Alignment with Project Sponsor

1. Purpose

Once the Project Charter "Exploration" has been drafted together with the Project Sponsor, the Innovation Manager and the Team Manager, meet the sponsor again before the project kicks off. Use this meeting to finalise the charter, clarify open questions about the team and the project, and align expectations.

This is also where the scope of the exploration project gets confirmed. Six weeks are fixed, so breadth is paid for with depth — name that trade-off out loud and have the sponsor agree to one of the three scopes described in Exploring Playgrounds. A sponsor who expects a customer study and four other research areas from the same six weeks will otherwise be disappointed at the end, and the team will take the blame for it.

The setup meeting has the following agenda:

1. Discuss the Project Charter "Exploration" — motivation, focus and scope, team.

2. Agree how the Team Members will be relieved of their daily tasks for the duration of the project, so they can devote the necessary time to it.

3. Optional: Recap the procedure for qualitative interviews, if applicable. Make sure the sponsor knows the team will be contacting and talking to customers and non-customers, and that they discuss this with the sales team themselves before the project starts.

4. Collect the operational and strategic background on the project.

5. Align the expectations of sponsor and Team Manager — including what the exploration will not deliver at the agreed scope.

6. Plan the sponsor's motivational speech at the beginning of the Kick-off Workshop.

7. As an experienced coach, you can often see trouble coming — a research focus that is too broad, for example. Name it and share your assessment with the sponsor.

The Team Manager documents the outcomes by sending a short email to the coach and the sponsor right after the meeting.

2. Duration

60 minutes

3. Participants

• Team Manager

• Project Sponsor

• Team Coach