Discuss: Kick Ass Kickoff Meetings
by Kevin M. Hoffman
- Editorial Comments
2 Thanks!
Appreciate the compliments, Macfawlty!
posted at 06:02 pm on August 3, 2010 by Kevin M. Hoffman
3 Great, great ideas
It took me a minute to get the illustration… Good one! :)
About the collaborative hands-on activities, great suggestion. We’re (probably) all adults here, but anyone who works with kids in group settings (or has them, I imagine) knows how great hands-on things can be in engaging individuals and building camaraderie. How outside-the-box brilliant, to tailor and apply those principles to the grown-up world, for the sake of productivity.
I’ve passed this article on to my team. Thanks for sharing!
posted at 01:57 pm on August 4, 2010 by estaples
4 I couldn't have said this better myself.
Fantastic article. Great tangible advice.
I try to get as much worked through with ever stake holder before even quoting on a project however this isn’t always possible. The “pre – kick off meeting” is a fantastic solution. I’ve sent this to all my staff for a good read. We will definitely be implementing this.
Nothing upsets me more than my time being wasted therefore I always keep my clients time in high regards.
Thanks for the great article.
posted at 02:08 pm on August 4, 2010 by Lucia Mancuso
5 Kids Do The Darned-est Things
Thank you for your point about how we teach children, Eddie! It is an excellent observation and coincidentally rather poignant.
My mother was an elementary school teacher for nearly 30 years, and we often spoke at length about the different ways in which different types of experiences (e.g. aural, tactile, gestural) supported understanding different concepts, and even different stages of development. Just because we “grow up” doesn’t mean we have to disengage other modes of experience.
Now if only I could figure out how to work a rock concert into some sort of exercise.
Lucia – nothing would please me more than to hear about how any of these ideas are having impact in your work. If you find any of these approaches have an interesting effect on your process, good or bad, please drop me a tweet so we can discuss.
posted at 06:18 pm on August 4, 2010 by Kevin M. Hoffman
6 The more people the better?
Does this not create the issue of “design by committie?
posted at 10:22 am on August 6, 2010 by sebgreen
7 Re Design by Committee
@sebgreen I think the key difference about the approaches Kevin has outlined and “design by committee” is that his include a knowledgeable facilitator to guide the project and let participants feed of off one another, while DbyC seems to result more from a lack of leadership and just getting a bunch of people talking, without necessarily engaging with one another in a thoughtful way.
posted at 01:37 pm on August 6, 2010 by PDM
8 Design by Committee
sebgreen – that’s a valid concern, but in addition to PDM’s point about making sure that these discussions are facilitated by a knowledgable design practitioner (thanks, PDM!), keep in mind that this is exploratory design, and not your first round deliverable.
After the collaborative work, you’ll go off and actually develop a design (wireframe, photoshop comp, html prototype — whatever your poison may be). That first attempt at a design may deviate significantly from what was developed in a kickoff sketch, but it is informed by those collaborations and the discussions that took place around them. And your client or partner will recognize their own contributions in your design, serving to minimize the sometimes adversarial tone of a first round design review.
posted at 12:41 pm on August 7, 2010 by Kevin M. Hoffman
9
Lovely post mate :) Meetings will surely be much more fun!
posted at 10:10 am on August 10, 2010 by Hosting John Alden
10 Great Stuff!
These hands-on activities remind me of the theatre games typically taught in improvisation classes. I wonder if some of the rules of improv would apply, such as:
Say “Yes – and”
Don’t block
Be specific
Commit
Make choices
Listen to your partner
Give information to your partner
etc.
There are a lot of “improv rules” out there. I stole the above from David Alger http://bit.ly/9joctL
posted at 01:06 pm on August 11, 2010 by rjmacadaeg
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1 Well written
Very comprehensive and thorough article. A lot of great ideas for even the most in-depth kick off meetings. Well done Kevin.
posted at 05:12 pm on August 3, 2010 by macfawlty