Reinventing Goodstorage's contracts
A smart urban spaces company had contracts that spoke another language. In six months, InnovationLab's lawyers and designers rewrote the structure, the language and the design of Goodstorage's lease agreements, without losing anything the old template protected.
Smart spaces call for smarter contracts
Goodstorage operates urban spaces across several products, from self storage to leases of large warehouses. Each line of business had its own contract, all written in the usual way: a single block of text, clauses that mixed subjects and cross-references that forced the reader back and forth. In short, a contract loaded with legalese, written "by lawyers, for lawyers".
In the old model, for instance, a single clause dealt at once with rent, grace period, adjustment, late penalties, charges and the assignment of receivables. For someone renting a storage unit for the first time, especially in the self storage concept, reading that was a barrier. For Goodstorage, every customer question meant friction in the sale and in the relationship. And none of it matched the company's innovation DNA.
The challenge was to reimagine and rewrite everything without giving up any legal protection, respecting the real differences between the products and their audiences, whether a small self storage unit or a large warehouse for logistics operations.
Before writing, we had to understand how the contract was used
We coined the term Ctx (Contract Experience Design) because it goes well beyond visual law. It was inspired by the User Experience (UX) discipline many companies apply when they analyze interactions with their customers.
The premise is simple: a contract is a product someone has to read, understand and use. It has to speak to the customer acquisition journey and to the company's DNA. That is why our work started inside Goodstorage, not in the template.
What gets negotiated on one side. What does not, on the other.
The contract was split into two sections that do not overlap. The first concentrates everything commercial and works as a summary sheet for each lease. Translated and combined with credit information, it automatically becomes a lease abstract Goodstorage uses internally. The second is the standard: stable, with no fields to fill in, designed not to be negotiated.
The contract also communicates through design
The design of the contract was deliberate. Two columns for shorter lines and fewer pages. Clause number on the left, a short title in color following Goodstorage's palette, used as a defined term. A side bar runs along the whole clause. Short paragraphs, no cross-references, and nothing the law already says repeated in the text.
7.1. O Locatário não poderá realizar benfeitorias, alterações ou reformas/obras de qualquer natureza no Box, incluindo perfurações, fixação de prateleiras, colagem de adesivos ou instalação de objetos nas paredes, estruturas ou na cobertura.
7.2. O Locatário não poderá alegar que a Goodstorage concorda com o descumprimento desta cláusula, caso a Goodstorage não se manifeste sobre tal descumprimento anteriormente.
EXCERPT IN THE ORIGINAL PORTUGUESE · CLAUSE 7, "IMPROVEMENTS"No legalese, no fine print
The text went through a simple version, then an ultra-simple one and, finally, a radically simplified one. We tested the extremes. The shortest version did not always win, but no sentence could run past two lines. We leaned on punctuation and everyday words, even when they were not the most precise legal terms: "rescisão" (rescission) became "término" (end), "apólice de seguro" (insurance policy) became "seguro" (insurance).
THE LESSEE hereby declares, for all legal purposes and effects, that it receives the leased Unit in perfect condition of conservation and use, undertaking and committing itself to use it in accordance with the rules and conditions stipulated herein. For such purposes and effects, THE LESSEE further declares that it has inspected the Unit in all its aspects, finding it in perfect condition and completely empty.
Free translation of the original Portuguese text.The Tenant had the opportunity to inspect the rented Unit and confirms that it is in perfect condition, empty and ready for use.
Free translation of the original Portuguese text.Simplifying the text required a legal analysis of each product
In self storage, still a relatively new product in Brazil and one in which Goodstorage is a pioneer, we reviewed the legal framework, mapped all existing case law on this type of contract and set out to identify which topics caused the most friction with customers.
Beyond securing legal certainty for Goodstorage, part of our work was to find ways to reduce the friction we identified, including points that frequently raised questions or challenges from customers.
In the end, we adapted the conclusions to the specifics of each product, aligning the concepts and the treatment given to each.
A family of contracts and a positioning proposal
A few years after implementation, Projeto Novus has resulted in higher customer conversion, less friction with customers after signing and higher retention at renewal.