You are a consultant starting a new project. What do you need to think about?

Overall objectives

The primary goals of the engagement mobilization and initiation process are to:

• Ensure everyone understands the engagement’s purpose, deliverables, and intended business value
• Clarify the roles of all team members and associated personnel
  • Delivery Lead
  • Team Lead
  • Account Manager (i.e. sales/commercial function)
• Prepare consultants for client site work, including behavioral expectations and first-day logistics
• Guide the Team Lead on effectively utilizing the initial days on site

Pre-engagement: alignment & readiness

This phase focuses on preparing for the engagement start:

• Notice period: A minimum one-week notice (ideally two) is needed from client commitment to the start date for preparation
• Roles & responsibilities: Clearly define and assign roles internally before the start date, covering proposal context, contracts, client communication, resource logistics, tools/access, and scope communication. Build strong relationships with the Account Manager, involving the Account Manager in role definition and key task completion
• Contracts & governance: Finalize all contracts and commercial agreements before the start date. Establish internal governance structures, reporting cadences, and escalation paths
• Communicate needs: The delivery lead should brief the Team Lead on business objectives, metrics, and deliverables. The Team Lead should review and conduct a playback session for alignment
• Onboard team: Provide consultants clarity on objectives, client expectations, timelines, roles, working hours, office etiquette, and administrative processes. Ensure necessary tools, systems, and access are available before the start date, as delivery cannot commence without them. Address training needs and how to use time effectively while awaiting access
• Schedule kick-off: Arrange the client-delivery team kick-off meeting for the first day

Start of engagement

• Kick-off meeting with stakeholders: This crucial meeting should cover:
  • Introductions of key team members (client and consulting company side)
  • Clarification of roles and responsibilities on both sides
  • Recap of project background, business objectives, and success criteria
  • Verification of scope and dependency resolution (with mitigation plans if needed)
  • Establishing communication channels and ways of working
  • Defining reporting, tracking, and review mechanisms
  • Confirming decision-making authority and escalation paths
  • Identifying any additional stakeholders
  • Agreeing on next steps and priorities
  • Ensuring notes are captured and shared
• Work backlog development: Define initial activities to progress towards the first milestone
• Risk & issue management: Identify potential risks and existing issues, establish a logging process (e.g., RAID log), and define escalation paths

Ongoing processes & governance

Several key areas need to be defined, often during the kick-off or shortly after:

• Ways of working: Agree on communication tools, check-in frequency/format, meeting attendees, handling urgent issues, action tracking, decision approvals, milestone alignment, and working hours
• Governance structures: Define key stakeholders, decision-making authority (scope, budget, timelines), approval processes for changes, priority setting, team expectations, risk/compliance ownership, and issue escalation paths (internal and client). Note that some aspects may need finalization post-kick-off
• Reporting cadence: Determine frequency, format, recipients, KPIs, and level of detail for both internal and client reporting
• Tracking mechanisms: Choose tools (e.g., Jira, Trello) for progress tracking, define monitoring responsibilities, document risks/blockers, establish escalation processes, and identify KPIs for success measurement
• Review mechanisms: Set frequency and structure for formal reviews (e.g., retrospectives), determine necessary participants, and establish how feedback on processes will be gathered

Proposal context

The Business Context, Problem Statement, Business Objectives, Value Outcomes, High-Level Plan, Assumptions, Dependencies, and Risks are typically defined during the proposal stage and should be reused for guidance and completeness during the kick-off.