How to Plan and Facilitate Kickoff Meetings

The purpose for the internal kickoff meeting and the client kickoff meeting is to kick off the project with the internal project team and client stakeholders. This gives the internal project team and client stakeholders a chance to discuss the planning activities and share feedback on the planning activities before they execute the project work.

💡TIP: To run effective kickoff meetings, you need your attendees to be engaged! One way to do this is by starting the kickoff meetings with an icebreaker activity. This could be going around in a circle and answering a question, such as “What is your proudest accomplishment?” or “Where is one place you’d love to travel to?” (Science of People)

Access our Kickoff Meeting Minutes Template (comimg soon)!

Steps for How to Plan and Facilitate Kickoff Meetings

Keep reading to learn about how to plan and facilitate your kickoff meetings:

• Internal kickoff meeting
• Client kickoff meeting

Internal Kickoff Meeting

The purpose for the internal kickoff meeting is to kick off the project with the internal project team. To kick off the project, you need to first plan and prepare for the internal kickoff meeting.

To plan for this meeting, you draft the kickoff activities, which should include the draft meeting agenda, draft project management plan, draft team charter, and other project documents. You may also want to hold an internal prep meeting with the project sponsor, to prepare for the internal kickoff meeting, prior to holding the internal kickoff meeting with the project team.

Example internal kickoff meeting agenda:

• Introduction (5 minutes)​ – e.g., icebreaker, meeting purpose
• Project overview (10 minutes)​ – e.g., project background, problem, need, and solution
• Approach and timeline (10 minutes)​ – e.g., plan, requirements, concept, content, design, final
• Roles and responsibilities (10 minutes)​ – e.g., project manager, sponsor, strategists, designer, etc.
• How we’ll stay on track​ (15 minutes) – e.g., communication, meetings, reporting, quality, etc.
• Prep for client kickoff (10 minutes)– e.g., agenda, presentation deck, facilitation, etc.

During the internal kickoff meeting, the internal project team discusses the kickoff activities, provides feedback on the kickoff activities, and prepares for the client kickoff meeting. After the internal kickoff meeting and all feedback from the internal project team is received, the project manager finalizes the planning documents.

Client Kickoff Meeting

The purpose for the client kickoff meeting is to kick off the project with the client stakeholders. During the client kickoff meeting, the internal project team and client stakeholders discuss the kickoff activities and provide feedback on the kickoff activities.

To plan for this meeting, the project manager drafts kick off activities, which should include, drafting the meeting agenda, drafting the team charter, and drafting the project management plans (with input from the project sponsor and content or task leads, and we will discuss the details for these documents later).

Example client kickoff meeting agenda:

• Introduction​ (5 minutes) – e.g., icebreaker, meeting purpose
• Project overview​ (10 minutes) – e.g., project background, problem, need, and solution
• Approach and timeline​ (20 minutes) – e.g., plan, requirements, concept, content, design, final
• How we’ll stay on track​ (10 minutes) – e.g., communication, meetings, reporting, quality, etc.
• Prep for discovery sessions (15 minutes) – e.g., timeframe, participants, questions, etc.

During the client kickoff meeting, the internal project team and client stakeholders discuss the kickoff activities and provide feedback on the kickoff activities. After the client kickoff meetings and all feedback from the client stakeholders are received, the project manager finalizes the planning documents.

What’s Next?

After you plan and facilitate your project kickoff meetings, you are ready to finalize the planning documents, and execute the work for your project.

Check out How to Execute on Your Project (coming soon) for more information on how to execute on the work for your project.

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Source:

Vanessa Van Edwards. 35 Fun Meeting Icebreakers to Warm Up Any Meeting. Retrieved from: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/meeting-icebreakers/.

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