Contract lifecycle management (CLM) is one of the most deceptively complex initiatives legal and legal ops teams take on. It’s not that the available tools and platforms aren’t powerful — many are. It’s that implementation plans often skip the hard part: identifying the real problems and building the right foundation to solve them.
If you’re looking to implement a CLM strategy that actually works, here’s how to start — with focus, flexibility, and a bias for action.

1. Define the Problem Before Choosing the Tools

Don’t begin with feature comparisons or RFPs. Start with a simple but vital question:

Where do our contract processes hurt?

Map how contracts move through your organization — across legal, sales, procurement, finance, or other business teams. Pinpoint where time is lost, handoffs break down, or visibility disappears. Look for delays, risks, and bottlenecks.

Pro tip: Bring in business users early. They often see problems legal teams don’t — and they’ll be key to driving adoption later.

2. Map the Lifecycle Phases You Want to Improve

Not every phase of the contract lifecycle needs transformation on day one. Once you’ve identified your biggest contracting pain points, look at where they fit in the contract lifecycle:

Intake → Drafting → Negotiation → Approval → Execution → Post-signature management → Renewal or Termination

Ask:

• Where are the biggest bottlenecks?
• Which stages involve the most back-and-forth between different teams?
• Where does data or visibility break down?

Identifying the highest-priority CLM phases for your organization will help you choose the right tools for the job later.

3. Build a Project Team and Assign Owners

No CLM project succeeds without the right people behind it. Assemble a cross-functional team of colleagues who are actively involved in the CLM phases you’ve identified, including:

• Legal operations
• Business stakeholders
• IT (for integration and support)
• A clear project lead and departmental “champions”

Align up front on what success looks like — whether it’s faster turnaround, fewer escalations, internal compliance with standardized workflows, or something else.

4. Start Small: Choose a Pilot Area

CLM transformation doesn’t have to be massive to be meaningful. In fact, the smartest implementations begin with a pilot, led by your champions:

• Focus on one or two high-volume contract types (e.g., NDAs, MSAs)
• Roll out to a single team or region
• Measure impact according to the metrics you identified earlier, refine workflows, and scale from there
  
  

Pilots minimize risk, build credibility, and make early wins visible across the organization.

5. Choose Tools That Fit How Your Team Already Works

A good CLM solution should support your existing workflows — not require you to rebuild them. Look for tools that:

• Integrate with platforms you already use, such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, document management, or eSignature software
• Work inside Microsoft Word (like BoostDraft) instead of forcing you to use something different
• Deliver value immediately without requiring a heavy IT lift
  
  

Usability and flexibility matter more than any feature checklist.

6. Add New Capabilities Over Time

A future-ready CLM setup will evolve with your organization. Avoid the urge to build a sprawling system all at once. Instead:

• Start with core functionality
• Add tools gradually, based on the needs you’ve prioritized: clause libraries, obligation tracking, AI risk detection
• Use feedback and usage data to assess the implementation and determine what to do next at each step
  
  

Think “optimize in layers,” not “launch and leave.”

7. Measure Success and Share Internal Wins

Metrics matter — not just for the project team, but for everyone whose workflows are affected. Track outcomes such as:

• Time to draft or execute contracts
• Volume handled per full-time equivalent
• Number and length of review cycles, or redline frequency
• Compliance or renewal outcomes
  
  

Then tell those success stories to the rest of your team — they’re your best accelerators for adoption.

8. Avoid These Common Pitfalls

You don’t need a perfect implementation process to succeed. But you do need to avoid the mistakes that can sink CLM projects early:

• Overengineering workflows before talking to end users
• Skipping change management and training
• Expecting transformation without iteration
• Choosing tools that are technically impressive but practically frustrating
  
  

Simple beats complicated. Start small and iterate over time.

Conclusion: Start Where It Hurts. Build From There.

CLM isn’t about replacing everything at once — it’s about solving what matters, in a way that sticks. Start small. Stay practical. Expand intentionally.

If you’ve identified contract drafting and review as an area where you need help, take a look at BoostDraft. BoostDraft helps legal teams accelerate drafting and negotiation without changing the way they work. And it plays well with the tools you already use (namely, Microsoft Word).

Want help building your CLM stack? Schedule a demo today.