2.2. The kick-off

With an already-established team from Discovery, a kick-off for Alpha should be shorter and simpler than before. For example, you’re likely to continue performing the same team rituals, like retrospectives and planning, and you will already have a good idea of roles and responsibilities.

You should restate the user needs uncovered in Discovery, and the hypotheses formulated by the team. Your service and technology mapping will help you out here.

Then, the primary focus should be on how the team will start prototyping, and which hypotheses to explore first.

You should also cover:

• the overall success criteria for alpha (and the key milestones along the way)
• the development approach to building prototypes, and how user stories will be worked on, reviewed and completed
• what ‘good’ looks like for the prototypes that are built (eg. accessibility, design patterns, code quality)
• a rough plan for user research throughout the Alpha stage, and the feedback loops from the research findings
• the stakeholders involved, and how the team will share progress updates
• how the technology stack for Beta will be chosen, and who needs to be involved in the discussions

Assessors continue to join the team for the weekly check ins, and document progress in the RAG Rating Tool.