Product Lab × Esquire Solutions

Product Designer for a legal-tech platform redesign

Through Duke Product Lab, I'm working with Esquire Deposition Solutions to redesign the software workflow used to turn raw deposition transcripts into professionally formatted legal documents. I was selected as one of 40 fellows for the semester-long Product Lab cohort through Duke's Christensen Family Center for Innovation (CFCI), and work on a multidisciplinary team alongside upperclassmen focused on product management and backend engineering.

Esquire's Production Coordinators currently rely on third-party legacy software to process raw ASCII transcripts, exhibits and case information into final deliverables. The workflow involves importing files, verifying automatically extracted metadata such as the case name and deponent, applying document templates, managing exhibits, performing quality checks and generating the final transcript package. With the existing vendor moving to a significantly more expensive platform, our challenge is to help Esquire develop an independent solution while also asking a broader question: instead of simply recreating the old software, how can we make the entire workflow easier and more efficient?

We began by studying the existing YesLaw Transcript Generator through software demonstrations and client conversations, mapping each step a Production Coordinator takes from receiving raw files to generating the final document. As the Product Designer, I'm analysing where users make decisions, where information needs to be surfaced, which steps create unnecessary friction and where automation could reduce repetitive work. I'm then translating these findings into user flows and interface concepts while working with our product managers to define requirements and our engineers to understand technical constraints.

The project is currently in the discovery and design phase. Next, we'll validate our understanding of the workflow with Esquire, prototype improved experiences and begin developing the platform. The project is teaching me how product design goes beyond UI: understanding a complex real-world process, deciding what should actually be built, balancing user and business needs, and collaborating across product, design and engineering to turn an ambiguous problem into a functional product.