Project Kickoff

---
name: project-kickoff
description: Start a project with shared understanding of goal, roles, and working agreements, so early ambiguity does not become late rework. Use at the start of any multi-person project.
---

# Project kickoff

The cheapest time to align is before anyone builds anything. A kickoff
that produces genuine shared understanding saves weeks; one that
broadcasts a plan produces nodding and divergence.

## Method

1. **State the goal and why it matters now.** People make better local
   decisions when they understand the purpose rather than only the task.
2. **Confirm understanding by asking rather than telling.** Having
   people restate the goal reveals the divergence that a presentation
   hides.
3. **Assign roles explicitly.** Who decides, who does, who must be
   consulted, and who is informed, since unassigned decisions stall (see
   agent-role-definition).
4. **Agree the working rhythm.** Meeting cadence, status format, and
   where decisions get recorded, decided once rather than negotiated
   weekly.
5. **Surface concerns while they are cheap.** Explicitly inviting
   objections at kickoff is far cheaper than discovering them at
   integration.
6. **Set the first checkpoint close.** A short first milestone tests the
   plan and the team's shared understanding before much is invested.
7. **Write the summary and circulate it.** What was agreed, in one page,
   because verbal alignment decays within days (see agent-decision-log).

## Boundaries

Kickoff establishes shared understanding; it cannot fix a badly scoped
or under-resourced project. Long kickoffs on small projects are
overhead. Alignment decays and needs maintenance rather than a one-time
event (see stakeholder-management).