New projects are like a blank canvas—full of endless possibilities and potential. You've got a rock-star team, a clear scope of work, and a thrilling challenge ahead. But here's the thing—while the project brief and requirements may be crystal clear, they're not enough to ensure success.
That's where the kickoff meeting comes in.
Think of it as the launchpad for your project, a chance to set the tone, establish expectations, and get everyone on board with the plan. It's the perfect opportunity to get your team and stakeholders in sync and aligned on how you'll work together, communicate, and collaborate to deliver a top-notch project.
What’s a project kickoff meeting?
A project kickoff is typically the first meeting (or set of meetings) that help your team and stakeholders align on the project goals, roles and responsibilities, and communication and collaboration practices.
Kickoff meetings can also get everyone excited about the project and inject a sense of unity before the real work begins.
What are the types of kickoff meetings?
You can approach kickoff meetings in two ways:
1. One meeting for your team and project stakeholders
If you’re working with an in-house team and your project stakeholders are coworkers or managers who know one another, you might do one large kickoff meeting to get the collective team aligned at once. You may think, “My team is large, and a kickoff meeting could be expensive! Can I just invite the team leads?” And the answer to that is yes—but how will you ensure the proper expectations are set with everyone who will be a part of the project?
Gaining alignment from everyone involved is the goal of your kickoff meeting, so be sure to invite anyone who fits the bill.
2. Separate team and stakeholder meetings
As an agency project manager, you may decide to kick off a project with several meetings. The first meeting is to onboard your team, then a meeting to onboard the client's project manager, and finally, perhaps a collaborative kickoff workshop to align everyone and brainstorm ideas.
Your approach will vary depending on your workplace and project requirements. But remember, kickoff meetings are essential to your project management toolkit. They help you gain alignment on both outcomes and the path to achieving those outcomes with your team and clients throughout the project.
How to run an effective kickoff meeting: Get the agenda right
Because you may handle your kickoff in several ways, it’s best to think about what kind of work you need to accomplish with your whole team at kickoff.
Here are the ingredients for your kickoff meeting:
- Project scope and timeline. You'll want to ensure everyone has read the scope and understands the project's constraints before you start work.
- Project goals, requirements, and intended outcomes. Ensuring that your team and stakeholders understand and agree on project goals and how you’re collectively defining them will help you to set and maintain expectations.
- Roles and responsibilities - Not only should you introduce yourselves and get to know one another, but you should also talk about who will do what.
- Process and tools - A healthy pre-planning discussion about the process and how you will work through presentations, feedback, and decision-making, as well as setting expectations of how everyone will utilize tools, will set the stage for clearer communication and progress.
- Communication plans - Everyone communicates differently, and there will be a lot of communications flying around your project, so it’s critical to discuss how you’ll report on progress and facilitate project communications. You may eventually build a communication plan based on this discussion.
- Project risks - Every project comes with an inherent risk, and your team and stakeholders will likely spot hazards in your PM blind spot. Opening up a conversation about potential issues will engage everyone in spotting and addressing risks early.
- Open questions or ideas - You should always leave room for questions to encourage open dialog about the project. Depending on how your meeting takes shape, you may set aside some time for brainstorming or collaborative exercises to get some ideas on the table, with the bonus of early team building.
- Next steps - Your kickoff is just the beginning, and every meeting agenda ends with the next steps. You’ll likely discuss the first steps in getting the project off the ground, including a planning session.
Three examples of agendas for kickoff meetings
Depending on how you want to run the meeting, there are different options for the agenda. Check out the different examples (and download them from Google Docs if you want!)
1. Full team and stakeholders
If you’ve only got one opportunity to get your team and stakeholders onboarded to the project, you must craft a kickoff agenda that will cover all of your bases.
Regardless of how you handle your kickoff meetings, you need to communicate as much about the project details as possible before you meet. It’s best to share any relevant project documentation before the kickoff so folks can come prepared to dig into the project specifics.
Project kickoff meeting
Attendees: Full team and stakeholders
Goal: To align on the project and discuss how we’ll work together to deliver on the goals and objectives seamlessly.
Meeting length: 60-90 minutes (depending on various factors, including the size of your project scope/budget, team, deadline, availability, etc.)
15-30 minutes: Team introductions
Go around the room, introduce yourself, and talk about your role and what you’ll work on.
15-30 minutes: Review project scope, goals, and outcomes
In this part of the meeting, have your stakeholders talk about the impetus for the project and what they’re looking to achieve. This may be a great time for them to present and talk about related projects, organizational goals, and needs. There should also be time to answer related questions.
20-40 minutes: How we’ll communicate and collaborate
This is your opportunity to set expectations around how you will facilitate communications on the project. Be sure to discuss the following:
- The tools you will utilize to communicate and guidance on how to use them
- How you’ll report on the project (weekly status reports and status meetings)
- Risk management and reporting
- Important meetings and collaboration tactics
- Keeping additional stakeholders and partners informed
10-20 minutes: Discussion and next steps
Take time to answer open questions and discuss what everyone should expect once the kickoff is wrapped up.
➡️ Download agenda in Google Docs from File > Download
2. Separate team and client meetings
When working with a new team or clients, it's crucial to take the time to onboard and introduce your project, especially if it's complicated or significant. Even if the project seems straightforward, it's still a good idea to get all the details on the table.
For projects that require brainstorming or creative selling, consider hosting a kickoff meeting or workshop to align on project details and determine what constitutes a great idea. This option is an excellent way to manage the project and begin a discussion on creative direction.
To establish alignment between your team and clients, here is a series of separate meetings you may conduct before starting the project work.
First meeting: Internal team project kickoff meeting
Attendees: Full team; if you’re in an agency, the person who sold the project should be in this meeting to review the scope and answer any questions the team might have about the sales process, client team, red flags, etc.
Goal: To align the team on the project and discuss how we’ll work together to deliver on the client’s goals and objectives seamlessly.
Meeting length: 60-90 minutes
10-15 minutes: Team introductions/opportunities
If you're working with a new team, use this opportunity to get to know everyone. If everyone has worked together previously, this is an opportunity to level up as a team. Ask some pointed questions to get the team excited about the project and their roles:
- What makes us the best team for this project?
- What are we excited to do, try, or create on this project?
- Can we try any new approaches?
- Is anyone looking to expand their skill set on the project?
15-30 minutes: Scope, clients, and timeline review
Everyone should know the scope before the meeting. This will be an opportunity for the person who knows the client or sold the project to provide a high-level overview of what you’ll be delivering, to whom, and by when. There are a lot of details that come out of the sales process, so use this time to learn as much as possible about the project and its goals before work commences.
10-20 minutes: How we’ll work together
If you're in an agency, chances are you have pretty well-established processes, communication practices, and guidelines for using your tools. That said, it's always a good idea to re-align those things with a brief discussion about how the project will be managed.
10-20 minutes: Discussion and next steps
Take time to answer any open questions, discuss your approach to the client kickoff, and discuss what everyone should expect once the kickoff is wrapped up.
➡️ Download agenda in Google Docs from File > Download
Second meeting: Client onboarding pre-kickoff meeting
Attendees: Team PM and client PM
Goal: To align the project managers from both teams about the approach to the project and to discuss the full kickoff meeting.
Meeting length: 30-45 minutes
5-10 minutes: Introductions
If you’re the agency PM, this might be the first time you’re meeting your new client! It’s great if your salesperson could join the call to formally hand the project baton over to you because you’ll now own the client relationship. Take a few minutes to talk about yourself, the type of projects you work on, your personal life and interests (if you’re comfortable with that), and give your client the space and time to do the same. This is an excellent opportunity to start the working relationship off comfortably.
10-20 minutes: Communication preferences and tools
If you have a PM process (and you should), you’ll want to cover that here. Talk about your communication practices and tools, reporting, and what will be expected of your clients to work well together. There’s a lot of work ahead of you and more opportunities to set expectations with the larger stakeholder group, but this is an opportunity to introduce just how organized and ready you and your team are to get started.
10-20 minutes: Next steps and kickoff planning
Now that you’ve been introduced and discussed the basics, it’s time to plan your kickoff or the steps that will lead to getting into that kickoff meeting.
➡️ Download agenda in Google Docs from File > Download
3. Kickoff workshop
Your kickoff meeting can truly be what you make it! You can revert to the first agenda example above if your project is straightforward. If you want to run a more collaborative session, try an agenda like the one below.
Most important is that the exercises you implement help you meet the meeting goals and that they are time-boxed and achievable. Remember, collaborative activities can go sideways and take longer than expected. Do what you can to plan a realistic agenda and set expectations around timing and goals.
Attendees: Full team and stakeholders
Goal: To align on the project, discuss how we’ll work together to deliver on the goals and objectives seamlessly, and begin early discussions about execution.
Meeting Length: 2 hours to several days
15-30 minutes: Team introductions
Go around the room, introduce yourself, and talk about your role and what you'll work on. If you have time and want to make it fun, add a question like, "What are you hoping to get out of this project experience?" to start to understand everyone's motivations, involvement, and personalities.
20-40 minutes: Review project scope, goals, and outcomes
In this part of the meeting, have your stakeholders talk about the impetus for the project and what they’re looking to achieve. This may be an excellent time for them to present and talk about related projects, organizational goals, and needs. There should also be time to answer related questions.
1-4 hours: Workshop sessions
Suppose you've got a room full of creative thinkers, strategists, problem solvers, and idea people from both teams. In that case, you can capitalize on your time together by implementing discussions and workshops to move everyone closer to the next step of your project research, design, or implementation. Below are topics that you might decide to approach through interactive sessions:
- Stakeholder identification and mapping
- Generating project problem statements and opportunities
- Reviewing/discussing user personas
- User journey mapping
- Collaborative mood boarding
- Collaborative brainstorming or sketching exercises
20-30 minutes: How we’ll communicate and collaborate
This is your opportunity to set expectations around how you will facilitate communications on the project. Be sure to discuss the following:
- The tools you will utilize to communicate and guidance on how to use them
- How you’ll report on the project (weekly status reports and status meetings)
- Risk management and reporting
- Important meetings and collaboration tactics
- Keeping additional stakeholders and partners informed
10-20 minutes: Discussion and next steps
Take time to answer open questions and discuss what everyone should expect once the kickoff is wrapped up.
➡️ Download agenda in Google Docs from File > Download
Six tips to make your kickoff worthwhile
Ready to kick off your project with confidence and clarity? Whether you prefer a quick and informative meeting or a more expansive, explorative workshop, the key to a successful kickoff is in the details.
No matter the size and shape of your meeting, ensure you’re getting these things right in your kickoff:
- Everyone has a role and set of responsibilities in the meeting. These meetings are essential to the project and can be costly, so the last thing you want is folks sitting around.
- Your technology is working seamlessly in advance of the meeting. For example, if you’re using a project planning software to allocate work and keep schedules, be sure everyone has logins and knows how to use the tool.
- Have the space, furniture, and materials you’ll need to accomplish everything on your agenda. Think about whiteboards, sticky notes, paper, pens, flip charts, etc.
- Notes, notes, notes! It’s so vital that you have someone in the meeting take a written record of what’s been discussed (this is true of every meeting). And if you’re online, be sure to record the session.
- Build in time for breaks and lunch if necessary. Long meetings can be a drag, and people will need time to check in on other work, so design an agenda that allows for that.
- Be open to discussion. Always include time to answer questions, discuss ideas, and make everyone feel comfortable with what’s being discussed.
With these tips, you can create a tailored kickoff process that works for your team and clients. Use the sample agendas provided as a guide to craft your next kickoff agenda and start your project on the right foot. Remember, a successful kickoff aligns everyone on the project's goals and establishes how you'll achieve them.
So go ahead and plan your kickoff, and get ready to create something great together!
