Kickoff Meeting: The Official Start of Your Project
What is the definition of Kickoff Meeting?
Let’s imagine a scenario – The vision of the project is already intact; you know exactly what the project implies and you know exactly what the desirable outcome represents… in your mind. Seems like you have everything figured out. Now what would be the first step to pursue it?
Here is when the Kickoff Meeting comes in!
Kickoff Meeting is the first meeting between the project management team and the clients. It is the initial step to developing the project ideas and goals.
Kickoff is an essential beginning point in the project management field. Without this first introductory phase, the following steps would simply not make sense.
Why is Kickoff Meeting so Important?
Kickoff Meeting (or Kick-off) is the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to the project team, clients, and stakeholders. It is a way to ensure that all the members are on the same page.
The Project Kickoff is usually scheduled after the completion and agreement on Statement of Work (SOW).
During the Kickoff Meeting, participants establish common goals and rules. They decide on the structure of their work, including the following:
- Meeting frequency
- Communication strategy
- Current challenges
How to Prepare for Project Kickoff Meeting
Being prepared is always important for any type of meeting. Kickoff happens to be one of them.
Consider it a meeting where you are making the first impression; you need to be organized and make sure that your ideas are clear and encouraging.
Don’t forget that you are meeting and building partnerships with people you will be working with for some period of time, so definitely be prepared to answer their questions and set a motivating start to your initiative.
Prepare them for your questions
Prepare for their questions
Remember that the team members are directly connected and affected by the project process and outcome. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine what questions and concerns they may have. Write down some options and think of the response beforehand.
- What is the description of the project?
- What is the purpose of the project?
- Why are you initiating it?
- What is the Project Scope?
- What are the Action Items?
- Who is responsible for what?
- What is your collaboration going to look like?
- How do we define success?
Be aware that these questions will be the base of your meeting, so you must be ready to have concrete answers to most of them:
Kickoff Meeting Agenda
Six points to include in the agenda
1. Introduction
You have gathered for the first time as a team. The first step is to introduce yourselves, get to know each other and your responsibilities.
Make it fun and light, firstly for the purpose to learn about the individuals you will be working with. But it’s also beneficial to create a light environment so that the project continues at the same pace.
2. Key Elements of the Project
When you are done with the introduction phase, continue focusing on the 4 key points that define and structure your entire project process.
Those points are the Statement of Work (SOW), Scope Statement, Deadlines, and Deliverables:
- Statement of Work (SOW) – The Statement of work is a document for the clients involving the description of the project, the deliverables, and the timeframe of its completion.
- Scope Statement – Scope Statement refers to the in-depth summary of the project deliverables and the necessary actions to achieve them.
- Deadlines – Timeline is one of the most important aspects of a project. It must be decided and agreed on to avoid scope creep and ensure a stable progression of each task.
- Deliverables – The end products or services will be provided to clients in a timely manner
3. Note Taker
Have a team member take notes of everything discussed during the Kickoff Meeting to keep track of all the questions and points.
4. Tracking the Progress
It is important to establish an approach to track your progress and share it with the entire team, including the stakeholders.
One option would be creating a status report, which would involve all the details regarding goals, deadlines, and costs. Discuss the options with the team to come up with the best approach.
5. Platforms for Communication
During your Kickoff Meeting, spare some time to discuss the platforms you will be using. Different software and tools are essential in communication. You need to be informed about the project progress and transparent about each other’s work.
Some of the platforms that could be useful are the following:
- Team Management System to monitor the status of the tasks. Some samples are Asana, Jira, and Basecamp.
- A shared platform, which would include all the important documents. Easily accessible examples would be Google Docs, Google Sheets.
- Platforms like Slack or the simple Google Hangouts within the Gmail are also useful to keep in touch through a group chat.
6. Crisis Management
Communicate with your team members how you plan to address and resolve crisis situations as a group. Things go wrong in projects all the time.
The important part is to develop the right team dynamic to be able to analyze, define and resolve the problems together. It would be a good idea to ask the team members how they respond to crisis situations and change.
Useful Resources:
In addition, you can easily write down and access your team discussion through the Kickoff Meeting Template , and gain more information with the Kickoff Meeting Template (PowerPoint Presentation).
Different Types of Kickoff Meetings
1. Internal Kickoff Meeting
This is the most basic type of the meeting involving the team members who get the opportunity to ask questions and establish a connection and mutual understanding on how the project will proceed.
2. Executive Kickoff Meeting
Your project might involve stakeholders and sponsors. In this case, leading a basic “let’s get to know each other” approach would not be the right option. On the contrary, you might come off as disorganized.
Intend to have all your focus on the project goals and the impact on the company. Be confident, organized, and persuasive. Be specific about your mission.
There is no need to discuss personal responsibilities, as this meeting is specifically for the executive leaders involving all about the project; the project plan, roadmap, business case.
3. External Kickoff Meeting
If your project requires you to cooperate with clients, you might need to organize an External Kickoff Meeting.
External Kickoff Meeting involves the stakeholders, clients, and your team, to make sure that everyone involved knows the project goals and plans, and shares the same expectations for the end result.
The important part of this meeting is to set the goal to be in constant communication with the clients, and share the project progress in a timely manner. In return, the clients should know their responsibility on when and how to review the progress.
4. Agile Project Kickoff Meeting
Agile Project Kickoff is a little different from the regular Project Kickoff, simply because Agile includes a different approach and methodology, such as Scrum. However, the reason behind the Agile Kickoff Meeting is the same and represents some of the same elements with minor adjustments:
- Team Introduction
- Project Purpose and Mission
- Defining Success
- What needs to be done
- Understand how to collaborate
Kickoff Meeting is the initial step of your project journey. Regardless of the Kickoff type, it is necessary to have questions and answers prepared to lead the Kickoff Meeting structure and have a mutual understanding of the coming events and goals.
