PM ExcellenceA recap of the September 3 call, for anyone who could not attend.
A recap of the seventh live discussion. The hour ran as an open forum on kickoff: what the room already does, how to right size it, and how to keep a client meeting on track. This summary carries the substance of the full call.
Meeting RecordingFull September 3 discussion · about 1 hourWhere the Room Started
The survey showed very different kickoff habits across the cohort, so most of the hour ran as an open forum. It opened on 6 takeaways from the feedback. Most of them pointed at one idea: the team earns the client’s confidence by agreeing internally first.
It’s the first chance to show the client they picked the right team, that you understand them, and that you have a plan for their goals. Introductions and favorite colors don’t do that.
Schedule pressure makes it feel optional, and the team goes straight into the work.
Clients hire Grace expecting the team to arrive with a plan. Opening with “What would you like to talk about?” hands the job back to them.
The survey named it as a way to set Grace apart. The team cares about the client’s success and says so.
What the Room Already Does
The floor opened with one question. What do you do today to get the whole team on the same page before you meet the client? The answers all came from live work.
Grace keeps a kickoff agenda on MILO. Some clients bring their own. If you know a topic needs discussion and the template doesn’t list it, add it. You’re the person moving the project to the finish, so the template doesn’t set the limits of the meeting.
Right Size It
The feedback asked whether all this fits a small project. The room’s answer: keep the intent and shrink the time. A client may have waited 15 years for a small renovation. A 30 minute meeting can carry the same seriousness as a 2 hour one.
The room named scope, schedule, and budget first. The session added 4 topics that belong in every kickoff, whether the fee is $45,000 or $1,000,000.
One participant with more than 20 years at 3 offices had never seen a structured, owner facing kickoff. The answers still came together, in pieces: a consultant call on file versions, deliverables, title blocks, and the QC process, then a 5 minute call here and a 20 minute meeting there.
An informal process works if it gets every answer. Under a master services agreement, a periodic big picture meeting with the client covers many projects at once.
Be more deliberate. The fewer answers the firm already holds, the more structure the start of the project needs.
A deliberate meeting is one way to do it. A looser process also works if it gets all the answers. The problem is an informal process combined with open questions.
The Business Rules
After scope, schedule, and budget, one participant added where to send invoices, and meant it. Several hands went up in agreement.
Especially with public clients. An invoice with the wrong recipient or PO number sits unpaid for a month or more. Consultants also hear at the kickoff that they get paid after Grace does.
The people who receive the proposal and the contract can answer it. The room landed on this rule: before the kickoff if possible, and no later than the kickoff.
One AE firm brings a sample invoice to every kickoff and asks what on it would slow payment: project number, PO number, recipient, format. It does the same for agendas and standard forms.
That makes 3 conversations at the start of a project.
With a repeat client, you know the problems that usually come up, so address them first. With a new client, ask. A kickoff should produce something that could only exist because the meeting happened. Reading the contract together doesn’t count.
Consultants
Consultants don’t work for Grace, but the owner sees one team. The room offered 4 responses, from light to heavy.
Keeping It On Track
It’s the client’s project, so some deference is right. It’s also your job to make the meeting do what it’s for. If the client learns at the kickoff that the agenda is optional, every meeting after it runs the same way.
The client can cancel it, and it spends fee on a repeat meeting.
Most people come back to the topic once they hear it.
Tell the client the point matters, record it, and cover it at the end or put it first on the next agenda.
Say at the start how you’ll handle off topic points. Redirecting is easier when the room has already agreed to it. One team kept a parking lot box on a shared digital whiteboard and added a sticky note while the client talked. After a while, the client started calling their own parking lot topics.
Starting the Change Conversation
The kickoff mood is positive, so risk talk can feel out of place. A short table on the agenda starts it with no pressure. The key is the last column: what happens to the project if the risk comes true.
Existing conditions match the survey and the as built drawings.
New work appears that the scope doesn’t cover.
This is a scope change. Here’s how we’ll track it, and when we’ll check it again.
The table does 2 things. The client can pull any item into the discussion. Items you don’t discuss are still on the record.
How to say it depends on the client. A small school district with a superintendent running the project may not know what a scope gap or an additional service is, so explain the unknown and what it can change. A facilities manager needs one line: “You don’t have a geotech report yet, so we’re designing on assumptions.” They know right away it’s an additional service.
Take It With You
The room asked how to scale the kickoff and what to put on the agenda. The module’s pages cover both, and both are open now.
The tools
The Module Overview walks through the whole kickoff in one read. The Quick Reference Guide is the one page job aid to print and keep beside the agenda.
What they cover
The Takeaway
Right size the process for the project and the client, and keep those 2 outcomes fixed.