# Atlas — Kickoff Pack

## Kickoff Meeting Agenda (target: 90 min)
TIME    ITEM                                  OWNER         GOAL
----    ----                                  -----         ----
10 min  Why now + business case               PM            Everyone in the room knows what we're NOT doing and why.
15 min  Scope walkthrough + non-goals         PM            Explicit "in" and "out" list. Disagreements named, not buried.
20 min  Approach + key architecture choices   Tech lead     Team understands the design at a 5-pager level. Open questions logged.
10 min  Timeline + milestones                 PM            6-month plan with named milestones; team votes on whether it's realistic.
15 min  Roles + ownership                     PM            Every workstream has a named owner. RACI for the cross-team bits.
15 min  Risks (top 5) + initial mitigations   Tech lead     RAID register live by end of kickoff.
5 min   Communication cadence                 PM            Decided: standup schedule, weekly status, exec update cadence.

## Pre-reads (send 48h before)
1. **Scope one-pager (PM)** — what's in, what's out, success criteria.
2. **High-level architecture doc (Tech lead)** — current state, target state, migration shape.
3. **6-month milestone calendar (PM)** — phases, gates, dependency on external teams.
4. **Initial RAID register (PM)** — 5-10 risks already known. Team adds at kickoff.
5. **Vendor contract summary (PM)** — Stripe SLA, backup acquirer SLA, key contractual deadlines.

## First 2 Weeks — Tactical Plan
Week 1:
• Architecture doc reviewed + signed off by all engineers (decisions logged as ADRs).
• Vendor sandbox accounts provisioned for all 8 engineers.
• Reconciliation workflow analysed end-to-end — gaps and quirks documented.
• Daily standup cadence established.
• Compliance touchpoint scheduled with InfoSec (lead time 3-4 weeks).

Week 2:
• First payment flow (auth + capture) integrated against Stripe sandbox end-to-end.
• Chargeback workflow design draft published.
• Backup-acquirer integration approach decided (parallel vs failover).
• First exec update delivered, format locked in.
• Test data set built for reconciliation testing.

## Questions to Answer BEFORE Formal Kickoff
Each of these blocks kickoff if unresolved:
1. Has the contract with the backup acquirer been signed, or are we kicking off contingent on legal closing it?
2. What's the official cutover date for the legacy provider, and is there a hard contract-end date or a soft preference?
3. Has the finance team confirmed the reconciliation format we're replicating? (If they want changes mid-flight, that's 2-3 months of rework.)
4. Do we have the compliance review window booked? (Their lead time is 3-4 weeks; we'll need at least 2 cycles.)
5. Is the designer's time at 100% on Atlas, or split? (8 engineers + 1 designer is already tight.)
6. Who owns the customer-comms plan when we migrate? Product? Marketing? CS?

## Stakeholder Map (rough)
• Decider: VP Engineering (sign-off on architecture), CFO (sign-off on vendor SLA / penalty terms).
• Informed: CEO, CRO, Legal (weekly).
• Consulted: Compliance, InfoSec, Customer Support lead, Finance/Reconciliation team.

## Risk Watchlist (top 5)
• Compliance lead-time blowing through pilot date — start the review process before kickoff if possible.
• Reconciliation gaps with Finance — schedule a deep-dive in Week 1.
• Designer capacity — secure dedicated time before kickoff, or expect UX to slip in month 2.
• Backup acquirer integration is the under-specified part — ring-fence design effort.
• Legacy provider data export format — confirm shape ASAP; surprises here block migration.