Dan:
And it’s just aggressive base count messages.
Russell:
Yeah exactly. I mean talking about base count load is another thing that we need to cover in kick-off meetings is how we manage projects as well. Even down to the way that we communicate with our clients, that in itself can be something that they didn’t expect would be…
Dan:
You’ve got to drive it or they’re going to drive it. There’s sometimes nothing wrong with the client’s process and them driving it how they want to but if you leave a void the client will fill it. If you don’t tell, if you don’t put down, here’s how we’re going to communicate, then people will just start communicating the way they think they should and then you haven’t set that. As people that run lots of projects, you’ve probably got a better idea of how you want communication to happen.
Russell:
Whatsapp? Is not okay. We’ve gone through that. That’s fine. WhatsApp is off the list.
Dan:
I’ve been on a project that involved someone WhatsApping me from China I think. It was very confusing. It was actually my first time on WhatsApp. It’s all right, the client was like, “Okay we want you to talk to our previous developer.” I was like, “Fine.” And they went, “Have you got a WhatsApp account?” As a web professional I was of course like, “Um of course I have.”
Russell:
Yeah
Dan:
Downloads it, tries to work out what it is. But anyway. With that as the goal of learning, finding out any dark corners to the project, and basically everyone getting introduced to each other, what are your favorite kick-off meeting questions?
Russell:
My top 25 questions to ask at a meeting.
Dan:
Let’s count them down.
Russell:
Number one, how was your weekend? Always start off with the casual question.
Dan:
That’s not a broad point. Starting off casual.
Russell:
Starting off casual, yeah. Before we drop home with the big guns.
Dan:
Yeah don’t open up with, “What’s the server configuration here? What software are we going to be installing?”
Russell:
Do you have web developers getting whatsapping me? I mean definitely one of the things that applies to all kick-off meeting, as we make it round to, there are different types of kick off meetings for different kinds of clients for projects. Most meetings we’re going to start off with what you’ve done up until then. If you’ve got an existing website obviously that’s something that we can be talking quite a bit about I imagine, especially if that wasn’t something that was somewhere else. Then also with an access website or maybe you’ve started something small that you’re looking to have rebuilt. Those kinds of questions and what you’ve done to get to this point and then why it is that we’re onboard and where we’re going.