How do KickOffs and Post-mortem Calls Work?
A guide to running kickoff calls and post-mortems at Vye — including ownership, agendas, billing, and how to make sure every campaign makes the team smarter.
Kickoff calls and post-mortems are two of the most important alignment touchpoints in a campaign. Used consistently, they keep teams coordinated at launch and ensure learnings carry forward after every major effort.
Kickoff calls
When they're required
Kickoff calls are required for Tier 2 (Scale & Depth) and Tier 3 (Multi Play) campaigns. Tier 1 (Rinse & Repeat) campaigns proceed directly from brief approval unless someone requests one. Kickoff calls can be requested for any campaign at any time.
When they're scheduled
The PM schedules the kickoff call once the campaign brief has been completed.
Purpose
The kickoff call brings all subject matter experts together to align before work begins. The goals are to:
- Review the campaign objective and brief
- Surface any outstanding contingencies or roadblocks
- Confirm each team member has what they need to start their work
- Align on narrative threading across campaign components
- Confirm timelines, launch dates, and execution phasing
- Create action plans for resolving open items or gathering outstanding client information
Meeting ownership
- Facilitator: Strategist (or AM in lieu of a strategist)
- Scheduling and note-taking: PM
- Required attendees: AM, PM, Strategist, Content, and any specialists executing on the campaign (Architect, Dev, Design)
- Optional attendees: Design, Dev, Architect (depending on project type or campaign brief callouts)
How it runs
The strategist (or AM) opens with the campaign's purpose and goals, then walks through each component of the brief — inbound or web experience materials, sales enablement, emails, and any other deliverables. Each subject matter expert is responsible for confirming their understanding and flagging anything they need before work can begin.
Format and length
Keep kickoffs focused and brief. Smaller campaigns should run 15–20 minutes; larger campaigns may run up to 30 minutes.
After the call
The recording and any AI-generated notes are added to the brief for reference. The PM follows up to gather any outstanding information from the client and creates tasks in Teamwork for any work items identified during the call (for example, a report built by the Architect).
Billing
Bill kickoff call time to the client project as billable.
Post-mortems
When they're required
Post-mortems are required for all Tier 3 (Multi Play) campaigns and can be requested for any campaign size.
Purpose
A post-mortem is a structured internal debrief held after a campaign wraps. It brings the full execution team together to review performance honestly — what worked, what didn't, and why — so that learnings carry forward rather than getting lost in the handoff.
Post-mortems are never about blame or purely celebration. They're about building a culture of iteration, accountability, and continuous improvement across strategy, execution, and creative.
Meeting ownership
- Facilitator: AM (owns the debrief framing and business context)
- Results presenter: Strategist (or AM in lieu of)
- Scheduling and note-taking: PM (captures action items and updates Teamwork)
- Required attendees: AM, PM, Strategist, Content, and any specialists who executed on the campaign (Architect, Dev, Design)
- Optional attendees: Design, Dev, Architect (depending on project type)
Pre-work
Before the meeting:
- The strategist (or AM) compiles campaign results and shares them in the client's Slack channel. This occurs as a final check-in task outlined in the initial brief — the deliverable is the campaign results. Meeting time should not be used for data gathering.
- Everyone completes a 15-minute review of results and prepares notes (there will be a task created; billed as non-billable to the client project)
- Everyone reviews the original brief and the strategist's notes, and comes prepared to speak to: what we set out to accomplish, what worked, what didn't, and what we'd do differently next time
How it runs
The AM opens and frames the debrief. The strategist then presents data-driven results and leads the performance discussion. The full team contributes to the wins, gaps, and root cause conversations. The AM leads the action items discussion while the PM captures next steps.
Standard agenda (30 minutes)
| Section | Owner | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign recap — goals vs. results | Strategist (or AM) | 10 min |
| What worked — wins and what to repeat | All | 15 min |
| What didn't — gaps and honest assessment | All | |
| Root cause discussion — why did gaps happen? | All | |
| Action items — what changes for next time? | AM leads, PM captures | 5 min |
| Wrap — confirm owners and deadlines | PM |
Recap email
The PM sends a recap email after the call that includes:
- Campaign name, date, and tier
- Goals from the brief
- Insights and recommendations from the strategist
- Action items with owner and due date
- Changes to apply to the next campaign
- Recording or AI notes from the meeting
Tracking action items
- The PM adds all action items to Teamwork within 24 hours of the meeting
- Process changes flagged for the broader team should be brought to the next AM/PM touchbase or an L10
- Strategy-level findings (budget, channel, brief process) should be shared by the AM with the larger team as needed
Billing
Bill post-mortem prep and meeting time to the client project as non-billable.