A Construction Kickoff Strategy that Bets on Your Project Team
By Matt Porter, Industry Solutions Manager & Corporate Counsel, and Maegan Spivey, Contracts Specialist, Document Crunch
Football teams don’t develop a winning strategy the day of the game. They study their opponents, watch game tape, rehearse plays, and anticipate weaknesses. This ensures teams have a game-winning strategy when kickoff arrives. Document Crunch is like a coaching assistant for construction companies, providing the tools, analysis, and motivation to kick off every construction project with a winning mindset. Here’s what a pre-game and kickoff process looks like with Document Crunch and why some of the best contractors in the industry are using it to win and retain clients.
What Does the Average Construction Kickoff Look Like?
Most construction companies lack a comprehensive, repeatable kickoff process. They may save estimates and contracts to a shared drive or share documents via a bid software or project management software. Then, most general contractors (GCs) will organize a kickoff meeting to pass off critical information from the pre-construction team to the project team. The agenda—and effectiveness—of that meeting varies depending on the scope, leadership, and partners on the project.
Looking back, many GCs reflect that going slower during kickoff would have helped them go faster during the project. Unfortunately, aggressive timelines and external demands often set the pace early on.
What Should a Construction Pre-Game Strategy Look Like?
In football, pre-game strategy involves hours of studying game tape. In construction, GCs also need to study historical projects (their own and their partners’) to understand strengths, weaknesses, and issues from which they can learn. Next, GCs have to get their starting lineup in the same room (physically or virtually) to assess and document potential risks on the project. The starting line up includes the project team and critical partner representatives including legal counsel, trade contractors, and owner’s reps. With this group identified, teams can collectively uncover and address issues early in the planning process and stack the sidelines to anticipate any substitutions needed.
Once the lineup is decided, GC teams have to prep the defense. For GCs, this means making sure project teams review the contract documents and understand what was agreed to. This ensures that the contract is understandable, accessible, and operational for project managers and their teams. [HINT: Document Crunch’s Playbooks powered by CrunchAI make this process fumble-proof. More on that below.] Prepping the defense also entails setting the right expectations in downstream contracts with subcontractors and suppliers. Those partners will need time to review their game tape and ask questions before signing. Finally, GCs have to prep the offense for kickoff. One way to set a clear game plan is establishing a project charter that connects the team’s “what” (the mechanics of building) to a greater “why.” Beyond pay and promotion, what will motivate your team to do their best work come game day? How does this project further your company’s mission or how will it help people or the community? Then comes the logistical project management work of setting a realistic schedule and a plan to achieve it. Easy, right? Not quite, but the prep and execution of a kickoff meeting can be a huge factor in how smoothly it goes.
How to Nail the Kickoff Meeting
One of the most successful kickoff strategies we’ve seen is when GCs organize a half day meeting with project stakeholders and include social time for relationship building. While this comes at an expense, it also ensures everyone prepares heavily for the meeting and arrives ready to execute. It also makes sure stakeholders get to know each other personally during kickoff. These relationships can help smooth edges throughout the project. The contractors who take kickoff prep and meetings seriously have some of the happiest, longest-standing customers we’ve seen.
The perfect kickoff meeting agenda depends on the project, but here’s a template we’ve seen used repeatedly and successfully at various companies:
Introductions
Stakeholders introduce who they are, why they’re here, and something personal that shows the individual behind the title. If everyone in the room already knows each other, challenge them to share something the others don’t know or let them introduce each other.
Communication
Project stakeholders should determine the preferred communication methods for the project and who needs to be included in what communications. While the contract should detail parameters for notice communications, you should also know the quickest way to contact each other for emergencies, and set boundaries on what justifies those.
Processes
Teams should review contractual procedures around change orders, RFIs, notices, and other critical contract terms that are likely to be referenced repeatedly throughout the project. Any questions should be addressed before the need arises. [HINT: Document Crunch’s Notice Builder feature automates the notice writing process within Procore.]
Technology
All should be introduced and given access to the technology to be used by the project team, and all should know their roles and responsibilities in using that technology. Whether it’s project management software, Microsoft products, mobile apps, or other, streamlining all technology used and ensuring a central source of information is critical.
Site Logistics / Special Considerations
Teams should review the logistics for running the project, like working hours, ingress/egress sites, etc. They should also discuss any special considerations or outstanding problems that still need solving.
Document Crunch can facilitate a great kickoff meeting by developing the Playbook that guides project teams through kickoff and beyond.
What Mistakes Do GCs Often Make Early in the Game?
An effective kickoff meeting and agenda can start project teams off with confidence but can work against them in other ways. If construction projects had referees, here’s what they’d be throwing the flag at early in the game:
Pushing subs for better numbers and planning to do it again at buyout
Starting work before the contract is signed
PMs who don’t read the contract “because they have legal for that”
Project teams who haven’t met with the preconstruction team for a full, informative handoff
Forgetting to tell other departments the job has started
Building a new project team from scratch for every project
Waiting too long to inquire about problems in construction plans and designs
Aggressive or unrealistic schedules based on staffing, supply chains, or other limiting factors
Starting the project understaffed
All of these mistakes can result in unforced errors throughout construction projects, including:
Falling behind schedule right out of the gate
Establishing bad habits that must be “unlearned” later in the project
Unmet expectations that harm future relationships
Poor or delayed completion of work
Re-work that impacts schedules and profits
Slowly (or rapidly) diminishing project fees over time
Where Do Owners Fit into a Successful Kickoff?
In this football metaphor, owners are not the opposing team, they’re the franchise owners. Project teams have to work collaboratively with owners before kickoff so that owners are bought in on the team’s game strategy and supply the resources needed to execute. Project owners, like franchise owners, hire others to do the work, but they still want to know what is happening with their investment. GCs have to establish a regular and consistent habit of communication that fits the owner's communication style and preferences.
Nick Saban is a prolific college football coach and someone who subscribes heavily to repeatable, perfected processes. He’s won seven NCAA football championships and said, “Becoming a champion is not an easy process. It is done by focusing on what it takes to get there—and not on getting there."
Construction teams have to focus on project kickoff, and every step thereafter, before they can focus on project completion. GCs and their project managers know how to perform construction, so tools like Document Crunch help them refine and improve their process. With contract management software built on AI technology, project teams can build kickoff Checklists, Playbooks, communication templates, and even Chat with their contract when all else fails. Schedule a demo today to experience it for yourself, and secure your project team a championship season.