Kickoff meeting template

The way you start a project sets the tone for things to come. Get everyone on the same page before you begin—learn how to create a kickoff meeting template in Asana.

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When you start a project, you want everyone to be on the same page. A project kickoff meeting helps you align on key details and get buy-in from your whole team before work starts. It’s an essential part of the project lifecycle, but hosting a successful kickoff can be tricky. There are a lot of moving pieces to consider—like creating an agenda, sharing notes, and coordinating presenters.

But project kickoffs don’t have to be stressful. With a kickoff meeting template, you can follow a predefined set of steps and coordinate your meeting with ease.

What is a project kickoff meeting template?

A project kickoff meeting template is a reusable guide that lays out all the steps you need to take to host a successful project kickoff meeting. When you have a template, you don’t have to worry about missing steps or leaving out key information. Instead, you can just copy the template and use it as a blueprint for each new kickoff.

As a team lead, you can also use a kickoff meeting template to standardize the project kickoff process for your whole team. That way, you can help everyone follow the same process and ensure stakeholders always have the information they need for each new kickoff.

The benefits of a digital project kickoff meeting template

Organizing a project kickoff meeting involves a lot of moving pieces. A digital template helps you track everything in real time as you coordinate with stakeholders and get everything ready for the big day. You can plan the meeting, share your agenda, assign action items, and take meeting notes all in one place. That means you don’t have to do any extra work, and your stakeholders have a one-stop shop where they can find all the information they need.

With a digital project kickoff meeting template, you can:

• Standardize the project kickoff process for your whole team.
• Plan, execute, and follow up on your kickoff meeting in one central location.
• Share meeting roles and agenda items without doing any extra work.
• Assign owners to each discussion topic so it’s clear who’s responsible for what and how attendees should prepare.
• Easily update meeting agenda items if priorities change.
• Add contextual information, documents, presentations, images, or videos to each task.
• Assign presenters clear tasks with due dates so they can arrive prepared.

How to create a digital project kickoff meeting template

Your digital template should include all the details and steps required to host a successful kickoff meeting. This typically includes three types of information:

• Agenda items: What you’ll discuss and how long it will take.
• Meeting roles: Who is responsible for what during the meeting—like presenting and note-taking.
• Admin tasks: What you need to do before and after the meeting to make it go smoothly. This can include tasks like creating and sharing the meeting agenda, assigning action items, and sharing presentation decks.

To start, create a separate section in your template for these three buckets. Picture your ideal kickoff meeting and use that idea to fill in each section. What standard agenda topics should every kickoff include? What steps should you complete before, during, and after the meeting to help stakeholders stay informed? What roles should stakeholders play during the meeting? Remember that you can always add tasks or make adjustments for each specific project later.

To make things go smoothly in the future, you can standardize the role each team member plays during the meeting. For example, the project coordinator could be responsible for note-taking, while the project manager could be the default meeting facilitator. That way, you don’t have to waste time figuring out who should do what each time a new project rolls around.

Integrated features

• Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization.
• Adding tasks to multiple projects. The nature of work is cross-functional. Teams need to be able to work effectively across departments. But if each department has their own filing system, work gets stalled and siloed. Asana makes it easy to track and manage tasks across multiple projects. This doesn't just reduce duplicative work and increase cross-team visibility. It also helps your team see tasks in context, view who’s working on what, and keep your team and tasks connected.
• List View. List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.
• Start dates. Sometimes you don’t just need to track when a to-do is due—you also need to know when you should start working on it. Start times and dates give your team members a clear sense of how long each task should take to complete. Use start dates to set, track, and manage work to align your team's objectives and prevent dependencies from falling through the cracks.

Recommended apps

• Zoom. Asana and Zoom are partnering up to help teams have more purposeful and focused meetings. The Zoom + Asana integration makes it easy to prepare for meetings, hold actionable conversations, and access information once the call is over. Meetings begin in Asana, where shared meeting agendas provide visibility and context about what will be discussed. During the meeting, team members can quickly create tasks within Zoom, so details and action items don’t get lost. And once the meeting is over, the Zoom + Asana integration pulls meeting transcripts and recordings into Asana, so all collaborators and stakeholders can review the meeting as needed.
• Dropbox. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.
• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.
• Jira. Create interactive, connected workflows between technical and business teams to increase visibility around the product development process in real time—all without leaving Asana. Streamline project collaboration and hand offs. Quickly create Jira issues from within Asana so that work passes seamlessly between business and technical teams at the right time.

How to use your project kickoff meeting template

Once you create your template, using it is simple. Here’s how:

1. Make a copy of your project kickoff meeting template.
2. Add or remove discussion topics, admin tasks, and meeting roles according to the needs of your specific project.
3. Assign tasks and set due dates.
4. Collaborate with stakeholders directly within your digital template. Share agenda items, attach relevant documentation, assign follow-up action items, and more.

FAQs

Do I need a project kickoff meeting template?

If you host regular project kickoff meetings, a digital template can help save you time and stress. It provides a roadmap to follow, so you can confidently start on the right foot for your next project and every project after that. A template also helps the kickoff meeting itself go more smoothly, because the project team has real-time insight into each step that’s required.

Who should attend a project kickoff meeting?

Your project kickoff meeting should include your entire project team, anyone who needs to make decisions about your project, and any stakeholders who need to stay informed throughout the project lifecycle. Try creating a RACI chart to help narrow down attendees and determine who should be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed during the project.

What type of project information should I share before the kickoff meeting?

The purpose of a kickoff meeting is to make sure stakeholders are aligned on your project plan. That means you should give an overview of your project goals and milestones, project timeline, project scope, project deliverables, and project roles. You also want to provide enough project background information so stakeholders understand why this work is important.