Module 7 of 12 · Async + Virtual · 1.5 hours
Project Kickoff
Module 7 resources. Start with the video. Keep the quick reference open during the work.
Module 7 throughline: Grace runs 2 kickoff meetings. The internal one creates alignment, the external one creates confidence, and the Project Manager owns both.Module Videos
Two videos, watched in order. Video 1 covers everything that happens before either meeting: the readiness sentence, the agenda, who belongs in each room, and the Experience Points. Video 2 runs the internal and the external kickoff, then closes them. Watch these first.
Available Open →Module Overview
Why most kickoffs review information when the client came for confidence, the readiness sentence, the agenda clock, the 2 rooms, Experience Points, and the 6 moves in each meeting. One read, about 10 minutes.
Available Open →Quick Reference Guide
The job aid. Print it. 7 things to do, 7 to watch out for, 7 to avoid, the ground rules card, and the 24 hour close. Diagrams for the kickoff sequence, the 3, 2, 1 agenda clock and the 3 beliefs.
Available Open →What you will be able to do
- ✓Write the project’s success in one sentence your client would agree with, and use it to test whether the project is ready for a kickoff at all.
- ✓Build a kickoff agenda that names a decision and an owner on every line, on the 3, 2, 1 clock. Draft, solicit, refine, assign, distribute.
- ✓Staff the internal room and the external room on purpose, and hold every name on both lists to a test.
- ✓Design Experience Points that trace to something your client actually said, and put them on the agenda before anything else.
- ✓Lead both meetings, then close them with the Decision Log the same day and a written recap inside 24 hours.
Tools & resources
Tools & resources you will use
- Kickoff Meeting agenda (starting point, edited by the PM)
- Consultant deliverables and responsibilities document
- Kickoff Brief (Participant generated)
- One page Communication Plan (carried in from Module 6)
Listed items are the governance and operational tools tied to this section. Items marked “Participant generated” are built during the work.
The Archetype Lens
A warm kickoff can hide an unaligned project.
The People Pleaser reads harmony as alignment. The Accountable Owner uses kickoff to surface what is still unsaid.
Competent Coordinator
Logs and documents instead of intervening. Trusts the meeting cadence over the timely call.
Obsessed Designer
Optimizes for the design. Treats budget, client ops, and team load as someone else’s problem.
People Pleaser
Leads with relationship. Says yes, softens bad news, absorbs cost to dodge the hard conversation.
Accountable Owner
Owns the intersections. Reads signals early, stops work, presents options, protects the outcome.
Kickoff feels great. Nobody raises the hard constraints.
Takes the calm as consensus and leaves expectations soft.
Confirms scope, decision rights, and the uncomfortable constraints out loud. Treats kickoff as confirmation.
Meet the four archetypes in depth →