Project kickoff meeting agenda: eight things to settle

A kickoff exists to settle the eight questions that will otherwise be settled by argument in month three. Who decides, what done looks like, what is explicitly out of scope, what we are assuming, who is actually available, what the first checkpoint is, how bad news travels, and what would make us stop. Two of those — out of scope and what would make us stop — are the ones we most often see skipped, and the ones that cost the most when they are. The agenda below is ninety minutes and produces a document, not a feeling.

The agenda

Each item ends with something written down. If an item ends with nodding, it has not finished — go back and write the sentence.

[10 min] What done looks like

This project is finished when [observable thing is true]. Written as something a person outside the project could verify. "Improved onboarding" is not it. "A new customer reaches their first completed note without contacting support" is.

[10 min] Who decides

Decider: [one name]. Consulted: [names]. Informed: [names]. One decider. If two people genuinely share the decision, name which one breaks a tie, because a tie will happen and it will happen at the worst moment.

[15 min] Out of scope

We are explicitly not doing: [list]. This is the item people want to rush and the one worth the most. Every line here is an argument you are not going to have in month three, and the list is far more useful than the in-scope list, which is mostly obvious.

[10 min] Assumptions

We are assuming [x]. If it is false, [consequence]. Assumptions are the things nobody says because everyone believes them. The exercise of writing five down reliably finds one that two people in the room disagree about, which is the whole reason to do it.

[10 min] Who is actually available

[Name] — [days a week] — until [date] — also committed to [what]. Named allocation in days, not percentages, and including the other thing they are on. A plan built on notional availability fails on the first week somebody is needed elsewhere, and the plan never gets corrected.

[10 min] The first checkpoint

By [date, within three weeks] we will have [specific artifact] and we will review it on [date]. A first checkpoint close enough to be real is what keeps a project from drifting for a quarter before anyone looks.

[10 min] How bad news travels

If something slips, [who] tells [who] within [how long], by [channel]. Agree it while everything is fine. Nobody designs a good escalation path during the week they need one, and the default — tell nobody and hope — is the most expensive option available.

[15 min] What would make us stop

We would stop or substantially change this project if [condition]. The hardest item and the one most often missing. Naming a kill condition at the start is what allows a project to be stopped later without it being anybody’s failure, and projects that lack one tend to continue long past their usefulness.

Afterwards

Circulate the eight answers as one page within a day, with a correction window. That page is the kickoff. The meeting was only how you wrote it, and in six months it is the only part anyone will be able to use.

Questions

What should a project kickoff cover?

Eight things: what done looks like, who decides, what is out of scope, the assumptions, real availability, the first checkpoint, how bad news travels, and what would make you stop. Each ends with a written sentence.

How long should a kickoff meeting be?

About ninety minutes for a project of any size. Shorter kickoffs tend to skip out-of-scope and the kill condition, which are the two items that cause the most trouble when they are missing.

Who should attend a project kickoff?

The decider, the people doing the work, and anyone whose agreement you will need later. Someone who has to be consulted at month two but was not at the kickoff will reopen decisions you thought were closed.

What is the output of a kickoff?

A one-page document with the eight answers, circulated within a day with a correction window. If the output is a shared sense of purpose, the kickoff did not happen — it was a briefing.

Why does out-of-scope matter so much?

Because scope arguments in month three are expensive and personal, and they are almost always about something everybody assumed was excluded. Writing the exclusions down takes fifteen minutes and settles them before anyone is invested.

What is a kill condition?

A pre-agreed circumstance under which the project stops or changes substantially. It lets a project be stopped later as a decision rather than as a failure, which is the only way projects actually get stopped.

Who should run the kickoff?

Whoever will be accountable for delivery, not the most senior person attending. If those are different people, say out loud in the meeting which of them decides — the ambiguity will otherwise be resolved badly at the first disagreement.

What if the scope is not clear enough to kick off?

Hold a shorter session whose only output is a list of what you would need to know to hold the real one, and put a date on it. A kickoff run on unclear scope produces eight answers that all get reopened.

Kickoffs are dense: eight decisions in ninety minutes, and the person facilitating is usually also the person who has to write the record afterwards. That combination is where the detail goes missing, and the missing detail is generally an assumption or a scope exclusion — the two items that later turn out to matter most. Scriben is recording people know about. You say what the pen is and what it does, they agree, and then it stays out of the way for the rest of the conversation — that second half is the product, and it only works after the first. Recording law varies by jurisdiction and by profession: see recording people lawfully before you start.