Aligning Expectations During Project Kickoff Meetings

Your project kickoff call isn't just a formality It sets the tone for your whole project. Too many PMs treat the kickoff call as a checked box. Quick introductions. Vague timelines/next steps. "We're excited to work with you." Then they wonder why alignment unravels two weeks later. The truth is, your kickoff call is one of the most high-leverage moments in your project. It's your chance to: ✅ Set expectations Who owns what? How do decisions get made? What's in vs out of scope? Make it painfully clear NOW, not midway through. ✅ Establish communication norms Weekly sync-ups? Email? IM? Decision logs? Align on how you're going to communicate and when early or you'll deal with chaos quickly. ✅ Spot misalignment early If goals or success metrics don't match, you'll hear it in the kickoff. But you have to be listening for it. Grab that confusion and pull on it until you get more information. Then facilitate shared understanding and align appropriate messaging. A kickoff isn't just a meeting, it's your project's foundation. If it's rushed or unclear, your project will follow suit. Set the tone. Own the room. Start strong. PS: what's something you ALWAYS include in your kickoff calls? 🤙

How I Set Expectations So Things Don’t Slip as a Program Manager at Amazon Most deadlines don’t get missed because people are lazy. They get missed because expectations were unclear. At Amazon, alignment isn’t optional…it’s how we move fast without creating confusion. Here’s how I set expectations early…and keep things from slipping: 1/ I write down what “done” actually looks like ↳ Not just “finish the doc” ↳ But “complete draft with metrics, reviewed by 2 teams, and shared by Friday” Example: I once asked an SDE to finalize “the dashboard,” but they thought I meant visuals…I needed filters too. Now I write detailed definitions of done. 2/ I repeat timelines in writing ↳ Verbally aligned = easily forgotten ↳ Written timelines = shared truth Example: After any kickoff, I send a recap that includes the key milestones, owners, and due dates. If it’s not written, it’s not real. 3/ I ask people to confirm in their own words ↳ “Can you recap what you’re owning?” ↳ It surfaces misalignment early Example: I had someone say “Sure, I’ll get it done” but when I asked them to repeat the task, they described something completely different. Easy fix…because we caught it fast. 4/ I set check-in points…not just a final deadline ↳ Midpoints help course-correct ↳ It’s easier to fix week 1 than week 4 Example: For a 4-week launch, I add 2 mid-checks: one for progress, one for review. That’s saved me from last-minute fire drills. 5/ I clarify escalation paths up front ↳ “If you hit a blocker, who do you ping?” ↳ Removes friction when things go sideways Example: We once hit a resource crunch mid-project…because no one knew who could approve temp help. Now I list “go-to” escalation contacts in every kickoff doc. You don’t need to micromanage. You just need to make expectations unmistakable. How do you set clarity from day one?

Here's my favorite Q to ask at the start of the engagement (the answer is WILDLY different every time): "Imagine we're 6 months from now and we just wrapped the engagement and we're all out to dinner celebrating… What does a win look like? What do we need to accomplish that is enough to get you dancing in the streets celebrating?" This question is one I've learned to ask... because sometimes my version of a win isn't the same as the clients. And in asking it, we've transformed the way we work in our client engagements. - For one client, a win is incremental gross contribution profit in January and February this year. But it's because we're building the systems for a business for whom marketing has been an afterthought. Our ability to show how relevant marketing is and how it can support sales is huge for them - even with a small 2 million in growth. - For another client, we increased their gross contribution profit to $7 million with initiatives that we've been doing over the last 4 months. In this case, 'a win' is putting meaningful direct revenue on the board. - And for some clients, a win at the end of this project is only about 25 conversions. Because those conversions are valuable - what matters is that there is a proof of concept to understand if there is a DTC strategy for their traditionally non-DTC business. The minute that we find that we're out of alignment, either from your expectations about what a win looks like or our ability to hit it.. that's when things go wrong. Here's exactly how we ensure this alignment from the start: 1. In our kickoff calls, we ask them, "what does a win look like for you? What do you want out of this engagement?" This becomes a critical piece of our discovery process. 2. In our pre-work, we try and validate very quickly, how, what would it take, what would have to be true to hit those goals of the win. 3. We then go back to the board to assess how realistic it is hitting these goals and what it would take so we can set proper expectations from the beginning. Remember, the most successful engagements always start by defining success on your client's terms.