Hey Brad I’ve been assigned to a new team which is about to start a new project and have been invited to something called a Launch Meeting; what the heck is that?

A Launch or Kick-Off Meeting is the first meeting you should have when forming a new team to start a new project. The idea is to allow all parties (chickens and pigs) to meet ideally face-to-face in order to get to know one another on a personal level (which is why I like to think of this type of meeting as a Launch Party) and outline the purpose, goals and expectation of the project they are all about to collectively embark on.

This gives the team a chance to get comfortable with each other before the start of the project. Its like stretching before a race, when the project starts we want to already be warmed up and ready to move when the starter pistol fires.

A good Launch Meeting:

• clarifies who belongs to the team (who are Chickens and who are Pigs)
• is where the team collectively develops and agree upon the initial Team Charter (remember the team charter will grow and adapt throughout the life span of the team but the Launch Meeting is a good time to draft the initial charter in which to move into sprint number one with, it doesn’t have to be complete just a starting point.).
• ensures that everyone understands and agrees on the project goal and deliverable.
• is where the team develops goals for themselves. Where a project goal might be making a projected launch date or deliver certain functionality by a given trade show, team goals are more directed towards helping the team reach a higher level of performance/quality. These could be things like converting all the existing Legacy Code into Modern Code by putting it under test or (once the teams velocity is known) reaching a cretin set velocity that pushes the team to higher levels of performance.
• reiterates how the team’s goals fit with the organizations objectives.
• clarifies the resources available to the team.
• describes the team incentives – what will the team members receive if their team goals are met or exceeded (depending on your organization/project incentives might mean bonuses or it might mean a pizza lunch; something that the team can hang their hat on and say they earned this (your salary is an expectation not an incentive)).
• enables participants to introduce themselves. Different team members have different backgrounds; getting to know team members on a personal level improves the teams ability to communicate efficiently.

The best launch meetings leave people with a clear sense of direction and strong feelings of commitment to the project.

So that is what the heck a Launch Meeting is. The first meeting held at the start of a project where team members get to meet for the first time (in the context of the project in question). The stretching/warm-up before the project.

Until next time think imaginatively and design creatively