Preparation of Project Team
Before the kick-off, a team is still just a list of names. Use the weeks in between to settle training, time and expectations — so none of it lands in the workshop.
Danny Locher
Business Design Coach
Content
1. Purpose
Once the Project Charter "Sprint" has been agreed with the Project Sponsor and the Team Manager (see Alignment with Project Sponsor), the team exists on paper. Preparing it is the second half of Step 1: Setup. Don't let the Kick-off Workshop be the moment a team member first learns what a sprint demands of them — on that day nothing about it can be changed any more.
The preparation session is the first time the team works together. It settles the practical side — training, time, infrastructure and homework — so that the kick-off workshop can be about the project instead of about logistics. The project sponsor is deliberately not in the room. The team needs one occasion to ask the awkward questions — "why me?", "what happens if we find nothing?" — without an executive listening.
The preparation session has the following agenda:
Check the training status of everyone involved. Team Members and the team manager attend a Business Design training before they walk into the kick-off workshop. If a seat is missing, book it now — that is what these weeks are for.
Settle the time commitment: 1.5 to 2.5 days a week over ten weeks. Open the calendar together and name what gets cancelled. Most teams free the time by cutting half of their recurring meetings, with no negative effect on anybody.
Say what the team will do with customers. In Step 2: Discover they contact and talk to customers and non-customers; in Step 4: Validate they put real offers in front of real people. For some this is unusual, and occasionally uncomfortable. Better they hear it now than in week three.
Agree the working infrastructure: instant messaging, shared file storage, video conferencing and the project workspace. Everyone has access before the kick-off workshop, not on the morning of it.
Hand out the homework for the Kick-off Workshop: familiarising yourself with the project context, preparing access to experts, potential customers, reports and databases, and freeing the calendar for the full day.
Put every date from the charter into every calendar — workshops, Weekly Status Calls and the milestones the sponsor has committed to.
Keep in mind
Every team manager and team member is supposed to complete an intense two-day Business Design training before the project starts. This preparation meeting is not a substitute for it. Someone who meets the method for the first time in the kick-off workshop spends the first three weeks catching up — and the rest of the team waits.
The Team Coach keeps a short list of what is still open — a missing training, an unresolved time conflict, a member who has not confirmed — and hands it to the team manager before the kick-off workshop. Whatever is unresolved on the day stays the team's problem for ten weeks.
2. Duration
Meeting: 90 min. / 1:1 calls: 30 min each
Keep in mind
One session or 1:1 calls? The preparation doesn't have to be one meeting. You can also run it as a 1:1 call with each member of the team individually. Both work, and both come at a price.
Team session: the team meets for the first time before the kick-off workshop, and everyone hears the same message on training, time and customer contact. One person's question answers three others. The price: the quiet ones keep their doubts to themselves, and finding two hours that suit everyone takes time.
1:1 calls: each person can raise what they would never say in front of the group — a line manager who won't release them, a fear of calling strangers. Short calls also fit into any calendar. The price: the team walks into the kick-off workshop as strangers, you give the same briefing five times, and each member hears a slightly different version of it.
Rule of thumb: go for the team session when the members barely know each other, and for 1:1 calls when calendars are impossible or you expect personal concerns.