The Kickoff Call: What Should You Check When You Begin A New Project?
The Kickoff Call: What Should You Check When You Begin A New Project?
The best way to impress a new client is to be organised and make the next steps as easy to undertake as possible. Doing the basics well at the beginning will help you a lot at the end.
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Preparing For The Kickoff Call
Once the contract is signed (and the PO issued), you should set up a ‘kickoff’ call with the client. This kickoff call should serve as the official launch date of the project.
It’s good practice before the kickoff call to share the agenda.
However, you should also share:
The project timeline. This should be linked to within the agenda itself.
The key questions you need answers to. If you need access to any data or internal stakeholders for example, you should have these listed and written down.
The next steps are ready to go. Make it as easy as possible for the client to take the next steps. We have a template our clients can use to add the details of stakeholders we think we should speak to. We also have an introductory script for introducing us to internal and external stakeholders and a list of data sources we wish to access.
What Should You Cover On The Kickoff Call?
This is the call when two teams are brought together to achieve the following:
Introduce the two teams to each other. Self-explanatory. A quick 30-second intro for each person is usually a good place to begin.
Ensure everyone knows each other’s roles and project responsibilities. Everyone should know who is responsible for each aspect of the project and who to contact for any aspect of the project.
Agree on who the project leads are. Every project has a project lead from either side. You will usually know this beforehand, but it’s good to check if they want all the information running through them or if they’re happy for you to contact their team directly.
Decide how to communicate (email, Slack, MS Teams etc..). Select one method and stick to it. Be mindful if you choose MS Teams, that it’s painful to use MS Teams with multiple client accounts (the key is to log out often).
Decide how information and documents will be shared and stored. This is usually the same as above - but if sensitive data is being shared you might want to use a service which provides a higher level of security (p.s. you shouldn’t have client documents sitting on your personal computer’s hard drive).
Check and clarify alignment on the deliverables (format, structure, etc…). Even if you covered this in the proposal, it’s good to go through this again and clarify expectations of the end result. Do this frequently throughout the project to ensure everyone is aligned on the outcomes.
Clarify definitions of key terms (especially things like strategy). In my field, we have to frequently agree on what ‘community’ means because it varies by organisation. If there are any key terms, make sure they’re well-defined.
Run through the project timeline (prepare this in advance). Go through the timeline (you put it together) with the client. Check that anything which requires anything from their side is clearly shown. Make sure they agree with your estimates on how much time it takes. Be very clear about the areas which commonly lead to delays (typically stakeholder calls, feedback on deliverables, and access to data).
Identify any potential issues and blockers and how to overcome them. This is where you move into the more casual phase of the discussion to let people highlight any concerns or issues which should be addressed. This often includes internal politics to navigate around.
Share any useful tips which will help the two teams work well together (communication styles or methods of working etc…). In your experience, what makes a project successful? Typically in this phase, I ask the client to highlight any minor concern at any time.
Check where to send the invoice (if unclear). If not covered in the PO (it usually is), then check where you will send your invoice to.
Define the immediate next steps. Be 100% crystal clear about what the next steps are and ensure this is written down. Everyone should have a chance to voice concerns at this stage.
Send the meeting notes to everyone. Once the kickoff meeting is concluded, distribute the meeting notes to everyone with reminders of the responsibilities and ask for any corrections or questions within 48 hours.
This isn’t a comprehensive list, feel free to add whatever else you need, but it’s usually a good place to start.
You can find a link to our kickoff meeting template here.