Kick-off a project

There’s a lot to be shared on the way the project can be kicked-off. In my experience there were hundreds if not thousands of project kick-offs and I’ve learned what is common for the successful ones.

①  Collect the data:

• Project purpose — make it inspirational. If the team wants to achieve the goal, they may find ways to do it that you didn’t expect. I know one project that was delivered 10 times faster because Engineers found a different way to reach the goal.
• Project scope — what we know we will do and what we leave to find out later as we go.
• Constraints — are there any deadlines, how important is quality vs speed.
• Stakeholders — who did we identify and what role they play.
• Roles — who will be required for the project success: product manager / engineering lead / designers / analytics / scientists / engineers / etc. This is especially useful if the team will be formed later not from everyone but from those who sign-up for the project. You can read about  the dynamic team set-up in my blogpost.

Put it together nicely so that:

– Team can look at this information at any time.

– New joiners can better onboard themselves.

– The stakeholders can see what project is about.

In my teams we used Slides, Board, Canvas similar to Business Model Canvas, and a Confluence page, which was later used as a central place for all links.

②  Prepare the presenters

For the team of 5-10 prepare a couple of presenters. Let someone share a vision, while someone with more technical background explain the approach to implementation. Consider involving stakeholders in sharing their pains / gains and positive effect that this project will create.

③  Plan team engagement

Decide what interactive activities you will do with the team. Avoid telling people HOW they should work unless your team is totally new and immature. Involve the group in shaping their ways of working to an extent that fits their maturity. Remember “Delegation Matrix” with its 4 quadrants. Here are some ideas what you could do to themselves:

• Agree on the methodology (Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, etc).
• Decide on the dates of the rituals: when will they come for the first Refinement? Would they want to have it weekly and who would set it up in the team calendar? Same goes for Standups. Agree when you will meet to talk about Roles & Responsibilities (if you are a new team and there might be a confusion). Agree if you want to have a Round Robin, who changes weekly, to facilitate your ceremonies, or it will be a dedicated person. Agree on the tooling and their set up. Where will you store team documentation? Would you need a team space (physical or digital and who will organise it).

In the middle of your planning, schedule a meeting that fits most of participants. We liked when it was at the beginning of the day. Order snacks for that day to make this event even more special. Invite key stakeholders for the project pitch.

After the session it’s best to write down a summary of what you’ve learned during this exercise. Consider going beyond your team and spreading the best practices in the company or industry.

Attributions:
Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik