Ben Chiriboga recently shared something that caught my attention: "Just finished week 2 of our reframe.lawyer masterclass. This week was about the SKILLS lawyers would need to have to land Ops, product, and GTM roles at Harvey, Avvoka, and Snowflake." He also mentioned there were "10 spaces left" in the next cohort starting Feb. 20th.

That short post points at a big reality shift: more lawyers want to move into operator roles (Ops), product roles, and go-to-market (GTM) roles, especially in fast-moving legal tech and broader enterprise software. The hard part is not convincing people that the move is possible. The hard part is understanding which skills translate directly, which ones need upgrading, and how to prove you can do the job when your resume screams "traditional legal."

In this post, I want to expand on what Ben is getting at. If you are a lawyer aiming at companies like Harvey, Avvoka, or Snowflake (or any product-led, enterprise software environment), you need a clear skills map and a plan to demonstrate those skills in public, in interviews, and on the job.

Why these roles are attractive to lawyers right now

Lawyers are trained to handle ambiguity, spot risk, interpret messy facts, and communicate precisely. That is useful far beyond law firms. The reason Ops, product, and GTM are so appealing is that they sit where decisions get made:

Ops shapes how work happens at scale.
Product shapes what gets built and why.
GTM shapes how value is communicated, priced, sold, and retained.

Companies like Harvey and Avvoka live at the intersection of legal workflows, automation, and user trust. Snowflake represents a broader enterprise ecosystem where governance, risk, procurement, and complex stakeholder management are everyday challenges. Lawyers can thrive there, but only if they can operate like builders, not just advisors.

"This week was about the SKILLS lawyers would need to have to land Ops, product, and GTM roles..."

That one line is the thesis: skills first. Title second.

The core skill shift: from legal expertise to business outcomes

Most lawyers are rewarded for being correct. Ops, product, and GTM reward you for being effective.

That means you have to get comfortable with:

Incomplete information
Iteration
Tradeoffs (speed vs risk, scope vs quality)
Metrics and accountability

The question changes from "Is this defensible?" to "Does this move the metric in the right direction without creating unacceptable risk?"

Skill set for Ops roles: systems thinking and execution

Ops roles vary (BizOps, Legal Ops, RevOps, Product Ops), but the shared theme is designing and running systems.

1) Process design and documentation

If you can turn a chaotic workflow into a simple operating rhythm, you are valuable.

What this looks like in practice:

Mapping an end-to-end process (intake to resolution)
Defining SLAs, escalation paths, and owner responsibilities
Writing crisp documentation that people actually follow

A strong lawyer advantage here is clarity. The upgrade is writing for adoption, not for perfection.

2) Metrics, dashboards, and operational reviews

Ops is measured. If you cannot define success, you cannot improve it.

Start practicing:

Defining KPIs (cycle time, conversion, retention, cost per ticket)
Building a simple dashboard (even in Sheets)
Running weekly reviews where you identify root causes and commit to actions

3) Stakeholder management without authority

Lawyers often influence without formal power. In Ops, you do it faster and with more conflict.

Learn to:

Align goals across teams (sales wants speed, security wants control)
Write decision memos that clarify tradeoffs
Push for a decision when people stall

Skill set for Product roles: discovery, prioritization, and shipping

Product is where many lawyers want to go, and it is where interviews can be unforgiving. Hiring teams look for proof you can build.

1) Customer discovery and problem framing

Lawyers are good at questions, but product discovery is a different muscle.

You need to show you can:

Interview users for pain, frequency, and impact
Separate symptoms from root problems
Translate pain into a clear problem statement

Try this framework: "User" + "struggles to" + "because" + "resulting in".

2) Prioritization and roadmap thinking

Product work is choosing what not to do.

Practice:

Writing PRDs that start with outcomes, not features
Prioritizing with simple scoring (impact, confidence, effort)
Making tradeoffs explicit and defensible

A lawyerly instinct is to cover every edge case. Product needs the opposite: ship a usable core, then iterate.

3) Cross-functional delivery

Even if you are not coding, you must speak the language of delivery.

Be conversant in:

Agile basics (sprints, backlog, acceptance criteria)
QA and release management
Feedback loops (analytics, support tickets, user calls)

If you can write tight acceptance criteria and anticipate failure modes, you will earn engineering trust quickly.

Skill set for GTM roles: messaging, sales enablement, and commercial judgment

GTM is not just sales. It is how the company turns product value into revenue, expansion, and retention. Lawyers can be excellent here because they understand constraints, negotiation, and trust.

1) Value messaging that is compliant and compelling

Legal training can make messaging overly cautious. GTM needs clarity.

You should be able to:

Explain the product in plain English
Translate features into outcomes
Address risk questions without killing momentum

In legal tech, trust is the product. Your job is to communicate it.

2) Commercial fluency: pricing, packaging, and deal cycles

If you want GTM credibility, learn the mechanics:

How pricing models work (usage-based, seat-based, tiered)
Where discounts come from and what they signal
How procurement and security reviews shape cycle length

Lawyers already understand negotiation. The upgrade is understanding the revenue model and how your choices affect it.

3) Sales enablement and objection handling

Great GTM operators equip others to sell.

Create:

Battlecards (common objections and responses)
Security and legal FAQs that shorten cycles
Templates that reduce custom work while staying accurate

This is where many former lawyers shine quickly: you can standardize what used to be bespoke.

The "Harvey, Avvoka, Snowflake" signal: what these companies imply

Ben named three companies for a reason. They imply a certain bar.

Harvey: fast iteration, AI product dynamics, high scrutiny on reliability and risk.
Avvoka: deep workflow understanding, document automation, enterprise rollouts.
Snowflake: complex stakeholder environments, governance, data, security, and long sales cycles.

Across all three, you need comfort with enterprise buyers, cross-functional complexity, and measurable outcomes.

How to prove these skills if your background is purely legal

This is the part most career advice skips. Hiring managers do not just want potential. They want evidence.

Build a small portfolio (yes, even for Ops and GTM)

You can create proof without a formal title:

Write a 1-page process redesign for a legal workflow (intake, contracting, compliance).
Do a teardown of a legal tech onboarding flow and propose improvements.
Create a GTM one-pager: ideal customer profile, core pains, messaging, and 5 objections.

Translate your legal work into operator language

Instead of: "Reviewed contracts." Try:

"Reduced contracting cycle time by standardizing fallback positions."
"Built an intake and triage process that cut escalations by X percent."
"Partnered with sales to unblock deals while maintaining risk thresholds."

Same work, different frame: outcomes.

Practice the interview formats you will face

Product and Ops interviews often include:

Case studies
Prioritization exercises
Writing tests (memos, PRDs, strategy docs)

If you are only preparing stories, you are under-preparing. You need reps in structured thinking under time pressure.

A simple next step if you are exploring the transition

Ben Chiriboga’s post is short, but the takeaway is not: choose a target role (Ops, product, or GTM), then build a skills plan around it.

If I were advising a lawyer this week, I would suggest:

Pick one role track for the next 60 days.
Identify 5 skills that track demands.
Build 2 portfolio artifacts that demonstrate those skills.
Rewrite your resume bullets as outcomes and metrics.
Start informational conversations with people already in those seats.

Momentum comes from specificity.

This blog post expands on a viral LinkedIn post by Ben Chiriboga. View the original LinkedIn post →