Introducing a project to a team

[Jessica_Moszkowicz]

I've been reading through the Project Kick-off Meeting Play.  I really like most of the things in there, but I feel like a step is missing, at least for our organization.  At my company, there is usually a program manager, a senior technology person, and the president or CEO involved in bringing a new project in, writing the statement of work, and figuring out who needs to work on the project from the rest of the company.  So, the kick-off meeting might be the first time many of the team members are even hearing about the project.  I like the idea of everyone proposing a vision statement/elevator pitch at the start of the kick-off meeting, but a lot of the team members won't be able to do that since they know next to nothing about the project.  How and when do you introduce a project to the rest of the team?

[Bernie Ferguson]

Hi Jessica,

Thanks for taking some time to check out the Project Kick-off play, it's one of the most flexible plays in the Team Playbook. You can pick and choose different elements within the play to build out an awesome kick-off agenda.

Often project leaders will share Confluence pages with as much informaiton on the project in advance of the kick-off so that the team can come intrigued and prepared with questions.

If you find that your projects are set and agreed in the vision by the time of the kick-off, update that section of the agenda so that the project sponsor can articulate the vision and then facilitate a group discussion on the project vision.

It's super critical at this stage of the project that the whole team have a shared understanding on the project's "why".

Then you can jump into the remainder of the agenda to build clarity around "what" you're going to deliver and "how".

As the play is super flexible, play* around with it and see how you go. Try it out on one project and then tweak for subsequent projects until you get the mix right.

*Pardon the pun

Give it a go and let us know how you go, we'd l;ove your feedback :)

Cheers,
Bernie Ferguson
Program Manager - Atlassian Team Playbook