A project lifecycle often involves many meetings with different purposes.
One of these meetings is the so-called kick off meeting or preliminary project meeting.
This meeting is an important communication tool between project manager, team and stakeholders.
If organized and properly executed, a preliminary meeting can help the project manager in order to handle the project more easily and with fewer obstacles.
CONTENT INDEX
What is a kick off-meeting?
More precisely, a preliminary meeting is one of the first meetings held among project stakeholders at the time of launching a new project.
This meeting can include all project stakeholders, up to the highest levels, such as project sponsors, management and project managers, as well as team members.
In this phase, the objective of the kick-off meeting is defined, i.e. to clarify goals, roles and priorities in order to start with a common vision.
This meeting offers the project manager the opportunity to define the common goal and create consensum on objectives, roles and responsibilities of each participant.
When does a kick off-meeting take place?
If the project is small, the kick-off meeting usually takes place after the start-up process with all team members.
In fact, the same team is involved in planning and execution of the project.
Furthermore, if some team members don’t know each other, this could be their first meeting together.
In small projects usually only one preliminary project meeting takes place.
If the project is a big project, however, the kick-off meeting takes place when the project planning is completed and the project is about to start.
In both cases, the kick-off is an essential step that officially marks the start of the project and determines its operational and communication rhythm.
In a multi-phase project, preliminary meetings can be scheduled at the beginning of each phase.
If the project is complex and distributed over a large geographical area, the meeting will be a virtual kick-off meeting in which all participants can communicate each other in an online call or video call.
What is the purpose of a kick off meeting?
A project team can be made up of new team members, so it is important to have one session to allow team members to meet each other.
This meeting also helps to improve the feeling of trust and promotes discussion and mutual agreement between team members.
Then, the meeting helps all team members to become aware of the objectives of the project, of the hypotheses, of the constraints, of the deliverables, providing clarity on what each participant must do during the phases of the project and how the expected results will be monitored.
The challenges, methods, procedures, plans, work environment and roles of each stakeholder, etc. are also taken into consideration.
A successful kick off meeting can be a boost for the future of the project.
How to perform a successful kick off meeting?
If the project is large and complex, you can have internal and external meetings.
Internal kick off meetings are scheduled between team members and the project manager to better understand the project, aligning each other.
In an external kick off meeting, all the stakeholders comes into play and the customer is taken in consideration also.
Then, they will discuss about the project, the objectives, the context and the responsibility of each team member.
It is also important to discuss about the communication and reporting system within the team and with project stakeholders.
Generally, the meeting is closed with a question and answer session in ordert o help the team in the problem solving.
Once the internal kick off meeting is finished, the next step will be schedule an external kick off meeting with the customer.
This will be the opportunity to fully understand the customer and his expectations, clarifying any doubts and to explain how the project manager is going to handle planning and execution of the project, etc.
Following are some steps to follow to achieve an effective kick off meeting.
1) Schedule the meeting
The project manager decides the topics to be discussed during the meeting.
For example, it may include a session about the team presentation, the introduction of the project and the objectives, milestones, constraints, etc.
Using project management software such as Twproject, which integrates the project into a shared agenda, you can create meetings assigned to the resources involved and linked to the project with discussion points and meeting minutes!
2) Lead the meeting
The project manager, as project coordinator, leads and directs the meeting as previously scheduled.
It is important for the PM to set and communicate the expectations and requirements to the participants.
The team will have to know exactly how many days it will have to work, the roles within it, the practical issues, for example how to request holidays, how to communicate with the project manager, etc.
Explaining the communication and reporting system is important as well.
Clarifying in which format the reports are needed and how often meetings or communications will be essential.
It should be never forget, the explanation on business needs and why the project is important for the customer and for the company.
Each project presents risks and, even these, together with possible solutions, must be exposed during the meeting.
3) Close the meeting
As said before, at the end of the meeting it is appropriate to hold a question and answer session.
Here the participants can ask all the questions and receive – hopefully – all the answers.
The meeting generally closes with thanks to the project manager.
Furthermore, the PM will leave an open communication channel, emphasizing his availability to be contacted for any further questions or clarifications.
Once the meeting is over, it will be necessary to prepare a summary meeting summary with key points and next steps to follow and send it to all the participants and interested stakeholders who could not be present.
From kick-off meeting to monitoring: how to maintain alignment over time
The kick-off meeting serves not only to define the project phases and expected results, but also to set up a monitoring system that prevents future misunderstandings. Each participant must leave the meeting with clear indicators of success and tools for communicating progress.
For a project manager, this means:
- Establish metrics and milestones right from the start to guide the subsequent phases.
- Agree on reporting methods and frequency to reduce delays or surprises during the project.
- Create a shared document summarising the key points that emerged during the kick-off meeting (agenda, risks, priorities).
- Use the kick-off to align change management: any changes to the project plan will be easier to communicate if stakeholders are already familiar with processes and roles.
This approach transforms the kick-off meeting into a strategic tool for the entire life of the project, improving trust and collaboration between teams and stakeholders.
Kick off meeting benefits
Following a short list of the benefits you get from a preliminary meeting:
- It helps team members to know each other;
- Defines the roles and the authority of the project;
- It helps team members to understand project goals;
- It helps team stakeholders to understand milestones, risks, project requirements and constraints of the project;
- It helps the project manager to get support, consensus and trust from all stakeholders;
- It allows to all participants to ask questions clarifying their doubts.
A preliminary meeting is the key to completing the project.
An important tool to make all team members meet each other and to motivate them to reach the target.
This is also the moment when the project manager can show his leadership qualities for the first time and start building a relationship of trust with the team and the stakeholders.
For all these reasons, a project manager must adequately prepare the kick-off meeting and link it to a clear project plan to increase the likelihood of its success.
To make this process even easier, tools such as Twproject can make all the difference.
Twproject allows you to integrate your agenda, task management and milestone monitoring, ensuring that every participant is always aligned with the objectives and results.
In this way, the kick-off meeting is not just an initial event, but becomes part of a collaborative workflow that accompanies the entire project lifecycle.
