Gather Your Collaborators

Skills You’ll Need

Before you hold this kickoff session, you should have a clear idea who will be responsible for each type of task. 

• Technical expertise, especially a high level of comfort with networking and technical architecture, or existing knowledge of the Internet Way of Networking
• Strong policy analysis skills, especially around Internet policy
• Detailed picture of the local or regional context around the policy, trend, or business decision, including the legislative context
• Project management skills
• Communication, writing, and editing skills, especially if you hope to produce a full Internet Impact Brief

Guide to a Productive Kickoff Discussion

Include everyone who will be involved, even if their work doesn’t start until later in the process. Download the Kickoff Worksheet if you want a template, or follow this discussion guide.

1. Introduce the topic.
   You’re all here to go over the goals, set deadlines, choose responsibilities, and understand expectations. Take a moment to clarify this for the group.
2. Summarize the planning work
   If you used the Planning Worksheet, share it and summarize that briefly, focusing on the urgency of your timeline, the outcome you’re hoping for, and the people or organizations you need to influence. Allow a few minutes for questions if people need more context.
3. Do a round of introductions
   Even if everyone knows each other, each person should say a few words (no more than 90 seconds) about what they’re expecting to do as part of the Impact Assessment work.
4. Create a timeline for the work
   Start from the deadline for your full analysis, and use the checklist to work backwards. Be conscious of any time you’ll need to get familiar with the Internet Way of Networking. Everyone should know about it, but technical and policy experts will need a strong knowledge.
5. Define your roles
   Each team member should spend about 5 minutes independently answering some questions that will help you all plan your work together. Use the worksheet on paper, in a tool like Mural or Miro, or just share these questions.
   • What skills do you expect to use on this project?
   • How much time do you expect to be able to give to this work? Describe your time constraints and the cadence of work you can offer.
   • What are your primary responsibilities for this Impact Assessment? (Ex: Using technical expertise to explain the impact on the Internet, analyzing the policy and communicating with the group).
   • Your preferred communication channels, shared workspaces, and meeting formats (Ex: Slack, WhatsApp, Google Drive, hybrid meetings, online only).
   • Each person should present for about a minute. You should collect and circulate these after the workshop.
   • Briefly discuss responsibilities, to ensure all the tasks in the checklist will be covered.
6. Agree on channels and meeting formats
   Decide as a group what your primary channel or channels will be. How will you use email? Will there be a group chat? Will you meet online, in person, or hybrid?
7. Determine your next steps and agree on contributions
   Once you all agree on the next step for this work, each person should commit to what they need to do. Whoever has project management responsibility should keep track of these.
8. Book your next meeting and check out
   Before you go, book your next group meeting or set up a standing check-in, and agree on any smaller sessions.