The Trifecta: three “must have” meetings on every project; the internal kickoff, the post session debrief, and the project retrospective. Why are they non-negotiable? Because they are invaluable. Throughout the project, they keep the team informed, united, and on track. Upon completion of the project, they’re placed in the project archive folder, accessible to future teams to revisit the last project, and to evaluate and improve upon the new experience where possible.

1. | XPLANE 1TITLE
THREE LITTLE MEETINGS THAT JUST MIGHT CHANGE YOUR GAME
JUNE 2014
By Shawn Wright, Senior Program Manager

2. | XPLANE 2TITLE
THREE LITTLE MEETINGS THAT JUST MIGHT CHANGE YOUR GAME
Simple in form, profound in results, XPLANE’s “non-
negotiable” Trifecta aligns us in the present, informs us of the
past and just plain makes us better at what we do. The
Trifecta is our name for three “must have” meetings on every
project; the internal kickoff, the post session debrief, and the
project retrospective.
Why are they non-negotiable? Because they are invaluable.
Throughout the project, they keep the team informed, united
and on track. Upon completion of the project, they’re placed
in the project archive folder, accessible to future teams to
revisit the last project, and to evaluate and improve upon the
new experience where possible.
So what are they exactly?

3. | XPLANE 3TITLE
THREE LITTLE MEETINGS THAT JUST MIGHT CHANGE YOUR
GAME
The IKO is owned and led by the Account Director or
Salesperson. It is his or her opportunity to give the team a
download, e.g., explain the client history and how this project
came about. What conversations were had that led to writing
the SOW? What is/are the deliverable(s). What is the
timeline and are there any driving deadlines?
In this meeting we also share budget, milestone details,
confirm the team, its roles and responsibilities, and validate
the allocation of hours per team member. The IKO is critical
to the success of the project. It’s the first step in unification,
clarification and team alignment around project scope.
The internal kickoff:

4. | XPLANE 4TITLE
THREE LITTLE MEETINGS THAT JUST MIGHT CHANGE YOUR GAME
The post session debrief is the meeting directly following the
discovery session, which is an all day (or longer) meeting
with client stakeholders to “discover” all the necessary
elements and ingredients needed to make the project a
success. First we take a pulse-check: how did the session
go? What were the plus/deltas ––delta meaning what might
we have done better or differently? Is the scope of work the
same, or do we need to adjust or make additional
recommendations based on discovery? Are the roles and
responsibilities the same and have we included all necessary
skill-sets to complete the project successfully? This is where
adjustments, addendums or call-outs to clients are first
brought up, helping us avoid the ever so stealth and insipid
enemy of all projects; scope creep.
The post session debrief:

5. | XPLANE 5TITLE
THREE LITTLE MEETINGS THAT JUST MIGHT CHANGE YOUR GAME
When naming this final meeting, we intentionally refrained
from calling it a “post mortem” debrief. Post-mortem sounds
final, and sad and we are usually very excited when a project
has come to completion! The goal of this meeting is to take
advantage of the gift of hindsight and ask ourselves what
went well with this project. Was the client happy? Did we
meet their definition of success? Did we “wow” them? Did we
come in on budget? Could or should we have done anything
differently? What did we learn, and how can we improve the
next time we work with this client or do a similar project?
These simple meetings have become pillars to our success.
What are your pillars to project success and how have you
incorporated them into your projects?
The project retrospective:

6. | XPLANE 6TITLE
www.xplane.com