How to kick off a project
Project kick-offs are your opportunity to start projects well—so they start effectively and are at lower risk of needing to be rescued later. (We've all been there, where you're having heart-to-heart meetings on a Tuesday at dinner time.) Get started on a collaborative, productive foot, and you'll make sure everyone on the team has access to all the information they need and a clear outline of their expectations.
Kick-off goals
The goals of a kick-offs are to:
Review project requirements: Ensure folks are aligned on what we are working together to create and accomplish, and why.
Define a mutually agreed scope of work: Develop a list of what work will be necessary, from each team, to accomplish the project requirements.
Identify needed resources and estimate timeline: The project timeline will be defined by the combination of resources and requirements. In this call, as you review the requirements and scope of work for each team, ask open-ended questions to understand how the project will fit into each team's capacity and other priorities.
Surface questions about business rules: Often you'll get questions like, what will happen if a customer says X? Or how do we want a feature to work? If you can answer these questions based on the project goal, great. If not, you can record these and work through them in upcoming discussions where project stakeholders are present.
Kick-off timing
The first step in developing a project is discovery. You can learn more about conducting project discovery in this guide. Kick-offs should always be a live discussion. Ideally, you can get everyone in the same meeting to talk through the project, but if it's a very large project team, it may be helpful to hold focused kickoff discussions with smaller groups, and then hold a full team meeting to review the plan and address any areas of disagreement.
Who's on the invite
Making the list of folks to include in your kickoff(s) can be tricky. You need to keep the group focused, but folks can also feel anxious if they are not included and have concerns about how the project may affect them. Reach out to the leaders of each team that will be involved and ask them to suggest who the lead or leads from their team will be on this project. It is okay to push back courteously if you're concerned the list is getting too long. People can be informed about a project by being included in Slack channels and reviewing work plans without joining every meeting.
Sample kick-off agenda
Once you've compiled your list, it's time to make your agenda. It's important to have a documented list of what you'll cover and share it advance so folks know what to expect and know what you're expecting from them.
Project context and goal (Project owner and/or stakeholders): It's helpful to have project owners and/or stakeholders talk through the project goal and its context—how it connects to the organization's strategic goals.
Develop project requirements in depth (Facilitated by project manager): You'll likely come into the kick-off discussion with a sense of what steps you'll need to tackle to accomplish the project goal. You can start by reviewing the ideas and approaches you and the project owner and stakeholders have developed so far, but it's important to ensure you're holding your initial ideas lightly. With the full project team present, you'll unearth new ideas, feedback, and approaches that may help you improve your initial thoughts.
Review scope of work by team and define project team/leads (Facilitated by project manager): Address each team and talk through a high-level scope of work that they'll need to address. You'll possibly need to have more in-depth follow-up calls to get into details.
Estimate timeline (Facilitated by project manager): Ask each team to estimate the time it will take for them to accomplish their goals, and surface areas where additional resources could help them move faster. You'll want to estimate a total timeline as a follow-up, and review with stakeholders to ensure your estimates are acceptable. If not, you can adjust the requirements or resources.
Agree on project communication methods (Facilitated by project manager): Define how often the project team will meet, how you'll meet, and where you'll organize project assets (like the project brief, meeting notes, etc.).
Q&A: Don't underestimate how important this is! It's essential to set the tone that you can discuss project elements openly and honestly. Encourage folks to voice their thoughts and concerns so you can build a collaborative project environment.
More resources
You might also find these blog posts and playbooks helpful:
