On this page13
- Why a kickoff needs a written expectations doc
- The kickoff questions, grouped by who has to answer them
- Section by section: the one-page expectations doc
- How do you fill the news pipeline honestly?
- Approvals: the clause that decides your hit rate
- What should success look like at day 30, 90 and 180?
- The "out of scope" block, and why it protects the founder
- When a one-page doc is the wrong tool
- FAQ
- Should the founder or the PR lead write the first draft?
- How often should the expectations doc be updated?
- What if the founder and PR lead disagree on success markers?
- Does this work for in-house hires as well as agencies?
The kickoff questions that matter are the ones that pin down goals, the news you actually have, who speaks, how fast approvals happen and what counts as success at day 30, 90 and 180. Answer them in writing, on one page, before the first pitch goes out. Both sides sign it, and you reopen it at every monthly review. Most PR relationships that go sour in month three were already broken at kickoff, because nobody wrote down what "working" meant.
Why a kickoff needs a written expectations doc
A kickoff call feels productive. Everyone is excited, the founder talks about the vision for forty minutes, the PR lead nods and takes notes, and then each side walks away with a different picture of the next quarter.
The founder heard "we'll get you into CoinDesk." The PR lead said "CoinDesk is a target if the mainnet date holds." Those are different promises, and only one of them is honest.
I've watched the same pattern from both sides of the table.
companies hire agencies w/o asking too many questions or hard bounding them on the KPIs because those agencies are famous, but when they don't deliver they hardbound freelancers or small contractors for all the things that they agency couldn't achieve!! Shilika Jain on X, 1 Jun 2026
The fix isn't to be harder on whoever you hire. It's to be precise with everyone, on day one. A written page does that, because you can't nod along to a sentence you have to sign.
If you're still choosing who to hire, the earlier filter is in questions to ask before hiring a PR agency. This post starts after the contract is signed.
The kickoff questions, grouped by who has to answer them
I split kickoff questions into three groups, because each one has a different owner. If the founder can't answer theirs, the PR lead can't plan. If the PR lead can't answer theirs, you've hired the wrong person.
| Group | Question to settle | Who answers | What a weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | The one business outcome PR supports this half | Founder | "Awareness" with no audience named |
| Business | The three audiences who must believe something new about you | Founder | "Everyone in crypto" |
| News | Every announceable event in the next 90 days, with confidence level | Founder and product lead | "We'll have news, trust us" |
| News | Which items are confirmed vs. hoped for | Founder | Dates with no owner |
| People | Who can speak on record, and on which topics | Founder | Only the CEO, who is never free |
| Process | Approval chain and turnaround time for quotes and drafts | Founder and PR lead | "Send it to the group chat" |
| Process | Reporting format and cadence | PR lead | "We'll send a monthly report" |
| Success | What good looks like at day 30, 90 and 180 | Both | A list of logos |
| Limits | What PR is not being asked to do | Both | Silence |
The last row is the one people skip, and it's the one that saves the most arguments later.
Section by section: the one-page expectations doc
Here's the page I use. Seven blocks, each with a sentence limit, so nobody can hide a vague answer inside a long one.
- The outcome (2 sentences). The business result PR supports. "Make our Series A conversations shorter by giving investors third-party proof of the DePIN thesis" is an outcome. "Get more press" isn't.
- The audiences (3 lines). Name them in priority order: for example, institutional LPs, protocol developers, Korean retail. Each one changes which outlets matter.
- The news pipeline (a dated list). Every event in the next 90 days, marked Confirmed, Likely or Hoped. Funding, mainnet, integrations with substance, data you can publish, a founder view that's genuinely contrarian.
- Spokespeople (a short table). Names, topics they can speak to, topics they must avoid, time they can give per week.
- Approvals (3 lines). Who signs off, in what order, and the maximum turnaround.
- Success markers (by day 30, 90 and 180). Written as observable things, not feelings. More on this below.
- Out of scope (a bullet list). What PR isn't responsible for this quarter.
That's it. If it runs past one page, something in it is padding.
How do you fill the news pipeline honestly?
This block decides whether the other six are realistic. Earned PR is news-heavy, and the pipeline is where founders are most optimistic.
I ask the founder and the product lead to fill it separately, then compare. The gap between the two lists is usually the most useful thing we learn all week. A founder lists the mainnet in month two. The product lead marks it Likely for month four.
A few rules I hold to when we fill it together:
- A partnership only counts if the partner will put a quote in the release.
- A "feature launch" needs a user-facing change a reporter could try or describe.
- Data counts if you can show the method, not just the headline number.
- Founder commentary counts every month, but only on topics where the founder has a real view.
When the honest pipeline is thin, say so in the doc, and plan more commentary, op-eds and podcasts to fill the gaps. A thin pipeline is fine. A thin pipeline written down as a full one is how month three goes wrong.
Approvals: the clause that decides your hit rate
Reporters work to deadlines measured in hours. If your approval chain takes four days, you'll lose reactive commentary every single time, and you won't even know you lost it.
responding and answering journalists' query is PR 101! Shilika Jain on X, 25 Oct 2023
So the approvals block names three speeds:
| Type of request | Example | Turnaround to agree at kickoff |
|---|---|---|
| Reactive | A reporter wants a two-line comment on a market move | Same day, ideally within 2 to 3 hours |
| Planned short | Quote for a partner's release, short Q&A answers | 24 to 48 hours |
| Planned long | Press release, op-ed draft, data report | 3 to 5 working days, with one round of edits each |
It also names one person who can approve reactive comments alone. If every quote needs legal, the CTO and two co-founders, say that at kickoff and accept that reactive commentary isn't part of the plan. That's a legitimate choice. It just shouldn't be a surprise.
What should success look like at day 30, 90 and 180?
I write success markers as things you could check without asking me how I feel about the quarter. These are the kind of markers I put down, adjusted to the pipeline:
- Day 30: narrative and messaging signed off, media list built for the named audiences, founder briefed, first commentary or op-ed placed or in review, first announcement prepared to embargo stage.
- Day 90: first anchor announcement landed in the outlets your audiences read, founder quoted on at least one topic beyond your own news, a repeatable monthly rhythm in place.
- Day 180: reporters coming back to you for comment, a body of coverage that answers "who is this team" in a single search, and coverage being used actively in sales, hiring and investor decks.
Notice what isn't there: a fixed number of Tier-1 logos with a deadline. The editor decides what runs. I can tell you which outlets are a realistic fit for your news and work hard for them, but I won't write a guarantee into a document both of us are signing. If you want to know how I measure the quarter after it's done, how to measure PR ROI covers that side.
The "out of scope" block, and why it protects the founder
Founders sometimes read this block as the PR lead covering themselves. It's the opposite. It stops you spending a quarter's budget on a job PR was never built for.
What I usually list:
- Moving token price or trading volume
- Growing TVL or deposits directly
- Paid placements presented as earned
- Guaranteed placements in named outlets
- Community management and daily social posting, unless separately scoped
If one of those is the thing you actually need this quarter, better to find out on day one and spend the money elsewhere. The retainer scope of work breakdown is a useful companion if you're deciding which of these belongs inside a PR retainer and which belongs to growth or community.
whenever you're working w clients/companies, try selling value as opposed to services. - show them the results you can bring in - show them the impact it's going to create - educate them about how the processes work - manage expectations - honest & transparent communication at the apex! Shilika Jain on X, 7 Aug 2023
I wrote that for people on my side of the table. The expectations doc is how I hold myself to it.
When a one-page doc is the wrong tool
It isn't always worth the effort.
If you're hiring someone for a single funding announcement with a fixed date and scope, a short brief with the embargo plan does the job. The expectations doc earns its keep on retainers of three months or more, where drift is the real risk.
It also has a cost. A good version takes a founder two to three hours across the kickoff week, including a frank conversation with the product team about dates. Founders in the middle of a raise or a launch sometimes don't have that time. In that case, fill blocks 3, 5 and 7 first: pipeline, approvals and out of scope. Those three prevent most of the fights.
And if you write it and then never open it again, it's just paperwork. Put it on the agenda of every monthly review. Change it when the pipeline changes. That's how I run engagements under my Web3 PR campaigns work, and it's also what I'd expect from any agency you hire.
FAQ
Should the founder or the PR lead write the first draft?
The PR lead should send a blank template before kickoff, and the founder fills blocks 1 to 4 first. The PR lead then drafts blocks 5 to 7 and edits the whole thing in the kickoff session. Founders know the business. PR leads know what newsrooms will and won't do with it.
How often should the expectations doc be updated?
Revisit it at every monthly review and rewrite it properly at day 90. Most changes land in the news pipeline, because launch dates move. If the outcome block changes, treat it as a re-kickoff, since the media plan underneath it changes too.
What if the founder and PR lead disagree on success markers?
Write both versions down and agree on which evidence would settle it by day 90. Disagreement at kickoff is healthy and cheap. The same disagreement discovered in month four is expensive and usually ends the engagement.
Does this work for in-house hires as well as agencies?
Yes, and arguably it matters more there, because an in-house comms hire has no contract to point to when priorities drift. The same seven blocks work as a 90-day plan for a new head of comms.
Starting a PR engagement next month? Book a 30-minute call and we'll fill in your one-pager together before the first pitch goes out.
