What’s Kanban?

Too often the methodology is reduced to the implementation of a visual task management board (Trello, ClickUp, a Planner, you name it), which remains underused and which people struggle to see the significance of.
That’s because Kanban is a whole system and the bpard itself isn’t enough to drive innovation.

Here’s a list of 10 principles you should keep in mind.

Visualize the Workflow: the visual board has the aim to represent the workflow stages, making it easier to see work in progress (see next point) and identify bottlenecks.

Limit Work in Progress (WIP): set limits on the amount of work that can be in progress at each stage to ensure focus and prevent overload. In other words: do not start too many things at once.

Manage Flow: continuously monitor and optimize the flow of work through the system, for instance removing the bottlenecks you previously indentified.

Make Process Policies Explicit: clearly define and communicate the rules and policies that govern the workflow to ensure everyone understands and follows them. If nobody follows what you’re saying, you might be the problem.

Implement Feedback Loops: use regular feedback mechanisms, such as stand-up meetings and reviews, to gather input and make necessary adjustments.

Improve Collaboratively, Evolve Experimentally: foster a culture of continuous improvement through collaboration and small, incremental changes based on empirical evidence. Standards are awesome as long as they don’t prevent us from exploring new things.

Focus on Customer Needs and Expectations: prioritize work based on customer value and requirements, ensuring that the most important tasks are completed first.

Measure and Optimize for Efficiency: use metrics to measure performance and identify areas for improvement. Data gathering is crucial for the continuous business justification of improvement.

Empower the Team: encourage team members to take ownership of their work and make decisions that improve the workflow and outcomes. Note: this calls for the right company culture, or it will be rejected.

Minimize Waste: identify and eliminate activities that do not add value to the customer, gold-plating and redundancies.

How about you? Do you work in Kanban, or do you simply use a kanban board?