The Project Files - The Kickoff Meeting That Skipped the Hard Questions

Project Management Insights · Jun 11, 2026 · 3m

Everyone left the kickoff feeling good. The objectives were broad, the timeline looked clean, and the stakeholders were aligned, or so it seemed. Six weeks later, three departments had three different ideas of what the project was supposed to deliver. This episode traces the confusion back to a kickoff meeting that covered the slides but avoided the real conversations. Listeners learn what a project charter should lock down before work begins, why assumptions need to be surfaced and documented, and what questions every kickoff meeting must answer.

Lesson: A kickoff meeting that does not…