23 Nov in Working with PDF, Business trends

The secrets to a hall of fame kickoff meeting

The ink on the contract has dried. It’s time to get things started. We bet you came here looking to learn how to have a kickoff meeting so good that it will live on in the lore of your company long after your picture is hanging up on the wall! Good thing we just so happen to have the secrets for a hall of fame kickoff meeting waiting for you in this blog…

kickoff meeting tips

Even though we might be exaggerating a bit here, it’s hard to actually exaggerate the importance of a kickoff meeting. In fact, the success of your project centers on its project kickoff meeting so heavily that it’s not hyperbole to say it’s the first critical juncture in a project’s life.

Think of it as a first date: you better be on your best behavior. A great kickoff meeting agenda will:

– Set the tone for the entire project

– Set expectations

– Minimize surprises

– Break the ice and facilitate communication

– Make a great first impression

– Build trust with the new client

If the meeting goes poorly, you will, well, let’s not go there, since that won’t be happening. Not with these secrets, anyway.

Table of Contents

Tips for a hall of fame kickoff meeting

Introduce the team before the meeting

Before the meeting even starts, introduce the client to the team (and introduce team members who haven’t met yet). Send an email to your client with your goals and pictures of each of the team members and their roles, backgrounds, and contact information. It helps to CC everyone in the team so they can send emails, too. This makes an amazing first impression.

Pro Tip: Use PDF software to create a shareable document with everyone’s contact information so it can easily be viewed by anyone in the project. We even have a certain PDF maker in mind.

Get the office ready

When your best friend comes over, you don’t have to clean up and make an impression, but when guests come over for the first time, you better make sure the place is ready. Your office is the same.

Set up a quiet, clean, and hi-tech meeting space for your meeting to take place in (flat screen monitors, video equipment, service robots—whatever it takes). If you really want to knock em’ dead, prepare a welcome gift!

The fine folk at softwarehut.com put together this guide to help you out:

Keep intros short and sweet

Chances are if the client has agreed to work with you, they already know you well enough as-is. We’ve seen precious time wasted on intros and explanations that just aren’t needed. Keep it short and sweet.

Establish your vision

A kickoff meeting presentation should start with establishing the vision for a project. Share objectives, define deliverables, and set the tone for how the project will be carried out. Be sure to focus on things such as communication, KPIs, and delivery dates so the client knows you mean business.

Define success

The vision of your project will talk about overarching goals. This phase will focus on the nitty gritty. Project management kickoff meetings (and most projects in general) are evaluated based on how they lived up to expectations set at the beginning. Tangible results must be clearly communicated to the team and client alike. For example:

– Team productivity

– Client satisfaction (let the client know that you will live up to expectations and be held accountable for failures)

– ROI

– Budget

– Schedule

– Cost savings

Anticipate Bottlenecks

If bottlenecks were easy to see coming, traffic wouldn’t be so bad on North America’s highways. The reality is that risks and bottlenecks are hard to identify. But any extra effort will pay major dividends down the road.

Don’t tell the client that you necessarily expect difficulty, tell them that, in the past, many companies have faced challenges in these specific phases, and that you’ve got a plan in place to overcome them. Also, let team members and the client know that everyone should communicate about difficulties and roadblocks.

Establish logistics

Let your team and client know how everyone will stay up to speed. Set up a regular schedule for updating each other and the channels through which you will do it. There are some great communication apps that will help you along.

Assets

What do you need from the client to get started? Get any logins, brand info, files, or anything else you could possibly need from their side to get started.

The key to a successful project kickoff meeting is in the way you prepare yourself and present your company to the client. Making sure you make a great first impression, defining success, spelling out how you will accomplish goals, and clearly defining team roles and communication will get your kickoff meeting one step closer to induction into the hall of fame. You better prepare your speech now!