For all the bad press that meetings get, it can't be denied that we need some decent discussions together at times, to get our work done properly. This is especially important when we start a new project of any kind.
A successful project needs a successful kick-off meeting
The meeting(s) you have to kick off a new project can vary, depending on its size and complexity, how familiar the team is with it (and with each other), and the number of people and teams involved.
This could mean anything from a quick chat, to a 2-hour sprint planning session, to a full-day workshop. Or, it might be a series of smaller meetings, with some asynchronous chats and work going on in between. Whatever the mix of meetings is, the main thing is to help your team be confident, and to get a clear, shared understanding of what the project is for, what's ahead, and how to get there together.
"Project insurance' to make it easier for you
A good kick-off is like insurance for your project; an investment to remove (or lessen) any impacts if and when something goes wrong.
As much as we want to make that investment for new projects, it can be hard to remember all those essential ingredients, let alone do them all with our team. So, to help with that, we've put together a "Project Insurance Pack' of free meeting guides as PDFs, to cover these essential ingredients:
- Project kick-off meeting guide
- Project pre-mortem meeting guide
- Problem framing meeting guide
Use one, use two, or all three, depending on where you think you and your team need to get clear, shared understanding, for best results.
Each guide shows you how to structure an agenda for each meeting, what you'll get out of it, and questions to ask along the way. By using these guides, your team will have much more productive discussions, and feel much more confident about the work ahead. Plus, they'll feel much more satisfied that the time they all invested in your kick-off meetings was time well spent!