kickoff meeting presentation

The Ultimate Guide to Kickoff Meetings

• by Adrian Neumeyer

No meeting is more important when launching a project than the project kick-off meeting. That’s why you should get it right.

In this article we’ll go through all the steps. What a project kick-off is about and how to actually run a good kickoff meeting.

What is a project kickoff meeting?

• Why having a kickoff?
• Who attends a kickoff?
• How does a kickoff typically go?
• The typical agenda
• Preparing your slides
• Project kickoff template
• Tips from senior project managers

The project kickoff meeting is a meeting where the project team is introduced to a project right before it goes into execution. The host is usually the project manager. During the kick off, he will give an overview of the project goal, schedule, project organization, expectations towards team members and other critical information.

There’s usually a labor-intensive phase leading up to the kickoff. The customer, contractor and stakeholders have to find a common project goal. A project charter will be created which outlines the purpose and scope of the project. Then the project has to be properly planned, staffed and the budget has to be approved etc.

(For a complete list of steps to set up a project,  check out the  project kickoff checklist )

Only after all this work has been completed will the project kick off be scheduled.

You can think of a kickoff like of a pre-flight briefing that pilots will do with the crew before they embark on a flight.

Why having a project kickoff?

A project can only be successful if all participants have a common understanding of the project’s purpose, timeline, organization and their responsibilities. The kickoff is the event where all this information is shared with all project team members. It also gives people the opportunity to have their questions answered.

That’s why a kickoff meeting is super important.

Pooja, a program manager from Delhi summarized the value of kickoffs very well:

The kickoff meeting process and agenda ensure everyone is engaged, understands the project goals, scope, and risks, and actively takes responsibility for their roles. There is agreement upon a well defined scope and it helps everyone involved in the project alignement to a goal.

So, a kickoff is much more than just showing a few slides. It’s about creating motivation within the team and getting everyone to take over responsibility.

Skipping the kickoff because you think it’s not necessary will get you into trouble further on. You will find yourself in discussions with people who don’t want to do what you expect them to do.

You will face resistance from team members because they feel having been run over. And within weeks your wonderful project plan will fall apart. Just like a castle built on sand.

Who attends the project kickoff?

The following people should attend the kickoff:

• project manager
• project team
• key stakeholders
• management from both customer (sponsor) and contractor. By contractor I’m referring to the party that is hired to do the actual project work.

No need to explain why the project manager should attend. He’s the one who leads through the meeting. Then there’s the project team, which are staff members who are doing the actual project work. Key stakeholders could be representatives from areas or departments that are either strongly impacted by the project or whose expertise has major influence on the project’s success

(If you are not sure how to find out who your stakeholders are, I strongly encourage you to read my article on stakeholder analysis ).

Examples of important stakeholders could be Legal if your project touches legal issues. It could also be Purchasing in case you’re buying expensive goods as part of the project. It could also be HR if the project has major influence on employees, e.g. if time tracking is introduced.

Next, let’s explore how a kickoff is conducted in the real world.

How does a kickoff meeting typically go?

The cycle of a project kickoff including preparation and the meeting itself can span across several weeks or even months. It all depends on the size of the project.

Here’s the process for preparing and running a kick off:

• Scheduling the meeting – usually several weeks or even months in advance
• Preparing the meeting – creating the slides
• Conducting the meeting  – you are the showmaster
• After the meeting – sharing the presentation with your audience

Schedule the meeting

Large meetings with many participants are always hard to schedule. There are always scheduling conflicts because people have so much on their calendar. That’s why I always schedule the kickoff meeting way ahread of time, like months in advance. This way I can block a slot in everybody’s calendar and I can reserve a suitably sized conference room.

Sent out the meeting invite several weeks or even months before the kickoff date.

All you need to do is send out an Outlook invite with some text like:

‘Hi all, this is the invitation to our project kickoff meeting. Please block this time on your calendar. Attendance is mandatory. The agenda will follow. Regards, John (project manager)’ .

How long should the kick off be? Normally a kick off takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. This number may vary depending on the size of the project and the need for discussions at the end.

What if some folks decline your meeting invitation? Well, you have to accept that some people just don’t have time. They may either be traveling or on vacation. If people have a strong reason why they can’t join, I will schedule a separate mini-kickoff with them to go through the agenda. I want to make sure they still get the same information as the rest of the team.

Video: How to use the Outlook Scheduling Assistant

The Scheduling Assistant   helps you find a time slot that works for most people.

Prepare the meeting

Before you can prepare the kickoff, you need to have your project properly planned and documented. Specifically, you need to have an agreed project goal, a presentable project timeline and a chart showing the project organization.

If you don’t have those documents ready, finish this step first. For many of these documents you’ll find templates on the Internet. Also read my article on defining a project goal . For the timeline, download this project plan template .

Once you got the basic documents complete, it’s time to create the agenda:

The kickoff agenda

Every kickoff has more or less the same agenda. Here’s a good template:

• Introduction – introduce yourself and the team (15 mins)
• Project goal and background  – why was the project started? (20 mins)
• Project scope – what are you going to deliver? (20 mins)
• Project organization – who is going to be involved? (10 mins)
• Timeline – explain your approach on the timeline (20 mins)
• Roles and responsibilities – what are the roles and duties of the team members? (20 mins)
• Teamwork and organizational topics – how is the team going to work together? (10 mins)
• Next steps – what are the next activities on the timeline? (10 mins)
• Q & A – answer questions of the attendees (15 mins)

Preparing the PowerPoint presentation

Next, you have to prepare the PowerPoint slides using the agenda as a basis. I can’t tell you exactly how may slides you should include for each agenda point. Be careful with not overloading people with too much information. Better keep your slides concise and simple without going too much into the details.

People mainly want to know how the project impacts their work, what they have to do, when they are going to be involved, whether they can take their summer vacation etc. On the other hand you want to convey as clearly as possible what you expect from the team. So, create your content around those topics and you will do pretty well.

Here are some tips on what to cover in each section:

1) Project goal and background

Explain why the project was initiated and what it’s supposed to deliver. You may have to dive a bit into history and give context so that people fully understand the project goal. Here are some topics worth talking about, depending on your project:

Organization and business model:  Not everybody will be familiar with the organization and its business model. So it’s interesting for people to hear where the company is coming from, where it has offices, what its customers are and how it is making money.

Project history: Explain what attempts were made in the past to tackle the issue your project is concerned with. Learning from past failures is always helpful. And it’s probably a good idea to clarify what you’re doing differently to avoid project failure  🙂

Urgency: A common objection to projects is: Why do we have to do this now? Why can’t this project wait til next year? Share the reasons why postponing is not an option and why it has to be done now when everybody is so busy.

Project goal:  Of course you need to talk about the actual goal. What does the company expect from this project? And what other objectives does the sponsor hope to achieve as a side effect: financial objectives, sales goals, cost savings and more.

2) Project scope

Next you should talk about the project’s scope.

Project scope is the sum of things a project is going to take care of. This includes project-related tasks (e.g. write a piece of software), specific deliverables (e.g. a training plan) and defined outcomes (e.g. all staff is trained).

For the purpose of a kickoff meeting, you only need to give a high-level overview of the scope. This can be one or two slides with five bullet points each. How do you know what to write about? Think of the major parts your project is delivering. In a construction project this would be setting up a building, doing the plumbing and electrical wiring and so on. This would be the scope. Similarly you list the key scope in the kickoff slides.

At the same time you should list those things that are not in scope. Maybe you set up the building but the client wants to do the flooring and tiling by himself. Or you leave out the lighting setup. So, that would be ‘ out of scope ‘, as we say in project management. The reason why you should mention what is not in scope is you don’t want people to have wrong expectations. This will only backfire later on when somebody asks you ‘ Why isn’t the lighting installed?’ and you say ‘Oh, didn’t we agree this was not in scope?’ .

3) Project organization

In this section you give people an overview of the project team. Who is involved? What departments are on board? Who’s overseeing the project from a management level? These are the kinds of question people have. In the end, people want to know who they have to contact regarding a specific issue. The organizational overview provides the answer.

This can be one slide that shows the project org chart:

Like this template? Click here to see all templates

Generally org charts are a bit more complex than this one, but you get the idea.

4) Timeline

This is the slide that people care about most. Why? First, it gives an idea about how intense the work is going to be. The more work is squeezed into the timeline, the higher the workload. Second, people are keen to see the timeline because they get an idea of how the project impacts their professional and personal schedule.

Some people have planned a long summer vacation. And now your project jeopardizes their plans. Or maybe they have planned business trips and therefore won’t be available to full extent.

Go through the timeline from now til the end and explain the major activities and how they tie together. Also mention any special circumstances that were taken into consideration for the planning. These could be parallel projects, resource gaps, weather conditions or other external factors.

5) Roles and responsibilities

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT set of slides in your whole presentation. Let me explain why.

Here you tell people what you expect from them. What kind of work they have to do, but also how they’re supposed to work together as a team. If this point does not come across and does not fully settle in the minds of your team members, then you will face issues with delegation. People won’t be clear about where their responsibility begins and where it ends. They won’t know what team they have to work with etc. And in the end you’ll be the one sorting out the issues.

That’s why you should take as much time as needed to go through roles and responsibilities. I have a separate article about project roles and responsibilities  in case you don’t know what I’m talking about.

6) Teamwork and organizational topics

On this slide you talk about the modalities of collaboration of the project team. This includes the meeting structure, that is  how often the team is going to meet both onsite or remotely. In the same context, people may want to know whether they have to come to the office every day or if they can work from home.

Other stuff worth mentioning is where people can find and store  project documentation (e.g. in a shared drive), files they have to maintain such as an availability overview and so on. Also, if the project involves traveling, you may want to talk about upcoming business trips and travel regulations or visa requirements.

7) Next steps

The final slide in your project kickoff presentation should highlight the next steps: What are we working starting tomorrow or next week. This is good because that way you can keep the momentum that comes with launching a new project. At the start everybody is still motivated and you want to use this energy to get the first work done. Just have one slide with maybe 4 or 5 bullet points indicating what the team is working on next.

The actual meeting

It’s the big day! You may be a bit nervous before the kickoff but that’s totally normal. Make sure you check if the conference room is ready so you can start the meeting right away. Check if the A/V equipment and beamer are working fine. If you have people joining by phone, dial in a few minutes before to see if the connection is working.

Once you start the meeting, don’t jump right into the hard facts. Instead, give people a warm welcome and tell a funny story or a joke. You want people to relax and open up so that the kickoff becomes a positive and exciting experience for them.

Then, for the next 1 to 1.5 hours all you do is go through the slides. Present your information in an engaging way and always keep eye contact with your audience. You want to see if people are still with you or if you’ve lost them. Make pauses and ask ‘Are there any questions so far?’  You are presenting super important information, so you want to make sure everybody understands what you have to say.

The thing is, people are reluctant to ask questions or state their concerns in a group setting. They are afraid of looking stupid and skip their questions even though something might be unclear. Keep that in mind. What I do is say things like ‘It’s very important that you understand this, so just ask if anything is unclear. I’m happy to answer all your questions.’

Towards the end of the meeting, you start the Q & A session. This is where the team can ask whatever questions they have. It can take anywhere from 10 minutes to one hour. And it’s important to give people this opportunity, because it creates trust and you get the buy-in that’s vital for a successful project.

When there are no more questions you close the meeting. Thank everyone for attending and express your gratitude of working with such a great, high-performing team.

That’s it. Congratulations on your first kickoff!

After the kickoff

There are also a couple of things you need to take care of after the meeting. If you’ve had somebody write the minutes (which is good but not really needed for a kickoff), you need to check those before sending them out. The other, more important step is to share the meeting presentation with all attendees — and also with the people who could not attend.

I also make a comment in my email that anyone who’s got questions should contact me. As I wrote before, people generally feel uncomfortable asking questions in a group. So you can clarify their concerns or questions in a separate 1:1 meeting afterwards.

How to Make Your Kickoff a Success? Watch My Five Top Tips

Join my online course “Real-World Project Management”

Project Kickoff Template

You don’t need to create your slides from scratch. I have a simple template for you which you can download here in PPT format. It already has the agenda structure I’ve used in this article!

Why create YOUR KICKOFF DECK from scratch?

Get our kickoff template​.

• Includes all sections for your kickoff meeting
• With REAL project data (so you know exactly what to enter)
• Easy to adjust timeline and org chart
• Comments with tips on every slide
• 14-page Powerpoint file

Learn from the best! These senior project managers share their best tips on running project kickoffs

Megan o’malley, senior project manager (pmp) from ohio.

If you surprise people [with your project], they get defensive and feel blind-sided, which is not good.

Being as confident as possible will help keep you on task to lead the team.

Guy Coulson, senior project manager from South Africa

If you let people decide what or how they want something, it often brings better results than dictating how it must happen.

Roy Macaraig – Project Manager Digital Transformation

Do you have any further questions.

Got A Question? Need Some Help?

Have a question about this article? Need some assistance with this topic (or anything else)?  Send it in and I’ll get back to you personally. 

Hi! I'm Adrian, former Senior IT Project Manager and founder of Tactical Project Manager. I created the site to help you become an excellent project leader and manage intense projects with success!

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Guide to Project Kickoff Meeting [free presentation slides]

Editorial Team

The project life cycle involves several meetings with stakeholders and different parties. The main agendas revolve around issues related to the project, such as the project status, plans, deliverables, and possible changes.

All these meetings have their significance. However, one stands out-the kickoff meeting. In this article, we will look at what project kickoff meetings are, their purposes, when they take place, and any other information you may want to know.

What is a Project Kickoff Meeting?

The project kickoff meeting is the first meeting held by the project stakeholders when flagging a new project or unveiling a new phase. It is usually attended by high-level stakeholders such as the management, project sponsor, project manager, and a few team members.

The inclusion of the team members is to encourage the voicing of opinions. Project kickoff meetings can also occur within the project team and usually involves the project manager and the team members. When conducted between the project team, its primary essence is to allow the project managers to outline the common goals and encourage team building.

A kickoff meeting can act as a tool for motivating the team members to meet the project objectives . It prepares the team members and the client teams on expectations, communication, and project collaboration.

When Does a Project Kickoff Meeting Take Place?

The kickoff meeting takes place at different times in large and small projects. It usually occurs immediately after the initiation phase and is generally attended by all the project team members.

This is usually an opportunity for the team members to get to know each other since they will be meeting for the first time. Generally, smaller projects require only one kickoff meeting. Larger projects have a different approach.

Kickoff meetings for larger projects are normally conducted when the planning is complete and the project is on the verge of execution. Remember that most of these projects have several phases, which may call for kickoff meetings at the beginning of every stage.

Other situations also call for virtual kickoff meetings. If the project is spread across a large geographical area, it would be advisable for the team members to communicate over the internet to save time and money.

What is the Purpose of a Kickoff Meeting?

Every project kickoff meeting must have a purpose. This may differ from meeting to meeting depending on the unique needs of the given project and the project stakeholders. However, project meetings also have an overarching purpose: to set the pace for the project and lay down the framework.

The kickoff meeting plays a vital role in the project management lifecycle and the project initiation process. It gets the project off the ground and officially opens up the project work. The kickoff meeting also acts as a jumping off point for the project team and client team.

Other purposes include:

• Introducing Team Members

Most project team members will be meeting for the first time during the project kickoff meeting. It serves as an opportunity for the stakeholders and team members to interact and know about one another.

• It allows agreeing to work together efficiently.

The best way of agreeing on how to work on a project is through a joint session. Project kickoff meetings bring together project team members and other stakeholders, allowing them to decide how they will work together to realize given project objectives.

Such agreements ensure that once the project kicks off, it will move on efficiently, and any other hiccup can be solved. 

• Creating a mutual understanding

Project kickoff meetings help create a mutual understanding of what a successful project resembles, giving the project team members an idea of what to work for. Every project has its parameters of measuring success, which will be laid down during the meeting.

This meeting can also be used to create a shared understanding of the project background so that the stakeholders and team members deeply understand whatever they are working on. Knowing the project background can also act as a motivating factor.

It offers a chance to get the team, key stakeholders, and the project sponsors on the same page to efficiently execute the projects. It also serves as an opportunity for the agency tasked with delivering the project to get crucial information for the project’s success.

If there is a client involved, the project kickoff meeting can be a chance to instill confidence in the client and reassure them that they have made the best decision in choosing you and your project team. It works for different parties.

Closely related to the purpose of the project kickoff meeting are the objectives. Let’s take a look at these:

Project Kickoff Meeting Objectives

The objectives of the project kickoff meeting are dependent on the project. However, some cut across different projects. Here are some of the specific items that should be done in the project kickoff meeting:

• Agreeing on the project goals and purpose.

The project team members and stakeholders should have a sit-down and agree on the project’s goals and purposes. These should be clearly outlined to help all the parties involved understand what they are working towards.

• Setting groundwork for communication

During the meeting, the leader or project chairman should set the tone for clear communication and teamwork for the entire project duration. This will help in the efficient execution of the project objectives, allowing the team to meet the set timetable.

• Establishing roles and responsibilities

On normal occasions, the project kickoff meeting brings together the project team members for the first time. Therefore, no one should leave the conference without knowing the team’s roles and responsibilities. Everyone should know what is expected of him/ her during the onset of the project.

• Setting deadlines and deliverables

The meeting should be used to set the project timeline, deliverables, and the status update and frequency. Remember, these are things that must be decided on before the real work begins, and there is no better time to do that than during the project kickoff.

 However, it is worth noting that all these may shift during the progression of the project. Therefore, the kickoff meeting should help come up with a baseline for forward propulsion. During the meeting, parties should also discuss the detailed aspects of the project.

Some of the issues to cover include the methodology and the scope of the project. A successful meeting should set the pace and tone for the rest of the project. Therefore, leaders and organizers should ensure that it is done right since it can determine a given project’s success.

How to Conduct a Successful Project Kickoff Meeting

Now that you know the importance of the project kickoff meeting, you should always strive to get it right if you are the project manager or the organizer. The proceedings can either ensure that a given project will be successful or not.

On many occasions, large projects have both internal and external kickoff meetings. The former involves the team members and the management, with its main aim being creating an understanding of the project. The team members are prepared for meeting the client and prevented from making unnecessary inquiries.

The external kickoff meeting takes place once the internal one is done. Here, one gets to understand what is expected in a given project, clear any doubts they may be holding on to, and understand the project’s process.

These are the steps you can follow to conduct a successful kickoff meeting:

• Set the agenda

This is the first thing to consider when organizing such a meeting. The issues to be discussed should be decided on beforehand. While setting the agenda, be sure to include an introductory session. You should introduce the project, its objectives, milestones, assumptions, challenges, and have a question-answer session at the end of the presentation.

Also, ensure that you use presentations to explain your reasoning. The agenda should be sent to the attendees before the meeting is conducted for preparation and active contribution.

• Conducting the meeting

When conducting the meeting, you need to introduce yourself and ask the other attendees to do the same. Once everyone has talked, tender the agenda, explain the meeting objectives, and discuss what needs to be addressed in the meeting.

After that, you can explain the project, its objectives, a brief of the project, and every team member’s roles and responsibilities . You should also discuss the communication and reporting system to be used for the entire project duration. This can cover how to communicate with the stakeholders. Also, set the agenda to be discussed with the client and have a Q& A session.

While conducting the meeting, ensure that you explain the project charter and what it contains. Make sure that you set the expectations such as the leave procedures, work assignments, and even rotation.

Remember to discuss the critical stakeholders, their needs, and roles in the execution of the project. While on this, explain the communication and reporting system. You can specify the communication frequency and the report formats.

The final topic to cover during the meeting is the project. Explain the project to the attendees, its business needs, and why the client and the company need it. It would help if you invited the client when covering this part to make it more personal. However, make sure that the client knows in advance to prevent awkward moments.

You can also discuss any critical risks and challenges that the project may face once it is on track and how to overcome them.

• Close the meeting

A successful meeting does not end at the presentation part. The final piece, which is closing the meeting, should be done in a particular way. End the court meeting with a question-and-answer session and encourage the attendees to clear any doubt.

Also, thank the participants for coming and encourage them to reach out if they need any clarification on the project. Remember that you should prepare the meeting minutes when the meeting ends and send them to the participants and other members who could not attend the meeting.

Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda

One of the main reasons why most project kickoff meetings do not yield any success is that the organizers fail to get the agenda right. To help you come up with good agendas for your session, we have included a few notes for you:

• Introductions – The agenda should give each member time to introduce themselves and outline their role in the project. Also, remember to include a quick icebreaker to get everyone talking.
• Project Background : The agenda should include time for discussing how the project sits with the client’s high-level business strategy. This can also include any other relevant project.
• Briefing : This should be the third thing on your agenda. It should cover the project details, purpose, goals, and the problem that the project aims to address.
• Project success : This agenda deals with what makes a successful project, success measurements, key metrics, and other business parameters.
• Project management : This agenda deals with project management topics such as the plan, timelines, tasks and deliverables, methodology, risks, dependencies, reporting, and other information.
• Any other business : The AOB in the agenda deals with any different relevant topic that can be discussed. It would be best to allow the client’s team to talk about anything that they need to cover in the meeting.
• Next steps :  One of the agendas should be discussing the next steps and action items for the different teams and stakeholders.

The points to be discussed in the meeting should be clear enough and communicated before to save time and ensure project efficiency. The agenda should also be broken down to enhance easier understanding. Attendees should not ask for clarifications of the agenda.

Project Kickoff Meetings Best Practices

Here are some of the practices that will ensure that your project kickoff meeting is successful:

• Sticking to your agenda

An agenda is the most critical tool to keeping any meeting on track. It is more of a creative brief for creative projects. Therefore, to lead a successful discussion, ensure that you develop an agenda and stick to it.

The meeting serves as an opportunity to bring everyone together and on the same page about the project. It can be quite tempting to deviate and focus on trivial issues, which may eat into the meeting time, throwing everything off track.

Therefore, ensure that you stay high-level and ignore the trivial issues. The participants or project manager should stick to the meeting’s main goals, which are the what, why, how, and who. The ‘why’ is usually essential as it offers background information allowing everyone to understand why the project matters to the company at large.

• Define roles and responsibilities

One should explain how all the attendees fit into the project and what is expected from them to help everyone understand whatever they are working on. To ace, this, start by introducing everyone in the project and explain their contribution.

You can also tie the responsibilities to the project deliverables. Defining roles and responsibilities lets teams know who to approach whenever there is a problem, saving time for the project’s efficient execution.

• Ensure that you offer time for questions

The project kickoff meeting should be geared towards enhancing the understanding of the project. Attendees should, therefore, be allowed to seek clarifications on different aspects. The ultimate goal is to get everyone on the same page.

Therefore, project managers should take this time to clear any confusion or answer issues that need clarifications. However, the Q & A session must come at the end. Also, remember to encourage people not to ask questions that can be quickly addressed outside the group meeting to save time.

The questions asked should offer clarity for everyone in attendance. These can range from project goals, processes, and timelines.

• End the meeting with action items

The best way to have a productive meeting is to end it with clear action items. Everyone should leave the room with a clear idea of the next steps. Always strive to complete your session by pointing out given action items for every team and person in the project.

All the participants should come out of the meeting knowing exactly what to do and how to go about the next steps.

• Make a follow-up

Always make sure that you follow up with an email. It is understandable to expect people to take notes during the meeting, but the truth is, not everyone will. Therefore, as the project manager or organizer, you should ensure that you follow up with an email summarizing the proceedings and the necessary action items.

However, this does not mean that you should include all the nitty-gritty. Just cover the main things you feel the participants should have at the back of their minds. Making a follow-up will also give the participants a guide to refer to whenever the need arises.

A project kickoff is not a waste of time. It can ensure project success if done right. It offers a chance for parties to align their expectations and goals and lay down the framework for the project. Ensure that you implement the tips discussed in our article for a successful project kickoff meeting.  

Click  here  to download Project Kick-Off Meeting Presentation Slides Template.

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Kickoff Meeting

Kickoff meeting presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

When it comes to a project, getting off to a good start is very important. For this reason, the first meeting or kick-off meeting of the boss with his workers to present and organize the project must have everything to lead the project and the company itself to success. Prepare your kick-off meeting with this Google Slides and PowerPoint template. The style you'll find among the slides is very modern, with colorful geometric shapes. In addition, we have included the key sections that will make your project and success synonymous.

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10 Project Kickoff Templates for Meetings in Docs & PPT

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

April 3, 2024

There are times in life and business when making a decision without a second thought is the best course of action. Still, when it comes to projects, starting with a strong foundation often leads to better outcomes. Project kickoff meetings with other project-related discussions offer significant advantages to your team as they establish the framework for the project timeline and goals.

Stay with us as we examine the crucial elements of the top 10 project kickoff templates and show you how to use their potential. These templates will come in handy for laying the bedrock for success throughout different project phases. 🚀

What is a Project Kickoff Template?

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A project kickoff template provides project managers and their teams a structured framework that fosters alignment and clarity during and after a project launch. By incorporating several important elements, this tool plays a pivotal role in supporting seamless processes, including:

• Defining expectations : It establishes a clear understanding of project goals , scope, and success criteria from the get-go, preventing misunderstandings and misalignments down the road
• Outlining crucial steps : Within the template, a well-structured roadmap delineates the sequential steps and phases of the project. It offers a strategic perspective, ensuring that tasks are organized logically and in alignment with the project’s overarching vision
• Identifying task owners : The template simplifies the assignment of specific tasks to respective team members, ensuring that ownership is clearly established

A good project kickoff template should encapsulate essential information, establish clear expectations, and foster effective communication among team members. Here are key features to look for:

• Clear objectives and scope : Outlining the project’s objectives and parameters allows team members to share a common understanding
• Roles and responsibilities : Determining clear roles and responsibilities before the project begins ensures accountability and eliminates confusion regarding who is in charge of each task
• Project timeline : Including significant checkpoints and due dates offers a visual map that helps the team monitor project development and adhere to the schedule
• Communication plan : Setting steady communication channels for prompt updates, involving all stakeholders promotes smooth information flow and collaboration
• Risk assessment and mitigation : Identifying potential risks and mitigation strategies prepares the team for challenges and enables proactive problem-solving

10 Project Kickoff Templates to Use in 2024

You are prepared to begin a new project, and now is the time to meet with your team to discuss how to carry it out effectively. All participants should leave the project kickoff meeting with a clear understanding of the project’s scope and the deliverables required for its successful completion. So, you need a project kickoff template to ensure the initial session is productive.

With so many options on the market, how do you choose the right one? Check out our recommendations for the best templates to launch your project successfully! 🔝

Any project’s success depends on the success of the kickoff meeting. It provides a framework for setting expectations, discussing roles, assigning tasks, and understanding project schedules. The importance of these meetings highlights the need for effective tools to prepare for the session. ClickUp’s Project Kickoff Template does exactly that by speeding up the planning process. 

This template helps you organize and manage important project meetings . It includes custom statuses, fields, and views for better tracking. With features like comment reactions, nested subtasks, and multiple assignees, you’ll have more flexibility and control over how you manage your project meetings.

With the help of this template, you can:

• Precisely convey project objectives 
• Define attainable goals and timelines
• Maintain methodical planning and alignment throughout the project’s lifecycle ♻️

By using this template, you can easily assign roles and responsibilities to team members and clearly state the project’s objectives and goals to foster a shared vision. You can then carefully document important decisions and action items , keeping a methodically organized and forward-moving project direction. This comprehensive integration of crucial elements opens a clear path to success, enhancing the efficacy of your project management initiatives.

Crafting an adept project implementation plan helps define the project scope, establish precise timelines, outline deliverables, and more. ClickUp’s Project Implementation Plan Template makes it easier to monitor a project’s development with Custom Statuses , Custom Fields , Custom Views , and Project Management . 

Using this template, you can seamlessly devise a comprehensive scheme that spans from project initiation to its culmination. Visualizing essential tasks, deadlines, and interdependencies becomes effortless within this singular, organized hub. The transparency enables real-time monitoring of progress and resource adaptation for a seamless execution process. ⏳

In order to guarantee the project’s timely completion, this template assists in supervising essential elements like resource allocation, budget planning, and timeline coordination. Consider these six steps to create a strong project implementation plan with this ClickUp template :

• Collaborate on creating a shared Doc in ClickUp to ensure the team’s understanding of project goals
• Use the Gantt Chart feature to visually outline the project’s timeline and track progress
• Assign tasks using ClickUp to ensure team members understand their responsibilities
• Leverage ClickUp’s custom fields to input and oversee budget details and expenditures
• Strategize against potential risks and devise preparatory measures using Board View
• Facilitate progress check-ins and stay within the timeline by configuring recurring tasks in ClickUp

It can be difficult to navigate the complexities of project planning, and the solution lies in a seamlessly adaptable template that streamlines the process, fostering efficiency and transparency. ClickUp’s Example Project Plan Template combines all essential planning elements in a single platform . 

You can create detailed plans with intuitive visual aids that improve overall comprehension, effectively arrange tasks, encourage smooth communication across multifaceted teams, and track progress against predetermined objectives, ensuring the project gets completed on schedule.

With this template, creating a clear timetable becomes a breeze. You can map out tasks and important milestones with ease, ensuring your project stays on track. The template also helps you identify task relationships so you can plan more effectively and avoid disruptions . Once you share this detailed plan with your team, it brings everyone on the same page, promoting agreement and better understanding among team members. 👥

Whether a small project or a big venture, ClickUp’s High-Level Project Plan Template makes planning and managing any enterprise easier, regardless of its scope or complexity.

It lets you:

• Create a big-picture view of your project
• Organize tasks and deadlines for each project phase
• Set clear goals for your team at every stage 🎯

Using this template entails fantastic perks: 

• You’ll get a clear view of your project’s progress
• It helps you plan ahead with a straightforward timeline
• Everyone works better together because the responsibilities and assignments are visible to all team members
• You can set achievable goals that keep your team motivated and on track
• Keeping track of project progress and indicating task statuses like Deployed , In Progress , and To Do 
• You can use five custom characteristics, including Copy Stage , Approver , Project Team , Completion , and Design Stage, to preserve important project information and see progress
• Five distinct views in various ClickUp configurations, such as the Deliverables List , Copywriter Board , Graphic Designer Board , Timeline , and Getting Started Guide , make all the information accessible and arranged

Project templates are invaluable for saving time and resources during planning . They provide a structured foundation, ensuring all vital steps are incorporated into the plan and fostering clear communication among team members and stakeholders. 

This approach empowers teams to focus on the core project intricacies. ClickUp Planning a Project Template is your ally in streamlining project management . It guides you through each project stage, enabling you to grasp the project core, tailor plans to your needs, organize tasks effectively, and align team members for seamless execution.

Let’s see how you can make the most of this template:

• Use the Project Schedule View to plan when tasks should be done
• Assign tasks in the Team Members View and track progress
• Visualize the progress with the Status Board View
• Stay organized using the Task List View for tracking
• Access the Getting Started Guide View for help
• Sort tasks into statuses ( Complete, Stuck, To Do, In Progress ) for monitoring
• Keep stakeholders updated by changing statuses as tasks move forward
• Monitor and analyze tasks for maximum productivity 🔍

Meetings hold the potential to boost collaboration and productivity, yet without a clear plan, they can become a waste of time. ClickUp’s Meeting Agenda Template steps in as your meeting ally, ensuring that every gathering is purposeful and efficient. This template helps you:

• Outline meeting topics, objectives, and goals
• Break down tasks and action items for clarity
• Assign responsibilities to team members

The beauty of it lies in its versatility. It’s suitable for any type of meeting or event.

ClickUp’s Meeting Agenda Template ensures that every discussion topic is given proper attention, leaving no subject overlooked. It provides participants with a thorough overview of the meeting’s key points , assisting in effective preparation. The meeting also gets a sense of structure and order, which significantly increases its overall effectiveness.

Most importantly, an agenda template promotes active participation from all attendees , leading to more interesting and fruitful discussions. ✨

The main objective of project, resource, and operations managers is to ensure that projects follow schedules and produce successful results. No matter how carefully a project is planned, timely completion with positive results can be challenging.

ClickUp’s Project Deliverables Template defines project phases and milestones comprehensively to offer a clear picture of each team member’s role and set attainable deadlines. Each deliverable, whether a task, product, or service, gets its timeline, associated responsibilities, and anticipated outcomes. The template extends its value to encompass budget allocation , essential milestones, and a contingency strategy should challenges arise.

Having these components at your disposal empowers you to ensure accountability in your team, enabling meeting deadlines and achieving successful outcomes.

The Project Deliverables Template elevates project management by aligning expectations, managing resources, and steering projects in the right direction . 🏆

When it comes to efficient project management, having a well-crafted Statement of Work (SOW) is a game-changer. The SOW outlines project goals, timelines, and deliverables, creating a shared understanding between your company and clients or contractors. 

ClickUp’s Statement of Work Template helps you effortlessly create a comprehensive SOW , define project specifics with precision, and keep all stakeholders aligned throughout the project journey.

The project’s scope and each participant’s role are clearly laid out, setting realistic expectations. It also determines a clear timeline regarding the completion, which helps with planning. By making responsibilities clear from the beginning, you can avoid misunderstandings among team members. Most importantly, it helps lower the chances of things going off track or not getting done right, which makes the whole project more likely to succeed.

You can take advantage of this template by:

• Creating tasks and assigning them to team members
• Using Goals to gauge and monitor progress toward objectives
• Employing the Gantt Chart to craft deliverable timelines, ensuring punctual completion
• Leveraging Milestones for tracking progress and setting payment deadlines 🚩

With ClickUp’s Statement of Work Template, you can ensure projects are completed on time, within budget, and with the desired outcomes.

The comprehensive PowerPoint Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Template by SlideTeam is a robust collection of 23 slides designed to facilitate the initiation of new projects . The deck encompasses vital elements such as project description and scope, core team details, project management team composition, rapid communication plan (RACI), project management cycle, work breakdown structure, project cost estimate, Gantt chart , communication plan, and tracking plan, among others.

This template empowers users to effortlessly build a presentation that covers all aspects of launching a new project. Its versatile nature allows easy customization of every element, ensuring presentations can be customized quickly to specific project requirements.

The template expands its usefulness to project agenda presentations , making it easier to communicate the project core, methodology, and organizational structure. It helps in outlining milestones, the project’s history, its business requirements, and its importance to stakeholders and the company. 💼

Essentially, this template acts as a complete toolkit for project managers and teams , enabling them to clearly communicate project details, involve stakeholders, and prepare for productive meetings. 

If you want to streamline your corporate planning efforts, the PowerPoint Corporate Project Kickoff Template by SlideTeam can help you with it. This presentation template comes with two pre-designed slides that seamlessly integrate into any presentation format, allowing you to make the most of your valuable time. The pre-made slides are a simple way to organize the agenda for your project kickoff meeting.

With this template, you can effortlessly polish your presentation, engage your audience, and ensure a successful corporate planning kickoff. This presentation covers all key components of a project kickoff meeting agenda designed for corporate planning.

It seamlessly opens in PowerPoint , offering you the flexibility to tailor it to your exact requirements. Easily eliminate any unnecessary text and replace it with your desired content. Modify colors and adjust layouts in a few clicks. 🙌

Your Project Kickoff Toolkit for Seamless Starts

Planning complex projects requires thorough preparation and close collaboration with your team members and clients. These templates provide the complete toolkit for team leaders organizing a project launch or kickoff meeting. By leveraging these tools, you can set clear objectives, boost effective teamwork, and reach positive results, regardless of your project’s scope and demands. 💫

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Project Kickoff Meeting – Crucial Step To Start Project On The Right Foot

You’ve put in a lot of time and effort to get your project off the ground—yet so frequently, it might feel like a project is off course before it even starts. This is because each project team member and stakeholder brings unique information, expectations, and objectives to the table.

If you don’t give them an opportunity to be on the same page before they start working, the remainder of the project will be an uphill fight, no matter how hard you attempt to correct the course.

Before the work begins, a project kickoff meeting is an excellent approach to getting the project team on the same page. In the project management kickoff meeting, you’ll highlight the project’s purpose, go through specifics, and brief about future actions. That way, no matter where your successful project planning leads you, everyone will be there to support you.

What is A Project Kickoff Meeting?

The project kickoff meeting is an important occasion that signifies the start of the project. It typically involves gathering all the key stakeholders, including project managers, team members, clients, sponsors, and other relevant parties, to discuss the project’s goals, objectives, timelines, and expectations.

During the kickoff meeting, the project manager will introduce the objectives, scope, and deliverables. The team members will present their roles and responsibilities, and the clients will share their expectations and requirements. The meeting is an opportunity for all parties to get to know each other, establish a common understanding of the project, and align on the project’s goals and objectives.

The project kickoff meeting agenda usually includes an overview of the project scope, budget, risks, and timeline presentations . The team members will discuss their approach to the project, and the stakeholders will provide feedback and suggestions. The project management kickoff meeting is also an opportunity to establish communication channels and protocols for the project, including how to handle conflicts and issues.

Why Should You Conduct a Project Kickoff Meeting?

The kickoff meeting in project management is significant and marks the beginning of the project. The project management kickoff meeting typically involves several activities, including:

Team Introductions

The meeting usually begins with introductions of all the stakeholders present. This includes project managers, team members, clients, sponsors, and other relevant parties.

Overview Of The Project  

The project manager is responsible for summarizing the project’s aims, targets, and boundaries. This includes discussing the project’s purpose, what is expected to be delivered, and any relevant background information. This helps stakeholders to understand the project’s goals and how it fits into the organization’s broader objectives.

Roles and Responsibilities

The project manager will define the roles and responsibilities of each team member and stakeholder, ensuring that everyone comprehends their function in the project and its expectations. Using this approach, the project manager avoids any misinterpretations or disputes that may arise later in the project or their powerpoint presentation .

Timelines and Milestones

The project manager will present the timeline and identify key milestones and deadlines. This aids in guaranteeing that the project remains on schedule and that all individuals are informed of the projected timelines. 

The project manager will discuss the budget and any financial constraints that may impact the project. This assists in guaranteeing that all individuals comprehend the monetary necessities of the undertaking.

Risks and Challenges

The project manager will pinpoint potential risks or difficulties that could arise throughout the project and discuss how they will be dealt with. This helps to ensure that everyone is aware of potential obstacles and that plans are in place to mitigate them.

Communication Plan

The project manager will plan for communication regarding the project. This includes identifying who will be responsible for communication, how often communication will occur, and what channels will be used.

The meeting concludes with a Q&A session, where stakeholders can ask questions and clarify concerns about the project.

Project Kickoff Presentation

Project Manager typically uses the following project kickoff presentation to discuss the above points. Here is a sample of the project kickoff presentation to give you a good starting point to make your project presentation in a fraction of the time.

Six Tips To Make Your Project Kickoff Presentation a Success

As a project manager, you must ensure your team is motivated and aligned with the project’s goals and objectives. 

The delivery of the presentation is a critical factor in initiating a project successfully. Here are six tips to make your project kickoff meeting a success:

Know your audience

Understanding your audience is critical to creating a successful project kickoff meeting presentation. Take the time to research your stakeholders and understand their needs, expectations, and goals. This will help you make an attractive presentation to their interests and ensure they are engaged and invested in the project.

Keep it concise and clear

Your project kickoff presentation should be concise and to the point. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that may be unfamiliar to some stakeholders. Use simple language, clear visuals, and relevant examples to communicate your message effectively.

Focus on the big picture

It’s essential to communicate the big picture of the project, including its goals, objectives, and expected outcomes. This will help stakeholders understand how the project fits into the organization’s overall strategy and why it is essential.

Address potential concerns

Acknowledge potential concerns that stakeholders may have and address them upfront. This will help build trust and credibility and show that you are prepared to handle any challenges that may arise during the project.

Engage your audience

Keep your audience engaged throughout the project kickoff meeting by asking questions, encouraging discussion, and soliciting feedback. This will help stakeholders feel invested in the project and encourage them to ask questions and provide input.

After the presentation, follow up with stakeholders to address any questions or concerns that may have arisen. This will help build trust and ensure everyone is on the same page as the project progresses.

Project Management Templates

Project managers often create project presentations to bring all the stakeholders on the same page. Here are a few project management templates to give you a head start:

Wrapping It Up

As a project manager of a critical endeavor, you are responsible for introducing the team, understanding the project background, comprehending what success looks like, understanding what must be done, and agreeing on how to operate successfully together. The project kickoff meeting is an opportunity to step up and get the team and client on the same page.

People Are Also Reading:

• The Savvy Project Manager Series: 5 Steps To Successful Project Planning
• Agile Vs. Traditional Project Management: Which Is Better?
• The Ultimate Guide On 30 60 90 Day Plan For Managers
• Must-Have Tool For Your Root Cause Analysis – 5 Whys (Examples Plus Free 5 Whys Template)

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The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Project Kickoff Meeting

One of the best ways to do this is with the DACI framework. For each major milestone or portion of the project (i.e. planning, wireframes, design, testing, etc…) assign people into four categories:

• Driver: This is the person responsible for moving the project forward (most likely the project manager or team lead).
• Approver: This is the person or group responsible for making key decisions.
• Contributors: These people offer input and opinions during parts of the project but don’t control the final outcome.
• Informed: Lastly is anyone who needs to be informed of the status of the project/task (such as a stakeholder).

Here’s an example of how you might communicate this to your team (as well as clients and stakeholders):

Run an internal team meeting before meeting with clients or stakeholders

Finally, a team kickoff meeting should take place before you meet with stakeholders or clients. This way, you have time to work out the kinks, hear any concerns from your team (which you can work into your pitch), and get everyone on your team ready to move forward.

If you’re running this meeting before starting an external project, you can include a few other client-specific elements, such as:

• Reporting: How are you going to track progress and communicate it to the client (and when)?
• Approval process: Who has the final say on each section of the project and how will you go through that process?
• Collaboration: How will you work with people at the client’s company? What collaboration tools will you use?
• Assets: What do you need from them to get started?

2. Sponsor kickoff meeting agenda: Getting buy-in from your project stakeholders

Depending on the size of your team, company, and project, you might want to run a separate kickoff meeting with your main sponsor and any project stakeholders . This is an opportunity to get buy-in and set expectations around communication and success metrics.

Rather than focusing on the scope and potential issues like you did with your team, this kickoff meeting should focus on the high-level vision, communication plan, and company-level risks and issues.

Sample of a sponsor or stakeholder kickoff meeting agenda

You’re probably sick of hearing it, but context is key. At this point, your team should be briefed and ready to start but your stakeholders might need a bit more handholding. A typical stakeholder kickoff meeting should follow an agenda like this:

• Project history & vision statement: Why are you here? (5 minutes)
• Scope and deliverables: What are you building? (10 minutes)
• Success metrics: How will you measure success? (5 minutes)
• Approval process: Who has decision-making power throughout the project? (5 minutes)
• Communication plan: How will progress be tracked and reported? (5 minutes)

The focus here is on all of the places where a project stakeholder can either help or hurt your project (approval, communication, the definition of done, etc...). To make sure you’re not missing anything important, here are a few best practices to follow.

Make sure everyone’s clear on what success looks like

The most important thing you can do before you start a project is know where you’re supposed to end up. When meeting with project stakeholders, it’s important to clarify that you’re pointed in the right direction.

During the kickoff meeting, take a few minutes to make sure you have answers for the following questions:

• What’s your “ Definition of done ?”
• What success metrics are you tracking?
• Who ultimately decides if the project was a success?

Bring up the RAID: Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies

Project stakeholders often have a different perspective on your company or project goals than you do. During this kickoff meeting, it can be good to go through some of the things that are outside of your control but might impact your ability to get things done.

As you go through the project’s scope and deliverables, use the RAID model to help identify problem areas such as:

• Risks: What could happen that would affect the quality, timing, or budget of the project?
• Assumptions: What assumptions have you made while building your project plan ? Are there ones that might change during the project?
• Issues: What issues have happened recently that may adversely impact your project?
• Dependencies: Are there other projects or deliverables that need to be done or provided in order for your project to be a success? Look at your project timeline and ask your stakeholders if they can see potential issues with dependencies or other projects on the go.

Again, these are powerful things to add to your risk management plan. To keep them even more organized, move each into an issue in Planio so you can see your risks alongside tasks and deliverables.

Learn more about tracking risks in Planio with our Guide to Risk Management

Make sure your stakeholders are happy with your communication plan

The less uncertainty your project stakeholders have about what you’re doing, the less they’ll get in your way when you’re working.

A project communication plan outlines who gets what update, when they go out, and how they’re sent. Are you doing daily stand-ups? Will you be creating a project Wiki or knowledge base ? How will you communicate progress to your stakeholders?

While nobody likes a meeting about another meeting, quickly going over your communication plan ensures that you can move quickly later on.

3. The client project kickoff meeting agenda: Getting buy-in and setting expectations with your client

Last up is an entirely different beast: The client project kickoff meeting.

While the stated purpose of a client kickoff meeting is to introduce everyone and get on the same page, the unstated purpose is to set expectations. Every time you start work with a new client they come in with their own project management baggage that you’ll need to uncover and, at times, change.

Sample of a client kickoff meeting agenda

This kickoff meeting is all about preparation and presentation. Someone already did the hard work of getting you in this room and now it’s time for you to remove any lingering doubts or concerns your client might have before you get started.

• Project summary and client goals: Why are you here? (5 minutes)
• Introductions: Who’s here? (10 minutes)
• SOW review: What are you building? (10 minutes)
• Success metrics: How do you know if this project is a success? (5 minutes)
• Collaboration: How will progress be tracked and reported? (5 minutes)
• Assets: Do you have access to everything you need? (5 minutes)

The client kickoff meeting is a delicate balance between pitching and project management. Here are a few best practices to follow to help you hit both successfully.

Do your prep work on the client, team, and project

A client kickoff meeting isn’t the time for uncertainty or insecurity. Before you start, make sure that you’ve prepped across all of your responsibilities:

• Client information: Company background, products, key executives, competitors and their recent releases, customer personas, etc...
• Team information: Roles and responsibilities, relevant background, industry experience, etc...
• Project information: Main goal, end-users, sponsors and stakeholders, tools you’ll be using, communication plan, etc...

Take your time with introductions

Teamwork makes the dream work. If you and your clients don’t know each other and get along, it’s going to be harder than it needs to be to make this project a success.

Start by setting the stage. Give some initial context and outline the client’s high-level goals.

Next, introduce your key team members. Make it personal and share a bit of their background and experience. Why are they the best person for this job? Let people speak for themselves but prep them beforehand with some key talking points.

This is also your first real chance to build rapport with the people you’ll be dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Ask them about themselves and their background. But remember, the most important part of effective communication is listening.

Everyone’s busy and has a million things on the go. That’s why one of the most effective things you can do is to give someone your full attention and make it clear to them that you’re hearing what they’re saying.

Pay attention to the person you’re talking to and give them visual cues that you’re listening. Nod along. Repeat what they’re saying back to them to quiet your inner mind. And encourage them to go on with open-ended questions.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Focus on success metrics (while also getting a sense of their risk tolerance)

Take this opportunity to show your client a vision of a positive end result. Instead of focusing on risks and issues (you did that already as a team), talk about success metrics and make sure everyone knows what a good result is.

As part of this, you can also try and get a feel for how the client handles change requests or uncertainties. Don’t just come out and ask (i.e. “Do you have any extra budget if issues come up?” ) Instead, ask how they’ve dealt with these scenarios in the past.

How have they managed similar projects in the past?

Were there any issues that have come up before?

How did they deal with scope creep or changes?

This will help you understand how they respond to risk and where you should be most mindful throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Make sure you have everything you need to get started (assets, approvals, etc…)

Lastly, don’t forget the little things that can derail your progress.

Do you have all the content and design assets you need to get started?

Do you have log-ins or credentials for their CMS, repos, etc…?

How do you handle invoicing?

This also means understanding the nuts and bolts of how you run projects. At a minimum, make sure you establish the following:

• Your approach and project management process
• The communication tools you’ll be using
• Timeline and expectations around feedback
• How you’ll deal with change requests or increases to the scope
• What the client can expect from you in regards to delivery, availability, and response time

Keep it light, but make sure you both leave feeling confident that you can pull this off in the best way possible.

What happens next? How to follow-up on your kickoff meeting and keep your project moving

A project kickoff meeting is an important step in any project. But what’s more important is what you do next.

To keep up the momentum and positive energy, send a follow-up email covering what you went over and what happens next. Make sure everyone has access to your project management tool (like Planio !) and start assigning tasks.

If there any issues, get them out of the way now so you have a clear map to success from the beginning.

More articles about Project Management:

How to Run An Effective Sprint Retrospective (Plus 7 Examples and Templates)

The ultimate guide to estimating projects: how to use time tracking (and experience) to set better estimates.

How to Write Better Meeting Notes in 5 Steps (With Free Meeting Notes Template!)

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10 steps to the perfect project kickoff meeting

Every new project needs a clear sense of direction, momentum, and team cooperation to clear the finish line. One of the best ways to get your team on the same page is to set up a project kickoff meeting.

A project kickoff meeting is an opportunity to share project insights, set goals, and establish deadlines. Below, we cover the core components of a project kickoff, different meeting types, and offer an example agenda to help you nail your next meeting.

What is a kickoff meeting?

Project kickoff meetings are opportunities for project managers, teams, and stakeholders to discuss the start of a new project and build on an existing project charter or plan. Typically, a kickoff meeting lays out the milestones and roles and responsibilities for an upcoming project.

The number of people in attendance and the structure of these meetings can vary. Some work like informal get-togethers between members of the same team. Other times, teams might invite stakeholders to the meeting to provide a more thorough overview of the project and next steps. Kickoffs can also involve a presentation, demo, or virtual call for remote teams.

What’s the purpose of a kickoff meeting?

A project kickoff aligns meeting attendees on a project’s scope, goals, and milestones. It also sets the tone for a project, giving you a chance to explain your plan in detail and build a sense of excitement around.

Since it’s the last step before executing on the project, it’s an opportunity for clients or your team to ask remaining questions or clarify expectations. This also prevents miscommunication that could lead to issues like scope creep down the line. Additionally, project kickoff meetings give you a chance to:

• Let project managers explain why they should make a product and how they will do it
• Make sure stakeholders and team members are on the same page
• Explain project expectations and timelines
• Identify potential risks and safeguards against them
• Build rapport between the teams involved

Get started with our project kickoff template

Ready to kick off your next project? Try our template for free.

Types of kickoff meetings

Your development framework and the number of attendees should inform the type of kickoffs you run. Here are three of the most common types of kickoff meetings.

Internal project kickoff meeting

An internal kickoff involves the managers and teams running a project. In some cases, internal stakeholders or leaders show up to give high-level direction.

Without clients, these meetings focus on under-the-hood responsibilities and internal processes. They can also feel more informal than external meetings.

Here are a few internal meeting tips:

• Focus on transparency: Without clients present, you can create an open, honest atmosphere. Taking the pressure off lets team members voice their concerns or questions.
• Consider obstacles: You aren’t just here to build hype around a project. Discuss potential roadblocks and their impact to brainstorm solutions.
• Foster relationships: If there are new team members or people who haven't worked together, leave some time at the top of the meeting to get to know one another with meeting icebreakers.

Here are a few helpful tools to get you started:

• Facilitator template
• Project plan
• SMART goals

External project kickoff meeting

External kickoffs bring client-facing teams and stakeholders on the client’s side together. Unlike internal kickoffs, external meetings are more polished and organized. They may also involve a project kickoff meeting presentation showcasing similar projects or how your team works. Project managers use these meetings to explain their goals and ensure both teams’ expectations are aligned.

External kickoff meetings tend to cover a project roadmap with milestones and deliverables. Ensuring the client and stakeholders have complete clarity is key. Managers also get to work with the client to decide what their collaboration workflow will look like.

Keep these external meeting tips in mind:

• Pick a central platform for communication: Decide how you and the client will reach each other with questions or updates in advance.
• Introduce your teams: External kickoffs are an opportunity to introduce your team to a client’s point of contact.
• Decide on a review process: When outlining milestones, discuss how the client will review your work and when. Clear deadlines keep teams organized.
• Do your research: Since this first meeting is a chance to build rapport with the client and ensure your team has everything they need to move forward, coming up with questions is important.

Here are a few tools to help with external meetings::

• Project status report
• Project proposal
• Product development roadmap

Agile project kickoff meeting

Agile’s focus on continuous development in short sprints affects the kickoff meeting format. Because agile teams run planning meetings before every sprint cycle, kickoffs occur annually or after major product changes, allowing teams to measure their progress and make long-term plans.

While staying on the same page is valuable in all situations, agile teams need this organization. Agile developers rarely know their role in a sprint before it starts, so giving everyone a broad overview helps developers quickly adjust to new responsibilities. It also allows managers to learn their teams’ strengths, weaknesses, and areas of interest for future assignme

For agile kickoff meetings, remember to:

• Account for sprint planning: Project kickoffs won’t replace sprint planning meetings. Instead, they give a baseline before an initial sprint or project changes. Because sprints focus on the details, keep your kickoffs more general.
• Formalize scrum roles: In the scrum framework, teams self-organize and work toward a common, short-term goal. A scrum master oversees each team. Pairing the right teams with the right scrum master can improve developers’ performance.

To get started with agile kickoffs, try the agile roadmap template .

Project kickoff meeting checklist

Below, we’ve outlined 10 steps for organizing a kickoff meeting that’ll point the way forward and leave your colleagues eager to dig in.

Step 1: Prepare everything ahead of time

Before you schedule your project meeting, you’ll want to iron out the following details:

• Logistics: the meeting’s time, date, location, and duration
• Purpose: the central goals of the meeting and who will participate (learn how to track goals here )
• Structure: the scope of the meeting and what it will tackle
• Action points: the steps and deliverables you’ll pursue after the meeting

While sketching out your meeting’s structure, bear in mind that your attendees will probably arrive with some questions about the project. Try mapping out a section of your plan where you anticipate and answer these queries. This way, you won’t waste any time coming up with thoughtful responses.

Step 2: Clarify your project’s purpose

It can be tough to stay motivated when we don’t understand what we’re building in the first place. Rather than assigning deliverables right out of the gate, begin the kickoff by clarifying the greater purpose of your project. Let’s look at an example to see this point in action.

Say you’re designing a financial education website. Your goal is to bridge the financial literacy gap so that everyday consumers can make smarter financial choices. To translate it to a project kickoff, we might say that the project aims to design a beautiful blog that attracts more organic Web traffic.

To help connect your goals, ask questions like:

• How will each team working on a project contribute to your goals?
• Why did you prioritize this project’s objective over others like it?
• Does this project align your business goals with your customers’ needs?

Step 3: Prepare an agenda

Next, it’s time to create an agenda for your project kickoff meeting. Having an agenda is essential because it dictates the direction of your meeting and keeps the team on track.

While every project differs, a standard project kickoff meeting agenda often looks something like this:

• Welcome and introductions
• Project overview: goals, scope, and timeline
• Key deliverables
• Expectations and milestones
• Q&A/discussion

Once you’ve planned out your project kickoff meeting agenda, you can share it with your attendees along with your meeting invitation so they know exactly what to expect beforehand. With a tool like FigJam , you can easily loop in team members (plus, they’ll have their own space to write down their questions).

Step 4: Nominate an official note-taker

While many of your attendees may eagerly jot down notes, you don’t want them to feel like they have to. Some people may find note-taking distracting when they’re also trying to listen attentively. An easy way to solve this problem is to designate an official note-taker who knows how to take meeting notes . This person’s job will be to transcribe the details of the meeting and share them with the team later on.

When selecting a note-taker, try to find someone within your team who is already familiar with the meeting’s content. This way, they can take detailed notes without missing out on essential information themselves.

Once the meeting wraps up, simply share access to the FigJam file. If anyone has a question about a particular note, they can add a comment or tag another collaborator to kick-start a discussion.

Step 5: Encourage team bonding

Project kickoffs often bring together people who haven’t worked together before. To help project team members get acquainted, ask each attendee to share a little bit about themselves, such as their:

• Work background
• Position within the project
• Fun fact or favorite hobby

You may even want to lead a quick icebreaker to inspire some initial conversation among attendees. This way, future collaboration won’t feel so stiff or awkward. What’s more, everyone can leave the meeting with a newfound sense of comradery before the serious work begins.

Looking for icebreakers that leave “basic” behind? When you crack open Figma’s icebreaker template , you’ll find activities like:

• Playlist swaps
• Team portrait draw-offs
• Doodling contests
• A color Jacuzzi

Step 6: Align on scope

While your business may have expansive goals, your project should have a clearly defined scope.

It’s important to clarify what falls within the scope of your project and what doesn’t early on. Otherwise, some team members may waste time, energy, and resources on tasks irrelevant to the project, derailing its timeline and budget.

For example, maybe the scope of your project is to design a landing page for a client’s website based on content they’ve already written. In this case, the following tasks would fall outside of its scope:

• Researching in-depth SEO recommendations
• Creating a pay-per-click (PPC) landing page for a future ad campaign
• Updating every related web property to mention the project

Step 7: Clarify expectations

After providing an overview of the project’s purpose and scope, it’s important to explain what you need from each team member moving forward. Establishing expectations early can reduce the chance that anyone falls behind on their milestones.

Here are a few questions to help you distill your expectations and communicate them to your team:

• Who is responsible for each deliverable?
• Who should be consulted about deliverable details?
• How often do you expect project status reports ?
• When is each deliverable due?
• Who should team members go to if they have questions or concerns?
• Who is your primary point of contact for the project?
• What is their preferred method of communication?

You should also establish a cadence for check-in meetings (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) for the duration of your project. After all, your project kickoff meeting will probably be the first of many. The RACI framework might be a helpful jumping off point.. This template allows you to track who:

• Is responsible for each deliverable
• Will be held accountable for its quality
• Should be consulted if there are any questions
• Needs to be kept in the loop throughout the process

Step 8: Generate excitement about the project

Successful project kickoff meetings don’t have to be boring. Actually, you’ll probably defy the whole team’s expectations if everyone leaves the meeting feeling pumped. Injecting some fun into your project meeting will keep everyone energized, engaged, and motivated to do their best work moving forward.

You can do that by:

• Identifying exciting growth opportunities through a SWOT analysis
• Highlighting glowing reviews and previews from industry experts
• Offering incentives like gift cards or other prizes for teams that hit project deadlines
• Using metrics to highlight your teams’ improvement across projects
• Hosting daily standup meetings sustain your teams’ excitement over a project

Step 9: Allow ample time for Q&A

By the end of a project kickoff meeting, your attendees will probably have some questions. This is a good thing: It means they’re engaged in what you have to say and they value the outcome.

To that end, be sure to carve out at least 5-10 minutes to discuss any questions that came up. This is important for a few reasons:

• If you plan to answer questions later, you could lose out on some remarkable ideas while they’re fresh. Fielding valuable ideas early on builds momentum that’s valuable throughout a project.
• Stakeholders often ask about potential risks during a Q&A. Keeping this in mind pushes managers to consider risk prevention from the earliest stages of a project lifecycle.
• Answering questions as the kickoff avoids the risk of spending unnecessary time answering the same question over and over again with different team members.

Step 10: Discuss next steps

Maybe you want the research team to begin a competitor analysis right off the bat so you can review their report by the end of the week. Or maybe you want the graphic design team to prioritize logo generation before the rest of their deliverables.

Whatever it is, giving each of your teams a clear project objective will help them feel motivated after kickoff and accomplished as your project unfolds.

Sample project kickoff meeting agenda

Project name: Blog page redesign

Project manager: Sarah Lancaster

Lead developer: Justin Park

Head designer: Erin Smith

Kickoff date: September 13, 2023

Meeting agenda:

• Introductions: Sarah (five minutes)
• Icebreakers: Erin (five minutes)
• Short-term objectives
• Long-term goals
• KPIs measuring success
• Deliverables
• Review mockup
• Design team roles
• Development team roles
• Next steps and Q&A: Sarah (fifteen minutes)

H2: Turn kickoff meetings into project successes

Project kickoff meetings align expectations and milestones early on in the project lifecycle. Whether you’re following a strategic or tactical plan , project kickoffs ensure you set your team up for success. Now that you know how to plan a successful project kickoff meeting, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice.

FigJam’s online whiteboard brings your teams together for project planning initiatives, from the launch meeting to sticking the landing.

Check out this template to get started.

Home Free PowerPoint Templates Free Project Kickoff Meeting PowerPoint Template

Download Free Project Kickoff Meeting PowerPoint Template

Our Free Project Kickoff Meeting PowerPoint Template is a ready-to-use free slide deck for preparing a project kickoff meeting presentation. A kickoff meeting is an initial session between the project team and the clients to discuss the project agenda. In this discussion, all the key points associated with the project are discussed between the parties to avoid any hassle during the workflow. For instance, this presentation includes project phases, timelines, next steps, and project highlights. So, we have created this PPT template free download to facilitate our users in preparing their kickoff presentations. The slides can be edited with PowerPoint and Google Slides. 

This Free Project Kickoff Meeting PowerPoint Template begins with a title slide carrying text boxes to mention the title or introductory details. This title slide is decorated with a human character illustration. The background of the free project kickoff slides has a light pink color with white text boxes. Following is the page to showcase details about the project or meeting agenda. We have added infographic icons and text boxes on this slide to mention the points like target audience, objectives, and project scope. Users can edit these segments to mention other features as well. Likewise, the next slides help mention the project phases, a thorough timeline, and the next steps of the project plan. The timeline slide carries a horizontal diagram with proper labels and text boxes. The next steps slide has bold number labels to discuss the strategic steps. 

So, professionals can grab these slides and discuss their kickoff agenda with their clients and team members. The slides are customizable and can fit different themes and presentation requirements. Users can change the colors and font styles, and other elements accordingly. So, download and try our free project kickoff PowerPoint template now!

• 100% Editable PowerPoint Templates.
• Compatible with all major Microsoft PowerPoint versions, Keynote and Google Slides.
• Modern 16:9 Aspect Ratio.
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• New Templates every week.

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Project Management

9 minute read

Project Kickoff Meeting - Starting the Project Off Right

Brad Egeland

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A successful project manager doesn't enter any individual project engagement overconfident about the eventual outcome. While best practices are important and generally fairly logical in nature, so many things can be outside of the project manager's control no matter how experienced, certified and organized they may be.

I'm not saying success is based on luck, but it never hurts to have some on your side. That’s why I want to talk about something that’s within your control: A project kickoff meeting.

No two projects will ever be the same - there will inevitably be a handful of change orders and some vague requirements . And almost no project ever goes off without a hitch, regardless of how much planning is put into the effort and no matter how good the customer participation may be.

Have I scared you enough? Okay, ready, set, GO! But wait... not so fast. Are you truly familiar with the project? Do you know the client? Do you have an idea of the business processes? Do you understand the "as is" environment and the "to be" environment?

The answer is probably no, or should be no unless you've had a proper kickoff to the project. By kickoff, I mean a formal project kickoff meeting that brings the two sides together - delivery team and customer team - and lays the groundwork for how the project will be run and what is going to be happening for the next few months while you’re spending the client's money developing an end solution.

Why is a project kickoff meeting so important?

In order to derive proper benefits from a project kickoff meeting, it must be executed properly . So why is the kickoff meeting so important, and what benefits are derived from it?

Here are the key benefits of the project kickoff meeting:

• Discuss and finalize key dates for the project
• Discuss and understand the processes of how the project will be run
• Discuss the communications on the project
• Meet the project customer sponsor and team, and potentially some subject matter experts (SMEs) and key end users
• Review assumptions and make clarifications as needed
• Discuss immediate next steps, dates, and locations for any co-located activities

Basically, the project kickoff meeting with the client gives you an opportunity to speak with the client, project team, and key stakeholders to get a broader understanding of the project background, reasons for undertaking the project, and the ideal outcome. This is a more detailed project briefing than you might otherwise get just from a casual conversation with the project sponsor and a more detailed discussion focused on how everyone will make the project a success together.

This is the first article in our six-part How to be a Successful Project Manager series. Want more? Download the full ebook below.

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Internal vs. external project kickoff

Let's next consider the differences between an internal vs. external project kickoff.

External kickoff

External kickoff is critical because that's where the rubber meets the road with the project customer and team. It’s where you can build a common understanding to operate from the same page. Knowing the next steps and expectations for the next month and for the rest of the project is extremely important for customer confidence and satisfaction. For me, this is one of the big three ingredients for project success (the other two being on budget and on time delivery of the end project solution).

Internal kickoff

But what about the internal kickoff? The team must be assembled, educated, given tasks for ownership and accountability and start working toward the common goals of the project and customer. Ideally, this happens before the formal external customer project kickoff. However, most of the project resources at customer kickoff time are often only resource types and skill sets on a piece of paper, not real assigned resources with names and resumes. The real resources are still working on other projects full time because the real work on this project in question has not started yet.

Sometimes I may have the luxury of taking a business analyst with me to a customer kickoff meeting, but often it's just me and a vice president or PMO director and trust me... it's not the same thing. Whenever the internal kickoff meeting does happen with your real, fully assigned and assembled team – either before or after customer kickoff – that's when the project manager works to ensure the following:

• Everyone understands the draft project schedule and assists with finalizing it
• Everyone understands the goals of the project
• Assumptions are reviewed and legitimized
• Initial thought is given to risk management so that concept can be further addressed when planning and design with the customer begins
• Tasks begin to be designated to team members and the real work starts to happen

Steps to conducting a successful project kickoff meeting

Every kickoff meeting, of course, is going to be different. The amount of detail, expense, time, travel and attendance is going to vary based on the visibility, nature, or even industry of the project. But there are a few fundamental steps that will always be necessary in order to help ensure that what you need to accomplish from such a meeting actually gets accomplished.

As stated above, the kickoff meeting is the process of getting to know the other side, laying the groundwork for communication and processes, methodology for the project and understanding and finalizing dates, deliverables, assumptions, team member roles and next steps as you embark on this important adventure. I think we would all agree that each project can be somewhat of an adventure, right?

For me, it comes down to these four basic steps to getting the formal project customer kickoff meeting right.

Acquire all available materials

First, there was a sale somewhere for the project engagement. As part of that sale, there should be the sales person's or account manager's notes as they met with the potential client organization and discussed some high-level requirements, mapped out some reports, jotted down some assumptions, and cobbled together some sort of project timeline, resource plan, and statement of work (SOW) in order to come up with a price.

You need those things – you must have those things!

The odds that the salesperson “got it all right” are low, but you have to start somewhere and those notes and promises are where your client is right now, so that's where you need to be as your starting point.

Meet the project customer

The next step in the kickoff process is to get to know the customer you will be working with over the next several weeks or months. While the actual kickoff session should be in person if, at all possible, this initial introduction is usually going to be a phone call unless the customer is just across the city from you.

Reach out, explain the project – as you see it – to them to make sure initially you are close to “on the same page” and give them some background on your experience, successes and how you plan to run the project. Discuss the kickoff session that will happen, what its purpose is, and what will happen during that kickoff. You should also figure out a date and location for the kickoff meeting, and discuss who should attend. Don't overlook the importance of the attendees – I did once and the customer brought in literally everyone... turning a 3-hour kickoff into a 2-day session.

Put together kickoff presentation materials

Next, it's time to put together more detailed information about the project and prepare a presentation for the kickoff session. Revise the initial draft schedule acquired early on, put in some real deliverables, dates, effort estimates and dependencies. This will serve as the first real baseline schedule for the project going forward but will also be a main discussion piece for the formal project kickoff session.

More information to present is the methodology you plan to use, how change orders will be originated, managed and executed, and what happens immediately following the project kickoff.

You want to come out of the kickoff session with everyone on the same page and ready to hit the ground running. Provide the kickoff meeting presentation in advance to the client so you can get any feedback, incorporate any additional information, and make the actual kickoff go more smoothly by avoiding any surprises in the materials.

Conduct the kickoff session

Finally, conduct the formal kickoff session with the customer. Remember, the main purpose is to get everyone in agreement and on the same page to establish what is happening next and who the key players are in the next steps. If you have any or all of the team actually assembled at this point, they should all be there as well for introduction and discussion. Whatever you can do to ensure 100% productivity as quickly as possible on both sides of the project is what you need to do and that will keep the project on track from the start.

The bottom line is this: the project that starts off on the right foot and has the proper kickoff session or sessions is the project that has a much stronger likelihood of finishing the same way. If everyone is on the same page at the end of the project kickoff – which is really the main goal – then communication is easier, design and development can start with a common understanding and requirements are going to be easier to understand, document, create from and test against, leading to ultimate project success.

Want to improve your project management skills? Learn how to execute effective team meetings and more with the  Project Management for Business Professionals  course.

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Brad Egeland is a Business Solution Designer, IT and project management consultant, and author with over 25 years of experience. He enjoys live music, taking his kids on weekend adventures, and reading about the latest technologies.

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Essential Project Kickoff Guide with Starter Kit

By Kate Eby | August 27, 2021 (updated October 31, 2022)

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Project kickoff meetings are vital for setting a project’s tone and expectations for clients and project teams. We’ve rounded up expert tips and the top templates, and compiled a project kickoff starter kit to help you plan your meeting.

On this page, you’ll find information on what to include in a project kickoff , how to plan an agenda , a step-by-step guide to running a project kickoff , and a project kickoff starter kit .

What Is a Project Kickoff?

A project kickoff meeting is the first meeting between the project team and the client, when you establish expectations, communication, and goals. The meeting allows both parties to define the project's purpose and what they consider a success. 

Additionally, the investor gains insight into how the money will be spent and why this project is beneficial

Purpose of a Project Kickoff Meeting

The purpose of a project kickoff meeting will depend on who is involved. An internal project kickoff meeting reviews the purpose and goals of the project, while a project kickoff meeting for stakeholders and clients enables both parties to share their perspective on project background and purpose, as well as establish a working relationship with the project team. A project kickoff meeting can also benefit Agile teams when they take on a new project or when you onboard a new team member, as it ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Project Management Guide

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Ready to get more out of your project management efforts? Visit our comprehensive project management guide for tips, best practices, and free resources to manage your work more effectively.

View the guide

What Should a Project Kickoff Meeting Include?

A project kickoff meeting should include the following:

• Introductions: Let everyone announce themselves and the role they will have in the project.
• Agenda: Reiterate the plan for the meeting, with items for discussion and time delegation.
• Executive Summary: Review the background and overall purpose of the project.
• Project Scope: Review the statement of work (SOW), goals, timeline, budget, and constraints.
• Deliverables: Define the material goals of the project or the items sent to the client.
• Define Success: Align the client and project team’s vision to ensure all parties have an understanding of the metrics for success.
• Questions: Allow ample time for questions from both parties.
• Provide Communication Channels: Give the client a point of contact, and tell the project team how they will be in communication with one another.
• Next Steps: Review any follow-up actions needed after the conclusion of the meeting.

What Is a Project Kickoff Presentation?

A project kickoff presentation is a document presenting the agenda or topics covered in the meeting. The presentation provides a visual aid for attendees and guidance for the presenter. It also helps advance the meeting and keep discussions on topic. 

A well-prepared presentation can leave a lasting impression on the client and investors, ensuring professionalism and confidence.

How Do You Introduce Yourself in a Project Kickoff Meeting?

A project kickoff meeting should start with introductions for all attendees. State your name and your role in the project, along with a small personal fact or highlight. This allows everyone to get to know each other and find commonalities. 

When addressing the group, be conscious of your body language and how you present yourself. By keeping your arms open and out to your sides while speaking and making eye contact with people, you show that you are open, listening, and engaged. Practice your introduction before the meeting — this helps ensure that you come across as confident and excited for your role in the project.

What Is Discussed in a Project Kickoff Meeting?

Hassan Osman , project manager and author of Project Kickoff: How to Run a Successful Project Kickoff Meeting in Easy Steps , shares what he feels are the most important topics to discuss in a project kickoff meeting.

According to Osman, an effective project kickoff meeting should fulfill the following three goals:

• Inform everyone of the project goals.
• Introduce stakeholders to each other so that they’re aware of everyone’s roles and responsibilities.
• Generate enthusiasm among the team members, and motivate everyone to get started on the project.

When to Plan the Kickoff Meeting

A kickoff meeting typically occurs at the beginning of the project lifecycle , before any project work begins.

How to Plan for a Project Kickoff Meeting

When planning for your kickoff meeting, it is essential to address the following questions:

• How long should the meeting be?
• Who should attend?
• What should be discussed?
• Where should it be held?
• What documents should you print?

It is also important to consider the best time for all parties involved to attend. You can do this by creating a poll for attendees to respond to or by sending out an email invite that allows attendees to suggest alternative times, if needed. Once you solidify a meeting date, send out a project kickoff announcement email to all attendees.

Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda

A meeting agenda provides an outline of the proposed meeting schedule. Meeting agendas help you keep the meeting on track and ensure the team discusses all necessary topics. When creating your meeting agenda, here are some items to consider:

• How much time do you have for the meeting?
• What do you need to communicate with the client?
• What do you need to communicate with the team?
• Who is responsible for talking about each item?
• How much time should you allot for each item?
• Do you need to answer any questions at the meeting?
• What is the intended outcome of this project?
• What resources do you need?
• Have we done similar projects before? If so, what did we learn from them?

It is also important to consider how the agenda may differ when holding kickoff meetings with your team, stakeholders, or a client. 

“The agenda is fairly similar across the different types of kickoff meetings, in the sense that the objectives are the same,” says Osman. “However, if you are conducting a kickoff meeting for a client, then the internal kickoff meeting is a bit different from an external kickoff meeting. 

“Think of the internal kickoff meeting as a dry run of the external kickoff meeting, in which you review the presentation and ensure that your team is all on the same page before the external meeting. [An internal meeting] also helps the presenters practice delivering the meeting ahead of time with a real audience and make any changes to the agenda (if needed).”

Step by Step: How to Run an Internal Project Kickoff Meeting

An internal project kickoff meeting is essential to make sure the entire project team is familiar with the project and prepared to meet with the client. Here are some helpful steps to running a successful internal project kickoff meeting:

• Introductions: Have everyone introduce themselves and their role in the project. Allowing the team to get to know each other will help create camaraderie and excitement for the project. Introductions are also a great chance to try some icebreaker games.
• Discuss the Client’s Background, Stakeholders, and Problems: Familiarize the team with the client and the problem(s) they face so that they can better understand the client’s needs.
• Discuss Project Purpose: Review the project’s purpose; this helps the team orient themselves and prepare to develop strategic solutions.
• Discuss Proposed Solutions: Discussing solutions internally will help the team prepare and present the best solution to the client. Kickstart this session with a brainstorming activity to come up with creative and strategic solutions. This is also an excellent time for mind mapping or storyboarding.
• Review Project Scope: The project scope is a vital part of the kickoff meeting, and should include a statement of work , goals, project timeline, budget, any constraints, and the completion date.
• Review Action Plan: The action plan should cover task management, how the team tracks milestones, and the work management program that the team will use.
• Discuss Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies (RAID): Communicate with the team about how you plan to address any issues that may arise. Doing so is vital for mitigating risks that may prevent the team from meeting the project deadline, budget, or goals.
• Review Collaboration and Communication Tools: Establish which communication tools your team will use to communicate with one another and stay informed of the project’s progress.
• Discuss Reporting: Discuss how each team will track their milestones and report on their progress.
• Client Kickoff Agenda: Begin the discussion of which items should be on the meeting agenda. The focus should be on topics that need to be reviewed or clarified with the client.
• Questions: At this time, have the team voice any questions or concerns before meeting with the client.

Download a Project Kickoff Template Starter Kit

Get everything you need for a project kickoff meeting in our project kickoff starter kit, which includes a project kickoff announcement, agenda, timeline, meeting checklist, meeting minutes, and presentation template in one easy-to-download file.

Download Project Kickoff Starter Kit

Project Kickoff Announcement Template

The project kickoff announcement email offers an important first impression for all meeting attendees. Use this template to send a formal and polished announcement with all the information attendees will need.

Download Kickoff Announcement Email Template - Microsoft Word

Project Kickoff Agenda Template

Use this template to create a meeting agenda. The template includes a section for each proposed agenda item and an accompanying time allotment. Some example agenda items include introductions, project background, benefits and goals, project scope, roles and responsibilities, project schedule, communications plan, issue management, regulations and client requirements, questions, and next steps.

Download Kickoff Agenda Template

Microsoft Word | Google Doc | Smartsheet

Kickoff Project Timeline Template

The project timeline is a crucial component of the kickoff meeting. Use the template to create a project timeline to help the team stay organized and easily track progress, events, and milestones.

Download Kickoff Project Timeline Template

Microsoft Excel  | Smartsheet

Project Kickoff Meeting Checklist Template

When you have a simplified list of tasks to complete, meeting preparation can be less daunting. Use this template to check off each task as you complete it.

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Project Kickoff Meeting Minutes Template

Use this template to track what you discuss in the meeting, and write clear, brief notes under each outlined topic. Organized meeting minutes will help you recall the small details so you can focus on the big picture.

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Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

Project Kickoff Presentation Template

Use this kickoff presentation template to create a slide deck that will set you up for success and enable you to present with confidence. This template includes slides for contents, project overview, approach and methodology, roles and responsibilities, project timeline, communication requirements, and risk management.

Download Kickoff Presentation Template - Microsoft PowerPoint

You can download a variety of free project kickoff templates by visiting our template roundup page .

What to Do After a Project Kickoff Meeting

After a project kickoff meeting, share the results with the team and schedule follow-up tasks. These tasks may include distributing notes, reaching out to the client, and scheduling a meeting with the project team.

After reviewing your notes from the project kickoff, do the following:

• Share meeting notes or a summary with all attendees.
• Send a follow-up email to the client and invite additional questions or concerns.
• Schedule an internal follow-up meeting to further discuss the meeting and project with the team.

Expert Tips for Successful Kickoff Meetings

A successful kickoff meeting will look different depending on the project, team, and client. However, you can take key steps to put your team on the track to success. Here are some expert tips on agenda keeping, note taking, communicating, and presenting:

• Keep the meeting brief, using a time limit and focused agenda. By allotting times for each agenda topic, you can help keep the discussion on track. Sticking to the time limits will ensure your meeting is brief, which helps maintain engagement and excitement. Agenda items that need more time or require more details should be discussed further in a follow-up meeting.
• Establish clarity and excitement with both the client and the project team. Presenting each agenda item and allowing both the project team and client to share their thoughts will ensure everyone is on the same page and clear on the expectations. Convey excitement with open body language, enthusiasm, and confidence. The client should have time to express their vision and why they are excited about the project, and the project team should express their excitement about their role in bringing that vision to realization.
• Date and time of the meeting
• Names of the meeting participants and absentees
• Any additions to the current agenda
• Actions taken or agreed to be taken
• Any open discussion or participation for each agenda item
• Are there any questions before we move on?
• Any thoughts before we move on?
• Does anyone have an idea they would like to share?
• Any questions, concerns, or comments?
• We would love your input.
• We appreciate any ideas or suggestions on this topic.
• Produce a communication plan for your team. Outline how often and on what platforms communication will occur with the client, both internally and externally. Implementing a system that creates an efficient workflow among teams is important to make communication accessible and optimized. A project initiation template is useful for keeping all team members and stakeholders looped into the project’s current status.
• “Be well prepared and practice delivering your presentation ahead of time, because your kickoff meeting is your main chance at leaving a positive first impression,” says Osman.
• If you can, host the kickoff meeting on your turf, so you have better control of the client’s experience and familiarity with the presentation equipment. If you are presenting in a new environment, take the time to scope it out beforehand. Note what you will need and practice using any equipment involved.

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How to Run a Compelling Kick-Off Meeting [+Free Sample Agenda]

Explore the true purpose of a kick-off meeting, ways to nail your presentation, and what special considerations to make for remote meetings. 💻

Kickoff new projects and initiatives with this customizable meeting agenda template!

In football, the initial kick-off transitions team members from preparation and warm-up into game-time action.

When it comes to getting work projects up and running, a kick-off meeting does the same thing. It brings talented team members together to collaborate on goals along a shared roadmap to success. Start off on the wrong foot, and the team—and project—can fall apart. Get it right, and everyone’s prepared to tackle any obstacles ahead.

An excellent kick-off meeting sets your team up to win. In this post, we’ll cover the purpose of a kick-off meeting, how to nail your presentation, and look at special considerations for remote meetings. We’ll also provide you with a free kick-off meeting agenda sample.

Let’s start with why kick-off meetings exist.

1. Kick-off meeting purpose

What’s the point of a kick-off meeting, anyway? As it turns out, there are quite a few purposes this type of meeting serves.

For starters, a kick-off meeting brings everyone involved in a project together to transition from the ideation phase to execution. Getting your team together is important for several reasons.

<t-check>First<t-check>, having all people and teams in the room ensures everyone is either on the same page or can ask questions to get there. That allows you to lay a strong foundation and formalize the collaborative process.

<t-check>Second<t-check>, a kick-off meeting creates space for anyone to speak up about potential blind spots or hurdles the team hasn’t considered before getting underway. You want to use this opportunity to reduce surprises down the line and leave everyone feeling well-informed and fully prepared for the road ahead.

<t-check>Finally<t-check>, a good kick-off meeting serves to get everyone excited! It should clearly explain why this project is essential. What pain points will it address? How will it improve things? It should also cover how the project will solve those problems and how success will be measured. Project teams can unite over specific issues to tackle with defined goals in their crosshairs.

2. Perfecting your kick-off meeting presentation

There are a few key things you’ll want to be sure to cover in your kick-off meeting presentation. While the specifics may vary based on the type of project you’re kicking off, these likely include:

• the reason for the project
• project goals and how success is defined
• an overview of major phases or milestones
• specific responsibilities and deliverables from each person or team
• when follow-up project meetings will happen
• how you will track the project
• what communication channels your team will use

If this is a purely internal kick-off meeting with no external contributors, you probably don’t have to spend too much time on introductions. However, if this project includes external and internal teams, it would be wise to introduce people and their roles. An icebreaker helps accomplish this early in the meeting.

When it comes to sales kick-off meetings, one major priority is bringing energy to the room. Sales kick-off meetings are meant to motivate the team for a successful year ahead. Feed this goal with helpful information on strategies that have worked well over the last year and team-building activities that boost morale .

No matter what type of project you’re kicking off, make sure to leave plenty of time for questions at the end and clearly articulate what tasks people will tackle once the meeting is over. Check out our post on how to give a presentation for more ideas.

3. How to hold a remote kick-off meeting

In the past, experts insisted that holding kick-off meetings in-person was essential. The belief was that every person involved in a project needed to be in the same room, literally, to nurture group cohesion and collaboration through shared experience.

As we all know, in-person kick-off meetings for every project are no longer realistic. Fortunately, they’re also not completely necessary. You can still have a successful project with a remote kick-off meeting that ticks all the same boxes—you may just have to get a little creative.

To plan a remote meeting , consider what truly makes this meeting important. Starting new projects is exciting, and stakeholders are usually extremely interested at this stage. The meeting should harness this energy to get everyone’s input and open lines of communication.

Check out our 20+ icebreakers for remote meetings to start things off on the right foot. Then, consider what remote meeting tools your organization already uses that could be helpful. Do you have project tracking software? Can people use the meeting chat in place of sticky notes?

Ever since the mass move to remote work in 2020, remote meeting tools are more versatile than ever before. Review all your options, and you may be surprised to find ways in which remote kick off meetings are even better.

Ready to kick off your meeting planning? One key to leading effective meetings is having a meeting agenda. Use this free agenda sample to get started:

{{kick-off-meeting="/blog-inserts-3"}}

5. How do you run a kick-off meeting?

With the right planning and approach, kick-off meetings provide an energetic start to exciting projects. They create bonds between teams through shared purpose and set everyone up for success by establishing a clear understanding of the road ahead.

Team members can start collaborating with shareable meeting agendas even before the kick-off meeting, well, kicks off! Use our customizable Project Kick-Off Meeting Agenda to easily plug in what you need for the many successful kick-off meetings that lie ahead.

It will go something like this.

How to start a kick-off meeting. You can start a kick-off meeting by discussing what you want to accomplish at the meeting at a high level and what will be needed in order to make this happen.

Moving on to the project scope , it's time to be as specific as possible in your discussion so that it is clear what needs to be done by whom, when, and how. This will also give everyone an idea of the timeline for the project so they know when they should be ready with their parts and when they need assistance from other team members. This sets expectations about the project's scope, schedule, and the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the project.

Next, take a look at success criteria . This is the criteria by which you will be able to determine whether or not the project has been successful and how much you have progressed towards completion.

One way to do this is by defining some goals, any easy way to set expectations that all stakeholders and work together toward achieving.

The last part of the kick-off meeting is often to evaluate risks . This is important because it will help you to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances that may come up in the future and give you time to consider how you will deal with them.

You can deal with by using risk management techniques, such as planning or performing tests prior to beginning work or deciding whether or not you should proceed at all if there are too many risks involved.

Be sure to include all of the risks in high-risk areas as well so you will be prepared for the worst.

This is a lot to cover in your first meeting with the team, so you'll need to keep the discussions on point . Aim to end with time to spare because you'll need to include plenty of time for asking questions and getting clarification on any issues that arise.

When you are finished, you can sum up and key decisions and next steps, and briefly go over who owns any action items. This will help you to ensure that everyone is on the same page before you end.

6. Who attends the kick-off of a project?

The people who attend the kick-off of a project are those who are ultimately responsible for the success of the project. They are the ones who should be involved in creating a schedule, managing tasks, and monitoring progress. Anyone responsible for these activities should be invited.

7. How long should a kick-off meeting be?

A project kick-off meeting is a meeting that prepares an organization for the upcoming tasks or projects. This doesn’t have to be a huge event, and it will likely last for less than one hour. Some experts believe that companies should have these meetings 30 minutes or less.

This time is enough to go over tasks and goals, cover questions, and review any materials that need to be covered. Although this is a helpful guideline for most organizations, you may need more time based on your goals for the meeting.

8. How do you kick off a meeting?

On a related note, it's time to conduct your next meeting—kick-off meeting or not—but how do you start? There are plenty of ways to kick off this meeting, and it all depends on what you would like to achieve.

To boost morale and encourage cooperation , spend some time talking about the successes of the team working together.

To get a sense for how each member is feeling , ask them to individually discuss their best work from last year.

To show appreciation and respect for your employees' expertise or input , ask them to share some things they've been learning lately.

To gather information , it is a good idea to start off with the objective or problem at hand. Then, ask for help in finding out more information and let the other team members answer questions.

To keep the meeting focused and to stay on track , start with a brief review of your goals for the meeting. Then move quickly into your agenda.

Don't let unproductive meetings slow you down

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Project kickoff

Bring the team together at the start of a project and agree on what success looks like. A good kickoff meeting shares the purpose of the project, forecasts milestones, and inspires the team to succeed.

Prep Time 30 mins

Run Time 90 mins

People 3-14

Project Kickoff

Bring the team together at the start of a project and agree on what success looks like.

Project Kickoff in action

A team of app developers uses Confluence to prep for the Project Kickoff Play.

These filmmakers use Trello and Zoom to kickoff of their first full-length animated film project.

Designers brainstormed their mission in prep for kicking off a packaging redesign project.

What you'll need

Video conferencing with screen sharing, digital collaboration tool (see templates), sticky notes, optional templates, atlassian templates, instructions for running this play, 1. prep 30 min.

Before running the Play, determine roles on your project. You’ll want to identify your Project Sponsor, Project Leader, Facilitator, core team, and stakeholders. One team member might hold multiple roles.

• Project Sponsor (aka Executive Sponsor): the most senior stakeholder who has the most to gain or lose from your project’s delivery.
• Facilitator: responsible for keeping the meeting flowing and focused. 
• Project Leader: provides vision to the team on what they’re delivering and why.
• Core team: the team responsible for executing the work of the project.
• Stakeholders: anyone with insight, information, feedback, or vested interest in the project’s outcome.

Have the Project Sponsor, Project Leader, and Facilitator meet before the meeting to draft a preliminary Vision, Mission, and Mission Tests. The draft will later be reviewed and revised by the whole team when running the Play.

• Vision: the impact your team will have when the project is completed. What’s the bigger goal you’re trying to achieve?
• Mission: the team’s work in achieving the Product Vision. What is their role in making the project a reality?
• Mission tests: how do we know this project is successful? These tests indicate if our mission is on track and define progress towards completion.

For remote teams, create a collaboration document using one of the templates above if you’d like and share with the team in advance.

For in-person teams, bring your Vision, Mission, and Mission Tests to the session and post them where the team can see.

EXAMPLE: PREP CHECKLIST

See how one team preps for their Project Kickoff using a checklist to guide the conversation.

2. Set the stage 5 MIN

At the beginning of the meeting, ask the team to consider the following principles: 

• Collaboration: We’ll be working together to lay the groundwork for discovery. 
• Good enough: The goal of the session is to get enough information for a shared understanding, which we’ll continue refining as the project is underway. We’re not here to perfect anything. 
• Possibility: Everyone should begin the session with an open mind, allowing for the possibility of discovery and innovation.

3. A word from our sponsor 5 MIN

Have your Project Sponsor open the session by welcoming attendees and sharing a quick word about the project and how it fits in with the organization.

4. Break the ice 10 MIN

Encourage engagement and collaboration early on in the session by introducing a short icebreaker. 

Ask everyone to introduce themselves, explain their role on the project, and answer one icebreaker question.

See the Icebreakers Play for examples.

5. Share a purpose 60 MIN

This is the most important aspect of the Project Kickoff: sharing a purpose provides inspiration and meaning to the people involved in the project.

Start by sharing the initial Vision, Mission, and Mission Tests created by the Project Leader.

Then break attendees into three groups (if the team is remote and your video conferencing software has a breakout function, use it for this portion): team Vision, team Mission, and team Mission Tests.

Give each group 20 minutes to refine the initial statements.

At the end of 20 minutes, bring the group back together to present and discuss their newly-revised statements. Make any agreed-upon changes to them, then vote to formally accept them for the project. You can (and should) refine them later in the project as you uncover new information.

TIP: ROMAN VOTING

Try a Roman vote to align your team on the project purpose. 

Thumbs up = I accept 

Thumbs sideways = I’ll go along

Thumbs down = I have a concern

6. Close 5 MIN

Ask your Project Sponsor to close the meeting by providing feedback to the team on what they’ve developed in the session and by thanking participants for their attendance.

TIP: IT’S A START

The Project Kickoff Play is flexible and should be adapted to your team. See if there are other Plays you can run that would set the team and project up for success.

TIP: NOW FOR THE FUN PART

All work and no play makes a dull project team. Arrange a fun event shortly after the kickoff, like virtual games or a social outing.

Milestone review

In a separate session or at the end of the Play if there’s time, go through your project’s proposed timeline. Highlight any key milestones or deliverables. As the project progresses, revisit the timeline with the team to update it with your progress and re-estimate proposed dates.

Play around

Now that you’re ready to dig into your project, you can use a Jira project management template or Trello to set up a backlog of work needed to complete your project.

It might be a good time to set some Objectives and Key Results . Or if during your kickoff session, the team realized a decision needs to be made for an aspect of the project, try a DACI Decision-making Framework Play to determine next steps for solving it.

Add a pitch

After creating your Vision, Mission, and Mission Tests, add in an Elevator Pitch Play to neatly wrap them up into one statement of value.

Following the icebreaker, run a short Retrospective Play on what you’ve learned from past projects and how you will apply those lessons to this project.

Working Agreements

Determine a set of operational guidelines the core team agrees to in order to create an environment for the project’s success. Put it another way: How will we work together to get the job done? 

Follow the Working Agreements Play to set the groundwork for your team’s culture and behaviors. You’ll refine your Agreements as the project continues.

Roles & Responsibilities

After you agree on your project’s purpose, what are the individual roles on the project?

Run the Roles & Responsibilities Play to provide team members with clarity on how they will each contribute towards the project’s success. This Play also helps identify any gaps in skills or functions so you can address them early on in the project.

TIP: OPTIONAL ATTENDANCE

Not everyone needs to attend all parts of the kickoff. Keep any variations you add to just the core team.

Still have questions?

Start a conversation with other Atlassian Team Playbook users, get support, or provide feedback.

Explore other Plays

Project Poster

Focus your thinking, share ideas and updates, and define success.

Anticipate risks so you can solve for them while there’s still time.

Feature Kick-off

Build confidence in a feature’s value and explore the user journey.

From our team, to yours

Stay up-to-date on the latest Plays, tips, and tricks with our monthly newsletter.

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Project kickoff meeting agenda powerpoint presentation slides

Conduct a successful product launch meeting with the help of our content ready Project Kick-off Meeting Agenda PowerPoint Presentation Slides. The meeting for starting new project PowerPoint complete deck comprises of 23 slides including project description and scope, core team, project management team, responsibility assignment matrix, RACI- rapid, project management cycle, work breakdown structure, project cost estimate, project management Gantt chart, communication plan, work priority allocation, tracking plan etc. Additionally, all elements of given templates are fully customizable. This allows users to create a presentation very quickly. Furthermore, you can use the project agenda presentation deck to explain your understanding, methodology and to show the structure of your organization, milestones list, etc. Explain the project, its background, business needs and why it is important for stakeholders and company using this initial project agenda presentation deck. Download project management kick-off meeting PPT visuals to showcase project communication and reporting system. Generate intense faith with our Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Heighten the belief in your commitment to deliver.

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PowerPoint presentation slides

Presenting this set of slides with name - Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Powerpoint Presentation Slides. All slides are completely editable and professionally designed by our team of expert PowerPoint designers. The presentation content covers all areas of Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Powerpoint Presentation Slides and is extensively researched. This ready-to-use deck comprises visually stunning PowerPoint templates, icons, visual designs, data-driven charts and graphs and business diagrams. The deck consists of a total of twenty three slides. You can customize this presentation as per your branding needs. You can change the font size, font type, colors as per your requirement. Download the presentation, enter your content in the placeholders and present with confidence.

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Content of this Powerpoint Presentation

Slide 1 : This slide introduces Project Kick-off Meeting Agenda. State Your Company Name and begin. Slide 2 : This slide shows Table of Content of the presentation. Slide 3 : This slide presents Meeting Agenda as- Discuss Project Background, Identify Stakeholders, Review Project Objectives. Slide 4 : This slide represents Project Description including- Project Objective, Target Audience, Project Scope. Slide 5 : This slide displays Project Scope describing- Project Acceptance Criteria, Project Scope Description, Project Exclusions, Project Assumptions, Project Deliverables. Slide 6 : This is Core Team slide with names and designation. Slide 7 : This slide showcases Project Management Team covering all those people who would be responsible for project implementation. Slide 8 : This slide shows Responsibility Assignment Matrix - RACI describing the four types of association for a role to a task. Slide 9 : This is another slide continuing Responsibility Assignment Matrix – RACI. Slide 10 : This slide presents Responsibility Assignment Matrix - RAPID describing the five types of association for a role to a task. Slide 11 : This slide displays Project Management Cycle describing- Conceive, Develop, Execute, Finish. Slide 12 : This slide represents Work Breakdown Structure defining the Action Plan of Roles and Responsibilities as per the Tasks or Phases. Slide 13 : This slide showcases Project Cost Estimate to measure the productivity and the cost of projects, through out the project lifecycle. Slide 14 : This slide shows Project Management Gantt Chart covering the entire work plan of the project split across different months. Slide 15 : This slide presents Project Communication Plan in tabular form. You can change the data as per needs. Slide 16 : This slide displays Work Priority Allocation in tabular form for assigning project tasks with the scale of prioritization. Slide 17 : This is another slide for Work Priority Allocation with a milestone chart to manage the timescale of project activities. Slide 18 : This slide represents Project Tracking Plan with four common KPI objectives to keep a track of overdue tasks. Slide 19 : This is About us slide to show company specifications etc. Slide 20 : This is a Comparison slide to state comparison between commodities, entities etc. Slide 21 : This is a Bulb and Idea slide to state a new idea or highlight information, specifications etc. Slide 22 : This slide is titled as Post It. Post your important notes here. Slide 23 : This is a Thank you slide with address, contact numbers and email address.

Project kickoff meeting agenda powerpoint presentation slides with all 23 slides:

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• Meeting agendas |

Kickoff meeting template

The way you start a project sets the tone for things to come. Get everyone on the same page before you begin—learn how to create a kickoff meeting template in Asana.

Sign up to create your own template.

INTEGRATED FEATURES

Recommended apps.

But project kickoffs don’t have to be stressful. With a kickoff meeting template, you can follow a predefined set of steps and coordinate your meeting with ease.  

What is a project kickoff meeting template?

A project kickoff meeting template is a reusable guide that lays out all the steps you need to take to host a successful project kickoff meeting . When you have a template, you don’t have to worry about missing steps or leaving out key information. Instead, you can just copy the template and use it as a blueprint for each new kickoff. 

As a team lead, you can also use a kickoff meeting template to standardize the project kickoff process for your whole team. That way, you can help everyone follow the same process and ensure stakeholders always have the information they need for each new kickoff.  

The benefits of a digital project kickoff meeting template

Organizing a project kickoff meeting involves a lot of moving pieces. A digital template helps you track everything in real time as you coordinate with stakeholders and get everything ready for the big day. You can plan the meeting, share your agenda, assign action items , and take meeting notes all in one place. That means you don’t have to do any extra work, and your stakeholders have a one-stop shop where they can find all the information they need. 

With a digital project kickoff meeting template, you can:

Standardize the project kickoff process for your whole team.

Plan, execute, and follow up on your kickoff meeting in one central location.

Share meeting roles and agenda items without doing any extra work.

Assign owners to each discussion topic so it’s clear who’s responsible for what and how attendees should prepare.

Easily update meeting agenda items if priorities change. 

Add contextual information, documents, presentations, images, or videos to each task.

Assign presenters clear tasks with due dates so they can arrive prepared.

How to create a digital project kickoff meeting template

Your digital template should include all the details and steps required to host a successful kickoff meeting. This typically includes three types of information: 

Agenda items: What you’ll discuss and how long it will take. 

Meeting roles: Who is responsible for what during the meeting—like presenting and note-taking. 

Admin tasks: What you need to do before and after the meeting to make it go smoothly. This can include tasks like creating and sharing the meeting agenda, assigning action items, and sharing presentation decks. 

To start, create a separate section in your template for these three buckets. Picture your ideal kickoff meeting and use that idea to fill in each section. What standard agenda topics should every kickoff include? What steps should you complete before, during, and after the meeting to help stakeholders stay informed? What roles should stakeholders play during the meeting? Remember that you can always add tasks or make adjustments for each specific project later. 

To make things go smoothly in the future, you can standardize the role each team member plays during the meeting. For example, the project coordinator could be responsible for note-taking, while the project manager could be the default meeting facilitator. That way, you don’t have to waste time figuring out who should do what each time a new project rolls around. 

Integrated features

Custom fields . Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization.

Adding tasks to multiple projects . The nature of work is cross-functional. Teams need to be able to work effectively across departments. But if each department has their own filing system, work gets stalled and siloed. Asana makes it easy to track and manage tasks across multiple projects. This doesn't just reduce duplicative work and increase cross-team visibility. It also helps your team see tasks in context, view who’s working on what, and keep your team and tasks connected.

List View . List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

Start dates . Sometimes you don’t just need to track when a to-do is due—you also need to know when you should start working on it. Start times and dates give your team members a clear sense of how long each task should take to complete. Use start dates to set, track, and manage work to align your team's objectives and prevent dependencies from falling through the cracks.

Zoom . Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.

Dropbox . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.

Google Workplace . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

Jira . Create interactive, connected workflows between technical and business teams to increase visibility around the product development process in real time—all without leaving Asana. Streamline project collaboration and hand offs. Quickly create Jira issues from within Asana so that work passes seamlessly between business and technical teams at the right time.

How to use your project kickoff meeting template

Once you create your template, using it is simple. Here’s how: 

Make a copy of your project kickoff meeting template. 

Add or remove discussion topics, admin tasks, and meeting roles according to the needs of your specific project. 

Assign tasks and set due dates.

Collaborate with stakeholders directly within your digital template. Share agenda items, attach relevant documentation, assign follow-up action items, and more. 

Do I need a project kickoff meeting template?

If you host regular project kickoff meetings, a digital template can help save you time and stress. It provides a roadmap to follow, so you can confidently start on the right foot for your next project and every project after that. A template also helps the kickoff meeting itself go more smoothly, because the project team has real-time insight into each step that’s required.

Who should attend a project kickoff meeting?

Your project kickoff meeting should include your entire project team, anyone who needs to make decisions about your project, and any stakeholders who need to stay informed throughout the project lifecycle. Try creating a RACI chart to help narrow down attendees and determine who should be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed during the project. 

What type of project information should I share before the kickoff meeting?

The purpose of a kickoff meeting is to make sure stakeholders are aligned on your project plan. That means you should give an overview of your project goals and milestones, project timeline, project scope, project deliverables, and project roles. You also want to provide enough project background information so stakeholders understand why this work is important.

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Create a kickoff meeting template with Asana

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项目管理之kick off meeting

Kick off meeting 是项目管理非常重要的节点，但是很多人不重视kick off ，或者不知道如何开kick off meeting ,这是介绍一下kick off meeting需要注意的地方。

为何要开kick off meeting ？

Kick off meeting 一旦召开，就意味着项目开始进行，是项目正式启动的标识。但是很多PM只是简单的把kick off meeing 作为项目开始的标识，而不足够重要会议上要定义的开发计划及风险点等，导致项目中期delay甚至导致项目失败。

• Kick off Meeting前需要准备哪些：

1. 一份详细的产品规格书 ：在PM 接到项目开发的任务以后，要详细了解产品的详细规格，并生成一份详细的产品规格书，包含硬件规格，FW feature ,ID 设计等规格。此份规格书是作为后续研发的依据；这份规格书在会议之前要先给研发确认，在kick off 上针对规格做详细讨论；

2. 一份详细的Project schedule , 依据客户需求及实际开发时间，制定一份项目开发计划，这份计划也可以在会议前先发给研发或者在会议上讨论后更新计划；

3.如果公司是矩阵式管理，需要向各部门manager 申请研发测试工程师资源；提前成立team ,并通知到项目组每个成员，便于后续组内的沟通；

4.准备一份kick off PPT ，PPT 内容需要包含 Project Scope，product spec,project schedule .team members 介绍，risk 等重要内容；

• Kick off Meeting 正式开始：

1.作为项目经理，在会议开始给整个team 介绍各职能工程师，并收集成员联系信息，便于组内成员后续沟通.

2.会议开始后，向组内成员介绍项目的背景，比如客户是哪家？对产品的质量，成本及项目开发时间的要求等，同时介绍产品的详细规格，从硬件到软件 ，从ID 到机构。这个时候就进入互相讨论的阶段，因为研发工程师会针对规格提出自己的意见或建议，把这些建议收集起来，会请业务或者客户来澄清；

3.在讨论完产品规格后，之前指定的project schedule 要拿出来和各研发部门讨论，研发会对PM 制定的开发计划有疑问，大多数是认为schedule 太紧张；同时确定重要的Milestone给组员,规定每个重要 Milestone 的时间点；

4.最后一点也非常重要，对项目每个节点的风险进行评估及讨论，避免项目进行到一定程度才发现做不到，导致项目进行不下去；

• Kick off meeting结束后：把会议记录整理好，上面提到schedule/risk 等在会议记录里都要有纪录，Meeting minutes 发出后代表项目正式开始。

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2024 ULTIMATE Phase II Kickoff & Annual Review Meeting

March 27 - 28, 2024.

Epicurean Atlanta

Autograph Collection

Atlanta, GA

Agenda - March 27

Agenda - march 28.