name: "Project Kickoff" description: "Discover requirements and route projects to the right team. Use when starting a new initiative."

Project Kickoff

Conduct discovery interviews and route projects to appropriate departments.

When to Use

• Starting a new product or feature
• User brings an idea or problem
• Unclear which team should own something
• Need to establish project parameters

Dependencies

• None - this is the entry point

Book Triggers

Reference: [[books/product-innovation.md]]

• Apply "Inspired" discovery interview techniques
• Use "Escaping the Build Trap" problem focus

Reference: [[books/leadership-management.md]]

• Apply "High Output Management" for routing decisions

Kickoff Process

Phase 1: Discovery Interview

Goal: Understand what we're building and why.

The Director of Product Strategy (or Co-founder) conducts the interview:

1. Open exploration

   • "What prompted this?"
   • "What problem are you trying to solve?"
   • "Who experiences this problem?"

2. Vision requirements (from vision.md)

   • Where we are (current state)
   • What the problem is
   • How painful it is
   • Where we want to go
   • Some alternatives
   • Constraints

3. Involvement preferences

   • "Which decisions do you want to make personally?"
   • "What can the team decide autonomously?"
   • "How do you want to be kept informed?"

4. Constraints and non-negotiables

   • Timeline
   • Budget/resources
   • Technical constraints
   • Business constraints

Phase 2: Department Routing

Based on discovery, determine which departments are needed:

Phase 3: Handoff

Create initial artifacts:

1. Vision document (invoke vision.md skill)
2. Project assignment to owning department
3. Communication preferences documented

Discovery Interview Template

# Kickoff: [Project Name]

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Interviewer:** [Who conducted]
**Stakeholder:** [Who was interviewed]

## Opening

**What prompted this?**
[Response]

**In your own words, what are we trying to do?**
[Response]

## Problem Discovery

**What problem does this solve?**
[Response]

**Who experiences this problem?**
[Response]

**How are they solving it today?**
[Response]

**How painful is this? (1-10)**
[Response with explanation]

**What happens if we don't address this?**
[Response]

## Success Discovery

**What would success look like?**
[Response]

**How would we measure success?**
[Response]

**What would make this a failure?**
[Response]

## Constraint Discovery

**What can't change?**
[Response]

**When does this need to be done?**
[Response]

**What resources are available?**
[Response]

**What other projects compete for these resources?**
[Response]

## Involvement Preferences

**Which decisions do you want to make personally?**
[Response]

**What can the team decide without you?**
[Response]

**How do you want to be kept informed?**
[Response]

## Additional Notes

[Anything else that came up]

---

## Routing Decision

**Primary Owner:** [Department/Role]
**Supporting Teams:** [List]
**Rationale:** [Why this routing]

## Next Steps

- [ ] Create vision document
- [ ] Schedule kickoff with owning team
- [ ] [Other follow-up actions]

Routing Guidelines

Route to Product

• New user-facing features
• Product strategy questions
• Market/competitive concerns
• User experience issues

Route to Engineering

• Technical architecture decisions
• Infrastructure improvements
• Performance/security concerns
• Developer experience

Route to Marketing

• Go-to-market strategy
• Brand/messaging
• Growth initiatives
• Customer communication

Route to Board

• Major strategic pivots
• Large resource commitments
• Company-level direction
• Risk assessment for big bets

Post-Kickoff Flow

Kickoff Interview
       |
       v
Vision Document Created (vision.md)
       |
       v
Route to Department
       |
       +---> Product: Continue to brainstorm/PRD
       |
       +---> Engineering: Technical discovery
       |
       +---> Marketing: Market research
       |
       +---> Board: Strategic discussion

Quality Checklist

• All vision requirements captured
• Pain level quantified
• Success criteria identified
• Constraints documented
• Involvement preferences clear
• Routing decision made with rationale
• Next steps assigned

Integration

With vision.md

• Kickoff produces inputs for vision
• Vision skill structures the outputs

With product-development-flow.md

• Kickoff is the entry point
• Routes to appropriate stage

With facilitator.md

• For projects needing multi-department input
• Facilitator coordinates cross-functional kickoff

Anti-Patterns

• Skipping discovery - Don't assume you know the problem
• Solution-first - Start with problem, not solution
• Missing constraints - Constraints shape everything
• Unclear ownership - Every project needs one owner
• No involvement preferences - Ask, don't assume
• Routing by habit - Match project to right team