a wizard to take users through certain flows

FIRST DRAFTS OF THE CONTRACT REPOSITORY

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GETTING THE STRUCTURE RIGHT

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DASHBOARD

TEMPLATE LIBRARY

Store all templates

View, edit and add a new template

Start a new negotiation for a template

Bulk actions

Extensive filter to find a particular template

CONTRACT REPOSITORY

Store all contracts

View all contract with parameters

Bulk actions

Extensive filter to find a particular contract

Detailed view of a contract that includes document view, comments, contract details and term sheet

CLAUSE LIBRARY

Store all clauses

View, edit and add a new clause

Add a clause explainer text or video

Use a clause in a negotiation

Bulk actions

Extensive filter to find a particular clause

UI DESIGN SYSTEM was created that is:

Suitable for business to business/enterprise workflow
Clean design where text is readable and buttons are intuitive
Dark blue color creates trust and is easy on the eyes
Consider the needs of the client, a global leading aerospace manufacturer, such as the amount, type and complexity of contracts

CONTENT CREATION

Legal content was carefully crafted together with the General Counsel, a Lawyer and the Product Strategist, for example filters.

FILTERS

Each Filter Field expands to show options for an easy advanced filter menu, so contract can be filtered by any attribute that the user remembers.

Keyword Search

Contract Number

Contract Lead Negotiator

Country and Division

Contract Stage

Contract Status

Contract Type

Company Name

Contract Value

Contract Term

Start Dates

Contract End Dates

FIGMA MOCK-UP AND PROTOTYPE

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CONTRACT REPOSITORY

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SOME FEATURES OF THE CONTRACT REPOSITORY

List of all contracts
Column attributes: ID, Type, Last Updated, Expiry Date, Counter-party, Owner
Customizable attributes are in the settings. They are made for a power user and are not in the way of the most important action buttons and flow
Ability to filter
Keyword Search
Bulk Actions
Ability to add a New Contract

CLAUSE LIBRARY

SOME FUNCTIONALITIES OF THE CLAUSE LIBRARY

List of all clauses
Column attributes: Start preview of Clause Text, Tags, Last updated
Customizable attributes are in the settings. They are made for a power user and are not in the way of the most important action buttons and flow
Ability to filter
Keyword Search
Bulk Actions
Ability to add a New Clause and a new explainer to a clause

DASHBOARD

PURPOSE OF THE DASHBOARD

Purpose of the Dashboard is to give the user a place to start and receive the most important and relevant information

NOTIFICATIONS

Provide a place to receive the most important alerts, changes that require review or coming up deadlines

INBOX

Having the ability to see new and most recent messages from the dashboard to speed up the process of communication

TERMS AND CONTRACT OVERVIEW

Displays recent updates about term changes in ongoing contracts

Displays relevant information for easier viewing such as participants, due date, progress, status and last activity

Filters contracts/negotiations by importance

NEGOTIATION CHAT AND ANALYTICS

NEGOTIATION CHAT

Negotiation chat lets all participants discuss the contract in one place with the term sheet and contract on the same screen. This provides more transparency and minimizes negotiation time-frames

ANALYTICS

Analytics for previously negotiated contracts are calculated by the backend Data and Machine Learning Teams to provide users with an overview for the most profitable contracts and give relevant specific information.

Analytics for live negotiations help the user make decisions based on previous negotiations and relevant Market Research to help with stakeholder alignment.