The Kickoff Meeting – A Key To Successful Projects
- October 19, 2019
- Posted by: Admin
- Categories: Change Management, Project Management
Project Kickoff Meeting – Key To Successful Projects
The kickoff meeting is a critical moment in every project, an opportunity to establish common goals and purpose in completing the work.
A project kickoff meeting is the first formal meeting between the project team and the sponsor or client. This usually takes place after contracts have been signed, and there’s agreement on the scope outlined in the statement of work (SoW), costs, and schedule, although sometimes this may be different with a new client.
The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the project team, have a better understanding of the project background, what success would look like for the project, what needs to be done, and obtain an agreement on how to effectively work together – it’s an opportunity to get the project team and client on the same page.
On the side of a consulting firm, who is tasked with delivery of the project, a kickoff meeting is an avenue to get the crucial information they need to succeed and demonstrate their excitement and understanding of the initiative, it’s an opportunity to build confidence in the client and key stakeholders that they’ve made a right decision in their choice of project team.
A project kickoff meeting, if done right, can contribute significantly to the success of the project itself. And if poorly done, the kickoff meeting can abdicate any chance of success before the start of the project.
What Makes A Great Project Kickoff Meeting?
A great kickoff is the end result of proper preparation. A project kickoff meeting requires more than just luck or ten minutes of preparation before the meeting.
Steps to follow to conduct a productive project kickoff meeting:
1. Preparing your team properly and providing the right tools for success in an internal project kickoff meeting.
2. Starting the client relationship well.
The Internal Project Kickoff Meeting
The internal project kickoff sets the tone, style, and vision for the entire project. It is a chance for the project manager to educate the team and develop one team spirit before facing a client. The internal project kickoff meetings need to get the PM and the team to a point where the team can confidently say, ‘We’ve got this!’
Plan your internal project kickoff meeting properly
Heading into a project kickoff meeting with an informed team and a concrete plan helps you as the project manager get the most out of your meeting with the client and the stakeholders. It is essential for the team to know about the client and project before they start asking unnecessary questions in front of the client. It is also necessary for the team to collaborate to come up with a plan that will instill confidence in the client, and to make any vital project decisions ahead jointly so that hours, money, and time spent with the client are not wasted.
So provided you’ve planned and spent some time preparing for the internal kickoff meeting, here’s an example of an internal project kickoff meeting agenda. By going through the agenda, you will understand what I meant that you would need to do some preparation prior to the meeting.
The pre-client project kickoff meeting
A way to help improve the chances of the kickoff meeting to go well is to meet with the key clients before the actual project kickoff meeting.
The purpose of connecting with the client before the actual project kickoff meeting is to set expectations. It is also an opportunity to establish some connection with the client, communicate essential project information, and obtain relevant information prior to the real project kickoff meeting with the client team.
The pre-client project kickoff meeting can also be used as an opportunity to refine the agenda for the kickoff meeting and pass across feedback to your project team. The discussion in the pre-client project kickoff meeting should be focused on the two sides are going to work together and as much as they can, set and align expectations. It is also an important meeting to cover off project management aspects of the project without many audiences of stakeholders who might complicate the discussion!
Every project is unique in sizes and complexities, but there’s value in ensuring that we cover some basics to get the project team on the same page:
1. Introductions – meet your new colleagues
2. Client – what’s the project background?
3. Project – why are we doing this?
4. Scope – what are we doing?
5. Approach – how are we going to make it happen?
6. Roles – who is doing what?
7. Teamwork – how are we going to work together effectively?
8. Kickoff – what’s the agenda for the client kickoff?
9. Next – how do we keep momentum?
10. Q&A – what haven’t we told you?
Although every client meeting requires its own agenda tweaking, try and cover off these project management basics. We’ve created this sample pre-client project kickoff agenda with a rough idea of timings so you can fit this into a 60 min meeting:
1. Introductions – some warm and fuzzy banter (5 mins)
2. Review the project teams – who’s responsible for what? (3 mins)
3. Approval process – the process and personnel for signing off deliverables? (3 mins)
4. SoW Review – what are we doing, when, how, and what will we produce? (20 mins)
5. Discuss Risk, Issue and Change Management – what’s the client’s attitude and approach to manage to risk and change? (3 mins)
6. Reporting – how will we track and communicate project progress, and to whom? (3 mins)
7. Collaboration – what tools will we use to work together? (3 mins)
8. Assets – what do we need to get started? (5 mins)
9. Kickoff agenda – what will we discuss in the client kickoff? (5 mins)
10. AOB – anything else that we need to discuss? (5 mins)
Remember to share the good news
After your meeting with the client, it is now time to share the new knowledge of the team. Meet with your team and bring them up to speed so that they’re adequately prepared for the project kickoff meeting.
Project Kickoff Meeting With Client
The client project kickoff meeting is an avenue to hear from the client and their project team as well as the key stakeholders about the project and get a clearer understanding of the project background, business drivers that led to the project being initiated, a project briefing and discussion that could make it a success.
The project kickoff meeting should not be a discussion about the scope, but it is an opportunity to be on the same page with the stakeholders on expectations around milestones, rounds of review cycles, and a chance to improve the approach.
Project kickoff meeting presentation
A slick, highly polished project kickoff presentation is an essential part of the kickoff meeting. Remember, as much as information gathering, and glad-handing, the project kickoff meeting is an opportunity to demonstrate to the client and stakeholders, ‘we’ve got this!’ – that they’ve made a solid choice in selecting your agency and you know what you’re doing.
Remember to ask the client for their content so you can add it to your presentation deck prior to the meeting. Trying to switch between presentation or laptops during the meeting eats up time and impacts the flow of the meeting.