Kanban View
Manage your work like Toyota does.
How to use Kanban View
In addition to the task list and Eisenhower views, you can work in Kanban mode within any project
To use Kanban mode, from within your project, look for the “K” in the top bar.
All of the Project Tasks are aligned into one of four columns. You can drag and drop Task Cards from one column to another, and if you want to edit a Task, simply click on it.
Kanban works best when you keep the amount of work “in progress” (blue column) and “blocked” (red/pink) to a minimum. To sum it up in one sentence: “multi-tasking is evil”. 🙂
About Kanban
Kanban was invented by Toyota industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno in the late 1940s as part of the Toyota Production System. The word “kanban” is Japanese and roughly means “signboard” or “visual card,” referring to the cards used to signal demand and control inventory in a pull system.
Meaning and origin
- Kanban originated in Toyota manufacturing to reduce waste and synchronize production with actual customer demand via a just‑in‑time pull system.
- The physical kanban cards signaled when to produce or move items, preventing overproduction and excess inventory.
Core principles (modern Kanban method)
In knowledge work and software, Kanban has been formalized (notably by David J. Anderson) into a small set of change principles and service delivery principles.
Change‑management principles
- Start with what you do now (do not rip‑and‑replace existing process).
- Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change instead of big‑bang transformations.
- Respect current roles, responsibilities, and titles while improving the system.
- Encourage acts of leadership at all levels, not just from formal managers.
Service‑delivery principles
- Focus on customers’ needs and expectations as the primary driver of work.
- Manage the work, not the workers: optimize flow rather than micromanaging people.
- Regularly review the network of services and how work flows across them.
Core everyday practices
In practice, teams experience Kanban through six widely cited core practices.
- Visualize work, workflow, and risks (e.g., Kanban board with columns and cards).
- Limit work in progress (WIP) to reduce multitasking and context switching.
- Manage flow by monitoring how smoothly work moves from start to finish and addressing bottlenecks.
- Make process policies explicit so everyone understands how work is selected, started, and finished.
- Implement feedback loops (stand‑ups, reviews, operations reviews) to adjust the system frequently.
- Improve collaboratively, evolve experimentally using data and small changes (e.g., adjust WIP limits, column definitions)