Why have a project kickoff meeting?

Project kickoffs are a great way to get everyone aligned on project goals, scope, and milestones. It’s also a great way for the team to build a sense of ownership for the task at hand. Project kickoff meetings allow the project lead to delegate tasks and ensure that people are held accountable down the road for completing their part.

Project kickoff meeting template walk-through:

1. Project brief

Start the meeting off by letting everyone know about the project and why they’re there. Be sure to have the project brief documented as a doc or presentation, so people can follow along and reference after the meeting is over.

In your brief, you should outline the following:

• Goal: What is the goal of this project? What are you hoping to accomplish?
• Scope: How much effort is required from each member or department?
• Timeline and milestones: When will this project start and stop? If there are any milestones in between, mention those with dates as well. This will help you gage whether or not the team is on target to hit your end date or if they’re behind.
• What success looks like at the end: What are you hoping to accomplish by the end of this project? Is it a big marketing campaign that you anticipate will drive 100 opportunities for the sales team? Let people know the potential impact of this project and what the end-goal is.

2. Roles and responsibilities

Foster accountability and ownership on the team by assigning people roles and responsibilities. If there’s a designer on the team, what is required of them and by when? How about the engineering team?

3. Cadence

Determine as a team how often you’ll meet, how you’ll communicate (I.e. a Hypercontext agenda, Slack channel, etc), and how you’ll share and track progress.

4. Next steps

This agenda item is the difference between an effective kickoff meeting and a not-so-effective one. By determining and assigning next steps, your team will leave the meeting knowing exactly what they’re expected to work on before your next meeting.

5. Q&A

Leave time at the end of the meeting for questions. This will give the team a chance to seek more clarity should they need it.

The best way to set a new project on the right track? Start with a clear, concise project kickoff meeting agenda. Here are five things to include.