The engagement
What is a CLM discovery sprint?
A CLM discovery sprint is a fixed engagement of 4 to 6 weeks that produces the decisions and the roadmap you need before selecting a contract lifecycle management platform.
Most CLM projects fail because scope gets set by platform features and procurement deadlines rather than by the operating model the business needs. The sprint reverses that order: it settles how contract work should flow across your people, processes and existing platforms first, so a later selection serves a decision you have already made.
The stakes are real. Organizations lose an average of 8.6% of contract value to poor contract management (WorldCC, Contract Management Performance Study, 2025), and most CLM implementations underperform within the first 18 months of go-live, per industry surveys.
Deliverables
What you walk away with.
01
Lifecycle map
Your current contract lifecycle, intake through renewal, with handoffs and gaps.
02
Platform boundary model
What contract work belongs in Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, SAP or Coupa, and what in a dedicated CLM.
03
Requirements themes
High-level CLM requirements, organized for a future RFP.
04
Readiness and maturity assessment
Whether the organization is ready to adopt, and how mature the contracting process is today.
05
Pilot recommendations
Priority contract workflows to pilot first.
06
Roadmap
Implementation roadmap options and an executive readout.
Vendor selection is deliberately excluded. You finish ready to select well, not pushed toward a product.
The timeline
How the 4 to 6 weeks run.
01
Discover, weeks 1 to 2
Stakeholder interviews across legal, procurement, finance and IT, current-state lifecycle mapping, and an inventory of the platforms in play.
02
Analyze, weeks 2 to 4
Boundary modeling across your platforms and a dedicated CLM, requirements themes, and the readiness and maturity assessment.
03
Recommend, weeks 4 to 6
Pilot recommendations, roadmap options, and an executive readout with the decision-ready package.
Timing flexes within the 4 to 6 week window based on stakeholder availability and organization size.
Who you work with
Named senior practitioners, on the work and on the call.
Gary Wheeler
CLM & AI Lead
Has built CLM programs and created legal ops teams for multiple Fortune 500 companies, including Home Depot and Cox. Delivery experience across Docusign CLM and Onit CLM.
Danish Butt
Managing Director
20+ years, including Huron Consulting and Morae Global. Advises chief legal officers and business technology leaders on where contract work belongs across the platforms they already run.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CLM discovery sprint?
A fixed engagement of 4 to 6 weeks that maps your current contract process, sets the operating model and platform boundaries, and produces an implementation roadmap, so you can select a CLM from a position of clarity.
How long does the sprint take?
Four to six weeks, depending on stakeholder availability and the size of your organization.
Do you recommend a specific vendor at the end?
No. Vendor selection is deliberately excluded. The sprint makes you ready to select well. It does not steer you toward a product.
Who should be involved from our side?
Typically the platform or business technology owner, legal operations, and stakeholders from procurement, finance and IT. The interview plan is designed to minimize the time each group spends.
What does the sprint cost?
The sprint is a fixed-fee engagement, scoped to the size and complexity of your organization. We confirm the fee on the discovery call, before any commitment.
What happens after the sprint?
You hold a decision-ready package: lifecycle map, platform boundary model, requirements themes, readiness and maturity assessment, pilot recommendations and roadmap options. You can run selection yourself or engage Swiftwater for selection and implementation.
How long should a CLM pilot run, and what should it prove?
Typically 6 to 12 weeks on one priority contract workflow, long enough to run real contracts through intake, approval and signature. It should prove adoption and cycle time on that workflow before you scale to others.
Does the sprint include vendor selection?
No. The sprint produces the requirements themes, platform boundary model and readiness picture that a selection scorecard is built from. Selection runs after it, by your team or with us as a guided evaluation.
Start with the decision, not the demo.
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