How To Run A Project Kickoff (UX Framework)

Getting your team on the same page with Project Kickoffs.

5 min readJul 2, 2024

Introduction

So you’re starting on a new project and it’s looking messy. You asked yourself, “WTF is going on here?”.

Well, we’ve all been there.

Working on a new project should be exciting, but instead, we waste our time feeling anxious about the unknown. So often, it can feel like a project is off track before it even begins.

Questions start to pile up:

“What are we doing again?”
“Who’s responsible for what?”
“Why are we doing this? Have we thought about a plan B if this project falls through?”

Video on How I run Project Kickoff Workshop.

Fast forward to a month (or two!) later. You’ve underestimated the complexity of the projects and you are nowhere near to getting the answers that you need. You’re confused and your team is getting nervous.

Now, how do we untangle this mess?

By getting your team to be on the same page through Project Kickoff.

I’ve worked with some of the best teams at Google, AirAsia, Nike, and many smaller startups and the one thing they have in common is that they know how to set the course of a project from the beginning.

A good kickoff project should:

Bring together the team to create alignment
Share goals, forecast milestones, outline deliverables
Make unknowns known

What is the purpose of a project kickoff?

“Do I even really need one?” The answer is yes.

When teams are left to their own devices without a well-thought plan, meetings tend to run over and no one is clear on the agreed direction.

More often, there will be one or two people dominating the whole meeting, interrupting each other and everyone walks out feeling like the meeting was a waste of time.

A project kickoff can help mitigate these problems and your team can use this as an opportunity to align on major ideas, discuss potential pain points, decide on timelines, and more.

With that in mind, here is what my ideal project kickoff looks like:

Step 1 — Introduce kickoff

Tell the team why they are here. Explain the intent of the project.
Introduce yourself and add credibility.

“Hey, I’m Chris, a product design consultant, I’ll be leading today’s project kickoff as your facilitator. I’ve been designing experiences for SaaS products for the last 8+ years. I work with Startups & Fortune 500s companies like Google, Nike, and 21st Century Fox.”

Do a roundtable: Get to know each other and their roles in the project. You can also do some icebreaker activities.

Step 2 — Explain the project’s purpose

The most important thing to align on during this meeting is what you are working towards and why this work matters.

Use expert interviews to share the context of this project
Discuss long-term goals to set the tone of ‘why’
How the team would brainstorm to turn challenges into opportunities

Step 3 — Go into project details

Establish project roles and responsibilities. Solidify what’s involved in the project and the owner of each task.

Project scope
Customer journey map
Proto persona
Solution ideation
Effort vs impact matrix
Who’s doing what
Roles and responsibilities
Deliverables

Step 4 — Review progress and milestones

Define your team’s success metrics. It should include measurable outcomes that can serve as guidance for the team.

Step 5 — Decide tools and methods

Put together a set of collaboration tools that you’ll be using during the project and explain how you’ll be using them to communicate
Decide how you are going to work together
Examples of good project management tools are Trello, Notion, Basecamp, etc.
Slack is my preferred communication tool
Schedule weekly check-ins

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Step 6 — Call-out risks and issue management

Even with the best planning, sometimes unexpected things pop up on a project. Communicate with your team about how you want to identify and respond to issues together. Don’t forget to leave time for questions.

Step 7 — Summarise meeting

One of the most overlooked and important emails in any project is the follow-up. Send a summary to the project team and kickoff attendees with important documented decisions, action items, and owners.

Proof that project kickoff works

We all know that since Elon Musk took over Twitter he’s been locked in a “War Room”. This is an extended version of the Project Kickoff to really figure out what everything has to do with Twitter.

Key decisions were being made, everyone is aligned and know what they were responsible for. Yes, the richest man in the world uses this framework.

You should do the same!

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Hey 👋 I’m Chris, the Founder of UX Playbook.

Here’s more about me:

👨‍🏫 I’m a Ex-Head of Design, with 10 years of experience in tech, building products & teams

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