Every meeting is an opportunity. Why waste your first one?
In reality, kickoff meetings range from somewhat boring to straight-up awkward, and can be an expensive reiteration of project details we already know, assembling the most expensive, busiest people and generating little measurable project benefit. We have to start the project somewhere, but something is often missing in the kickoff meeting; something that is an obvious part of the football analogy—analysis and strategy. Before that kicker sends the ball across the field, coaches spend a lot of time reviewing tapes, applicable statistics, and more—what we in the web business call “research.”
What /When is a kickoff meeting?
You’ve been hired or the budget’s been approved and there’s a loose idea of the project’s duration and key milestones. Now you’ve got to formally launch the project. To put names to faces and begin to understand the problem at hand, the traditional kickoff meeting assembles the core team around the table for introductions and light discussion. So what’s the problem?
How many times have you heard this?
“Oh, if only I had been involved, I would have explained that to you sooner/told you that idea would never work/made everything right in the universe.”
By dubbing the first core team meeting the “project kickoff,” you are creating a project history that gives the impression that decisions are being made before everyone in the larger group has a chance to make their voice heard. So don’t do that. Call that meeting the “pre-kickoff meeting,” or the “kickoff planning meeting.” Sure, start by meeting with trusted colleagues on the client side, but save the name “kickoff” for a much more robust experience. Have a process that allows everyone to have their say before the project starts, and take a little time to research and explore the problem at hand from your client’s/partner’s perspective