About the Kanban Framework template

Juggling multiple projects and deadlines can feel chaotic, leaving teams unsure of priorities and progress. The Kanban Framework template brings clarity to the chaos by providing a simple, visual system to manage your team's work. It helps you see everything in one place, making it easy to track progress, spot roadblocks, and keep everyone on the same page in your shared innovation workspace. The template is structured with swimlanes, allowing you to organize workstreams for different groups, such as "Team A" and "Team B," all on one board.

How to use the Kanban Framework template

• Add your tasks to the backlog. Begin by populating the “Todo” column with all your upcoming tasks, user stories, or work items, organizing them into the appropriate team swimlanes if needed. This creates a clear backlog for your team to pull from.

• Move tasks into progress. When a team member is ready to start on an item, they move the card from the “Todo” column to the “Doing” column. This provides a real-time, visual signal to the entire team that work has begun.

• Limit work in progress (WIP). To maintain focus and prevent bottlenecks, agree on a limit for how many cards can be in the “Doing” column at once. If the column is full, the team works together to move existing tasks forward before starting new ones.

• Track completion. Once a task is finished, move the card to the “Done” column. This not only provides a sense of accomplishment but also allows your team to measure its throughput and optimize its workflow over time.

• Foster Collaboration. Use interactive stickers to quickly capture feedback ('Need Feedback'), express reactions ('Love it!'), or signal that a topic requires a conversation ('Let's discuss'). This visual feedback loop enhances team alignment directly on the tasks themselves.

Why use the Kanban Framework template?

• Improve workflow efficiency. The visual nature of the Kanban board makes it easy to identify bottlenecks where work is getting stuck, allowing your team to address issues quickly and maintain a smooth, continuous flow.

• Increase team focus and productivity. By setting limits on work in progress (WIP), you prevent team members from getting overloaded and context-switching. This helps everyone focus on finishing tasks before starting new ones, leading to faster delivery.

• Enhance transparency and alignment. With all work visible on the board, everyone has a single source of truth for project status. This fosters better collaboration, reduces the need for status meetings, and ensures the whole team is aligned on priorities.

Learn as You Go. New to working in Kanban? The template includes helpful tips from the Agile Coaching Sidekick to get expert advice and learn about core Kanban principles and practices, ensuring your team gets up to speed quickly.