Project kick-off meetings can be tricky to undertake, nerve-racking and challenging. In fact, there is a good chance that you remember the first one that you ever hosted. No matter how many projects you have successfully completed since then. There were probably things that you looked back on afterwards and wished you had dealt with differently. With this in mind here’s a mini guide to help those preparing to host their first project kick-off meeting. But first, let’s discuss what a project kick-off meeting is and why they are so important.
What is a project kick-off meeting and why is it important?
This is the initial gathering that you will have for the entire project team. During the kick-off, you will look at the key project information and discuss goals, scope, constraints and milestones. The kick-off meeting should take place during the project initiation phase, and it will help to set the tone for the rest of the work that will take place on the project.
As the project manager, this is the first chance you will have to connect with your team, share all of the important details, answer questions, and listen to feedback.
There are those who might say that this stage is simply not necessary and that the information could actually be shared in an email. However, when this happens, it is all too easy for assumptions to be made on your project and for important information to be missed.
Preparing for your first meeting
When it comes to making those all-important preparations for your first project kick-off meeting, you will want to do everything that you can to ensure that it runs smoothly. These preparations should take a number of different forms, which we will look at. However, it is also really important that you prepare yourself mentally for this important meeting as a project manager.
You should make sure that you have done your research on your team and the project in order to fully prepare. Being mentally prepared means being confident. However, it is okay to have some nervousness about hosting the meeting – even the most seasoned of project managers can be prone to some anxiety when it comes to the first meeting of a new project. Take your time to make sure that you go over all of the steps necessary to make this initial meeting a success. When you do this, you can have confidence in what you are doing, and this can make preparing yourself mentally much easier.
The steps to a successful meeting
It can be a good idea to use the 5 Ws when it comes to preparing for your meeting. These are: Who, what, when, where and why. This is a framework that you can use to help you determine how you should structure the time during your meeting and helps you do all the advance planning that you need to be successful.
- Why – What is the purpose of the meeting? – If you don’t have a clear answer then you probably shouldn’t be having a meeting.
- Who – Which individuals need to attend your meeting? You will definitely need all those who are directly involved, but make sure you are not missing other important people because Who also refers to those people contributing to the project, doing the work on the project and who will be impacted by the project. Adding all of these may give you a more extensive list of people to invite to the meeting than you would like, but offering them a chance to speak early on could be crucial to the project.
- Where – This is the location of the meeting. If everyone works remotely then you will either need to schedule a virtual meeting or you will need to hire a meeting space that is central for everyone. If you opt for an in-person meeting, ensure that you have enough space, so people don’t feel excluded.
- When – You should only schedule the meeting when you are ready and fully prepared. This means you need to complete all of your preparation work. You should make sure that you have initial deadlines and details of a rough budget before you are ready to set a time for the meeting.
- What – These are the things you will need on your meeting agenda and, remember, no two meetings will be completely the same. A good agenda will include the following:
- An introduction and welcome
- Some form of icebreaker
- Expectations and discussion of the project purpose
- The project goals and outcomes
- Project constraints
- Key milestones in the project
Most project kick-off meetings don’t actually need to be too long, and you may find that you need little more than one hour in which to go through everything.
Remember, and this is particularly important in the case of a first kick-off meeting, those who you will be working with as part of a team want to know who they will be working with – so make sure that you introduce yourself properly, let them know that you will be available during the project and ensure that they feel you are approachable as this will help with communication within the project.
Other considerations before your project kick-off meeting
If you have resources that you have prepared for the meeting, then make sure that you have copies to hand out as this can be helpful. It can also be a good idea to have someone in attendance at the meeting to take notes so that any helpful suggestions, or indeed anything that is raised as a concern, can be looked at after the meeting and you can remember what was said.
One of the advantages of a virtual meeting (Teams, Zoom etc) is that you can record and transcribe it afterwards. Just make sure to ask people in attendance if they are OK with the meeting being recorded.
It is also a good idea to try and learn a little something about the team you will be working with as this can really help you as the project progresses.
