Regardless of whether you’re holding a kickoff meeting because it’s the first paid milestone of your SBIR contract or it’s the first formal meeting of a different kind of contract, the purpose is the same. The kickoff gets all involved parties on the same page including what to expect over the duration of the contract period.

If you’re accomplishing a kickoff for a SBIR, your focus is likely on getting the slides turned in and the meeting completed as soon as you can in order to get paid. If you’re accomplishing a kickoff for a non SBIR contract, you still likely just want to have it done so you can move on to the “actual work”. However, I caution you against just “getting through the kickoff”. The kickoff meeting is likely the first time all the stakeholders will be in the same room or on the same phone call and that is incredibly valuable time. The benefits of a productive kick-off meeting include:

• Alignment of your priorities with USG priorities
• Ensures both company and USG are on the same page for task objectives
• Provides the ability to identify risk early
• Agreement from all parties on the preliminary schedule
• Recognize any contract deliverable discrepancies that may have been missed (i.e. CDRL errors, SOW errors, etc.)

Alignment of Priorities and Task Objectives

I cannot stress enough how important it is for all stakeholders to understand the task objectives and planned work as early on in contract execution as possible. Not all stakeholders will see the final signed contract and not all stakeholders will be aware of the final agreed upon contract work. The kick-off meeting ensures that your understanding of what you will be accomplishing and the entire USG team’s understanding of what you will be accomplishing is the same. While the contract will have been signed at this point, if there is a discrepancy among task objectives or priorities, it is possible to do a contract modification to correct those issues. The earlier any work or priority misalignment is discovered and discussed, the better.

Identification of Early Risk

The kickoff meeting is likely the first place you’ll be able to have any meaningful conversation with the USG stakeholders regarding risk. This is the place for you to discuss in detail what your data and hardware requirements may be, if you have them. Again, this should have been a part of your proposal, however you’re in execution mode now. At this meeting, it’s time to start discussing the actual execution strategy of obtaining what you need to accomplish your work. Some of the risks you can identify early are data transfer, test and evaluation requirements, cyber or security requirements, base access process that needs to begin, any secure facility access that needs to begin, etc.

Preliminary Schedule

I like to think of schedules like models. They’re all wrong but some of them are useful. Schedules are 100% necessary but they are living, changing documents. By providing your schedule early (and often) in contract execution, it is easier for the USG to provide input on where you may need to adjust based on any constraints they may have. Schedules are adjustable within reason so the sooner you and your USG customer can look at your proposed schedule and agree, the easier it’ll be for you to ensure your execution plan is achievable. [Note: This paragraph doesn’t apply to the period of performance (PoP). That date is set in stone by the contract and can only be moved via contract modifications and a contracting officer.]

Deliverable Discrepancies

This should not be a common thing to find. However, I’m mentioning it because it’s possible that while ensuring task objectives and priorities align, you may discover that the SOW or CDRLs in the contract need to be adjusted. If this is the case, it is best to discover this as early as possible in contract execution so it can be brought to the attention of the USG PM and KO.

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As you can see, there is a lot more to a kickoff meeting than some introductions and a couple of slides. The kickoff meeting is not a negotiation. It is a working, functional meeting about how you will execute your contract and should be an open conversation about what you and the USG both need to provide in order to successfully deliver your product or service. It is vitally important that you maximize that time so you can walk away more secure in your execution plan and with USG concurrence early on.

Keep Moving Forward,