Agency Project Kickoff Checklist

Confirm scope, deliverables, timeline, budget, and revision limits match what was discussed during the sales process. Flag any ambiguities before the client meeting.

Verify hourly rates, fixed-fee amounts, or retainer terms. Set up the project budget in your PM tool with the correct billing configuration.

Identify the PM, creative lead, strategist, and any specialists. Check their availability against the project timeline. Resolve conflicts before committing dates to the client.

Use the standard client project template. Set up the folder structure, task templates, and time tracking. Do not invite the client yet.

Include: introductions, SOW walkthrough, communication plan, approval workflow, timeline review, and asset collection list. Send the agenda to the client 24 hours before the meeting.

Request brand guidelines, logos, photography, content libraries, analytics access, and any previous agency work. Create a shared folder for asset storage.

Review the client’s website, social channels, recent press, and top 3 competitors. The team should walk into the kickoff meeting with baseline knowledge, not blank stares.

Each person states their name, role, and what they will be responsible for on this project. This establishes who to contact for what and prevents all communication from funneling through one person.

Read through each deliverable with the client. Confirm mutual understanding. This is the last easy opportunity to catch misalignment before work begins.

Define: weekly status meeting (day and time), primary communication channel (email, Slack, PM tool), response time expectations (e.g., 24 hours for non-urgent, 4 hours for blockers), and escalation contacts.

Who approves deliverables on the client side? How many stakeholders review each piece? What is the feedback turnaround window? How many revision rounds are included? Document this and share in the meeting summary.

Walk through key dates: draft delivery dates, review periods, final delivery dates, and launch dates. Identify dependencies (e.g., client provides copy before design begins). Get verbal confirmation on all dates.

Identify what you still need from the client: brand files, analytics access, CMS logins, domain credentials, existing content inventory. Assign owners and deadlines for each item.

Commit to a specific date for the first client-facing output. This creates immediate momentum and gives the team a concrete near-term deadline.

Include: attendees, key decisions, action items with owners and deadlines, next meeting date, and any open questions. This becomes the reference document for “what we agreed.”

Configure permissions so the client can view project progress, approve deliverables, and access shared files. Test the access before sending the invite.

Include: team contact information, communication guidelines, PM tool access instructions, brand asset upload location, and the project timeline as a visual. This replaces the 5 separate emails you would otherwise send over the first week.

Set up time tracking with the correct billable rates, budget caps, and task categories. Brief the team on which tasks are billable and which are internal overhead.

Create calendar invites for weekly status meetings. Set up automated status report generation if your PM tool supports it. Configure any Slack channel notifications.

Break down the first phase of SOW deliverables into specific tasks with estimates, assignees, and dependencies. Prioritize tasks that are on the critical path to the first deliverable.

Share the client background, SOW summary, communication preferences, and any sensitivities with everyone who will touch the account. Include anyone who was not in the kickoff meeting.

Follow up on any outstanding assets from the kickoff meeting. Set a hard deadline: if assets are not received by date X, the timeline shifts by the same number of days.

This can be a creative brief, strategy document, audit report, or initial concepts. The specific deliverable matters less than the act of delivering something tangible early. It validates the working relationship and surfaces process issues before they compound.