How to run a project kick-off day

In this rebroadcast, Rebecca revisits the essential steps of running a successful project kick-off day, a crucial part of phase three in the design process.

Rebecca shares how this practice has transformed her implementation phase, ensuring smooth communication, clear client expectations, and organized project management. With actionable tips on preparation, handling changes, and maintaining consistency, this episode offers valuable insights for designers looking to streamline their processes and elevate their client experience.

In this episode, I walk you through exactly what we do the steps we follow, and how we handle Kick-off day. This is the very first step in our Phase 3 – implementation.

Kick-off day is a relatively new step we added into our Phase 3 because I found that we were solid in Phase 1 and Phase 2 but Phase 3 would always be a little more wishy-washy and sometimes fall off the rail regardless of how much we planned.

Episode highlights:

• Explanation of how the kick-off day fits into phase three (implementation) of the design process.
• Discussion on how the kick-off day prevents disorganization during the implementation phase.
• Steps to prepare for a successful kick-off day, including communication with clients and trades.
• The importance of setting clear expectations with clients and trades about what to expect during the kickoff.
• Strategies for handling changes, additions, and potential issues during the kickoff day.
• Emphasis on client communication, including weekly progress updates and setting clear expectations about the designer’s role during implementation.

Episode Resources:

• Learn more about Power of Process

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

Rebecca Hay: Hey, hey, hey, it’s Rebecca. And you are listening to Resilient by Design. Guys, today’s a little bit different. I thought it would be useful to walk you through exactly what we do, the steps we follow, and how we handle our kickoff day. Kickoff day is essentially the very first step inside of phase three for us, which is implementation.

It’s something that’s relatively new for us in the last year. I think because what I’ve found is that we used to be really strong in the first two phases of our process. By the end of phase two—presentation and revisions—clients were geared up, ready to go, excited for implementation. We’d collect all their money, and I would be like, “Okay, we’re going to get ordering, and we’ll talk to you soon when we’re ready for demolition, and we’ll meet on-site at some point.” It felt a little wishy-washy. We had been so strong in the first half of our process, but the second half kind of just fell off the rails a little bit. We were organized, but not the way we are now. So today, I’m going to walk you through exactly what we do to prepare for and run a very successful kickoff. Enjoy.

Okay, so what is kickoff day? Kickoff day is essentially one day—not usually, to be honest, a whole day; it’s usually a few hours—where we reconvene on-site with anyone who is relevant to the project. So typically, that would be, let’s say, a contractor. If we are doing a renovation, it could be the drapery installer, a plumber, an engineer—it could be anything, really. The point of the kickoff day, though, is to make sure we’re all on the same page. After the design has been fully signed off and decided, everything has been selected—from the fabrics to the tile to the floor plan, you name it. That is the day where we go through the home with the client and the plans to make sure we’re all still on the same page.

I’m going to walk you through specifically what we do to prepare for this day, what we do on the day, and some learnings and mistakes we’ve made along the way. As always, I love to share. I can tell you that kickoff day didn’t always exist. We used to start implementation guns blazing. We’d start placing orders, and the contractor would say, “Okay, let’s get rolling. We’ve got a scheduled demo.” And we were like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. When can you start? When can you start?” We hadn’t even finished placing the orders, and we were already starting demolition. Though this might seem wonderful to a client—things are rolling quickly—ultimately, it led to a lot of standstills because we hadn’t done that due diligence and planning to really set ourselves up for success. There was a lot of waiting on trades, and our materials were behind; they weren’t there yet. So now, what we do is tell our clients that once they have paid us their deposits for implementation, we start placing orders. Usually, it’s a couple of weeks, but not until we’ve placed all of the initial important key items do we even schedule kickoff. And kickoff is not the same thing as demolition. I want to be super clear on that because it used to get a little wishy-washy for us. We would say, “Okay, we’re going to kick off.” But the clients thought construction was starting, and they would have questions in an email. Then we’d get to the kickoff meeting, and the client would have this anticipation or expectation that the contractor was going to start. Of course, the contractor was just coming to reassess again with his trades, and then he was going to put together a schedule. It looked a little disorganized and wasn’t a great reflection of the level of service we had talked about offering.

So here is what we decided to do. We decided it was really important because so much time can lapse from trade day until you actually get rolling into that project management phase (or as we call it, implementation). We wanted to make sure we were all back on the same page. So once they’ve paid us, we say, “Give us a couple of weeks, and we are going to schedule a kickoff.” Then, we created documentation—SOPs or standard operating procedures internally—to ensure we treat it like a proper step in our process. This way, the clients have a clear expectation of what’s going to happen, and they understand that this is not construction; we are just making plans for the next phase.

What we do once the client has signed our contract for phase three and deposited their money is send them an email saying, “Thank you, we are very excited to get rolling. Our team will be in touch to schedule a kickoff day.” Then, once the team has connected with the client and scheduled a kickoff day with the relevant trades, it’s kind of like trade day 2.0, actually, if you think about it. Anyhow, once we’ve done that, we send them a “What to Expect” document. This is something I talk about in Power of Process. I’ve probably talked about it here many times. We like to send a PDF to our clients in addition to the email. It’s pretty, it’s branded, and it’s a “What to Expect” document. On kickoff, we send a “What to Expect” document with every single step of our process. The kickoff day “What to Expect” document says, “Congratulations, we are well on our way to implementing the design and transforming your home. Here’s what to expect next.” Yay. No, it doesn’t say “Yay.” That was just me throwing in my little two cents. Then we have a section titled “What to Expect.” I’m going to read it to you so you guys know exactly what it says. You can copy me if you want.

It says, “Our team will arrange a kickoff meeting on-site. This meeting includes Rebecca, the project lead, and any relevant trades, including you, the client. I think that part’s important because you want them to know who to expect and what to anticipate as far as the number of people that will be in their house. I like to let them know that, yes, I will be there because I’m not at every meeting anymore, and the project lead is a key component to making sure that their project goes well, and they need to have a good relationship with their project lead. In the past, it’s been a project manager. Now we have a senior designer. I mean, that’s kind of constantly changing, but we make sure to let them know who to expect.

Then it says, “The meeting is for the purposes of reviewing and confirming the project scope before ordering and construction begin.” Oh, so that’s interesting. I just corrected myself. I guess the kickoff happens right away before we place the orders, just to make sure we’ve got the right quantities for tile and all that jazz. Got it. Then we say, “In this meeting, we will review the drawing package, assess construction and furnishings timelines, and walk through the scope in detail space by space. We’ll set up the contractor with a lockbox and code with a key for access. If your project involves construction, kickoff is not the same as demo day.” We put this little note at the bottom: “The exact date for demolition will be determined after kickoff and product timelines are confirmed.” We just want to make sure it’s super-duper clear to our client that, yes, we’re coming with the contractor, and we’re going to get him set up with a key, but he is not actually starting his work on kickoff day.

Then I put a little section that says “Preparation” in a checklist format, basically describing how to prepare. It says, “This meeting is usually no more than two hours.” Again, I would change this descriptor depending on the size and scope of the project. Then I say, “Come with any questions you have about implementation. We also recommend you bring a notepad and pen if you want to write down things that come up in our meeting.” At the end, I put a little note that says, “The client must attend this meeting.” Unlike trade day, where we say you don’t have to be present, this is really important. We’ve learned this the hard way. We have done kickoffs where the client was not present. They’d say, “Oh, I’m at work. Do I really need to be there?” And, of course, we thought, “Well, not really. We know what we’re doing.” Then came the back-and-forth questions from the client: “What did the contractor think about that thing?” and “I forgot to tell you guys that we found this other thing.” There was so much information that needed to be covered that we now make it non-negotiable that the client is there for kickoff. They don’t have to be there for demo; they don’t really have to show up for any of our site meetings, but they do need to be there for kickoff. I want them to fully understand what is entailed: where the trash is going to be held, where the demo bin will be if there’s a bin, what access will be like. I want them to know and feel confident that we have a plan.

And I just say in this document, the last note on this “What to Expect” page, that the client must attend this meeting. This is to ensure we are all on the right track and are able to deliver the space without any surprises. That is a living, breathing document. As we do it, new things pop up, and so we add them and tweak it. But we do create a PDF, we do email it to the client so they have it, and I think it’s really important because this way they get a pretty clear sense of what’s happening. So that’s the first thing we do. We book it, and we send it to them.

Then we have a few things we do internally. We have a pre-kickoff day checklist. We have checklists for everything. And if you take Power of Process, you will learn that I like my checklists. It’s the only way I can ensure that everyone else in my organization is doing things in the order and manner that I expect. First of all, we have a demo and construction document. It’s not really a demo and construction document; it’s more like a “Working with Rebecca Hay” document for any new contractor and trades, if applicable. Essentially, this is just a reminder of our process for our trades: what it looks like working with us, who you can communicate with, the numbers to call, and what the expectations are regarding our role between them and the client. It’s really helpful to level-set.

We also send a reminder email. So once we’ve booked the kickoff, the design lead or project lead will send the client a reminder. Google Calendar has been our best friend with this. We used to just set up a meeting, and then the day before, we’d get the client emailing us to say, “Just checking in, is our meeting still happening?” Now, to eliminate that, we just create a Google Calendar event and invite our client. It’s in their calendar, and they can see all the people who are attending or not. You could just invite them and have a separate one for your trades if you want to keep the trades’ information private or secret or whatever, but I find that’s been really helpful.

Then we have a list of what you need to prepare as the design project lead. We always bring printed drawings and a scope of work, a printed copy of the kickoff day checklist (which I’ll walk you through in a minute), a printed copy of our COVID-19 protocols (I don’t know if we still need to do that, but that’s what we’ve been doing), and any required samples that need to be confirmed or viewed by the contractor, such as trim and molding samples. This is something we just added because we found that at kickoff, the contractor might ask, “What’s the baseboard you picked?” And of course, it’s specified in our package, but sometimes in residential construction, it’s just a lot more helpful to have physical samples. They might look at it and highlight something, like, “Oh, well, you really need a backband for this door trim because the baseboard is so thick that it’s going to stick out,” or what have you. So that’s been really helpful. We try to bring samples. We use these cute little— you can get them on Amazon—clear zippered pouches. We do them by room, or if it’s all the trim, we’ll have them all together. We bring those so that we can quickly grab samples; they stay clean and organized. But we have them in a bag, so when we bring them to the site, we can show whoever needs to see what’s going on.

It’s really helpful to have those on kickoff because oftentimes contractors don’t really know. Obviously, we bring our drawing package and show them the presentation. Eventually, we will put it into a binder when construction starts so they can just get a visual of what it’s supposed to look like. I think it’s helpful to communicate the vision. The more they understand the “why,” the easier it will be to work with them.

So that’s essentially our pre-kickoff day checklist. I hope I’m not forgetting anything. So we pack our bags, we’re ready to go, clients have their reminder, we can’t wait to see you tomorrow, looking forward to kickoff, all the trades have been reminded, and then it’s time for kickoff.

On kickoff day, we dress professionally, of course, and come with our best attitude. We always arrive early, and we make sure everybody knows where they can and cannot park. I don’t know where you live, but in the city of Toronto, a lot of neighborhoods only have street parking, and some neighborhoods have restricted street parking during the day. Making sure everybody understands where they can and cannot park is really important so that they don’t get a parking ticket and then try to invoice us for it. Yes, that has happened.

Okay, so here’s just a quick rundown of what happens on kickoff day. I’d love to know if this episode is helpful for you. Do you do kickoff day? I ask all the time, but can you tell me? Send me a DM on Instagram, or maybe make a post inside the Designer Meetup Facebook group. I’ll try to get better about asking those questions inside that group too because I think it’s a really great conversation. I’m sure there are some of you that do things a little bit differently, and we can all learn from each other.

So kickoff day—we arrive and walk through the project scope in detail with the contractor and the client. It’s important. The contractor has only sent a proposal. It’s probably been months since they were at that house, and maybe it’s sometimes a new contractor, or a new trade, because the trade we initially engaged is now busy on a project or on vacation or what have you. Then we review all the revised drawings, indicate any changes, and answer any questions. We then review the construction timeline with the contractor. We review the trim and molding samples (this is the new one we added) with the construction team so they understand what goes where. We talk about any red flags. For example, something might potentially be more money than they initially quoted. We have that conversation with our client then and there. We’d make a note of any change orders and what our procedure is for adding to the scope. It’s good to repeat this, even though it’s in the contract. We talk about it early and often.

If the client—because sometimes this happens on kickoff—adds things, believe it or not, we need to make sure it’s fine. We just had this on a project where the client said, “I’m not touching this bathroom. I just renovated it a couple of years ago; it’s fine.” But now that everything’s ripped up, she’s like, “Well, I’m thinking maybe we should just replace the tile.” We’re like, “Absolutely no problem. We are happy to take more money from you.” Now, I didn’t say that, but we said, “Okay, here’s the process.” The contractor is going to put together a proposal for this change of work, and then we will put together a proposal that will be billed hourly, so they understand they can add, but there is a cost associated with adding.

Then we talk about things like where the deliveries are to be stored. Is there a place on-site, in a garage, where we can have plumbing fixtures delivered? Are we housing things at our receiver? We like to plan out so the contractor knows where materials can go. When the hardwood arrives—because quite often, as you know, hardwood is delivered early so that it can acclimate to the environment—where is that going to be stored? Also, we establish access. Where will the lockbox be located? We try to bring one on that day if we can. If not, we’ll bring it for demolition, but it’s helpful to bring the lockbox. Ideally, we ask them for the key. If they don’t have it, we show them how to use a lockbox so they can add the key. We establish disposal. This is really important. Understand now where the bin is going to be. Is a bin required? Will they just come daily and take the garbage themselves?

We set the client expectations by letting the client know that our designer or project lead will visit one time a week. Now that’s the average. It could be more, it could be less. If there’s literally nothing going on, we’re at a standstill, we’re not going to show up for the sake of it, but we set that expectation that we’re not there every day ensuring the plumber arrives at 8 a.m. That’s not what they’ve hired us to do. We want to make that super clear so there’s no confusion later on.

We also like to talk about the deficiency process at this point. I know it’s really early to talk about something that’s coming at the end of your process, but we like to tell clients how every week when we’re there, we will identify any deficiencies or things that aren’t right with the contractor on a weekly basis. We don’t leave everything to the end. However, at the end, there will be an opportunity for us to make sure that the trades come back and fix anything outstanding. We let them know so they can rest assured and not panic as they go through the process and see things popping up. We like to let the clients know that we have an open line of communication. We will still send our weekly progress update emails on Thursdays. Sometimes you’ll get more emails from us if there are decisions that need to be made on-site.

There you have it. That is essentially kickoff day. In the past, I have done sweet little gestures for the clients because they have just paid us, usually tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point. I like to maybe bring a bouquet of flowers or something for them at their house just to say, “Hey, we’re excited that you trust us to bring your vision to life.”

That was a lot. That’s a lot of me talking. How do you guys feel about that? I think kickoff day can be a really powerful tool. Like anything else in your process, as long as you are educating your client early and often so that their expectations are set, everything will go more smoothly. This true step in our process is relatively new. We realized that as we were going through projects, there was some disconnect. The information wasn’t getting through perfectly—not perfect; okay, perfect doesn’t exist—but it wasn’t getting to our clients in a streamlined fashion, and there was a lot of room for improvement.

That’s the thing about process: regardless of whether you have a process or not, as you go through projects, you start to learn what is working and what isn’t. Knowing what isn’t working is really powerful because that’s when you can implement little tweaks and changes to improve your service offering.

If you guys want to know more about this and how I teach process, go check out rebeccahay.com/powerofprocess. We do have the course twice a year—more on that to come. But anyhow, I think it’s a really powerful tool to have checklists and set established meetings that keep everyone running through the project seamlessly.

Let me know if you liked that episode. Do you do something like this or not? I’ll see you soon.