The Power of Kanban Boards: Beyond Agile for Product Teams

Kanban boards are a common tool in both Agile methodologies and Lean Management, but they serve different purposes in each context.

In Agile, Kanban boards visualize workflow stages, fostering team discussions about current tasks. This transparency helps Scrum Masters or managers understand team progress.

In Lean, Kanban boards represent deliverables, not tasks. By setting due dates on Kanbans, we can:

• Track progress against pull plans (more on that on an upcoming post #teasing),
• Identify problems early and be able to defuse bombs that would block our way,
• Trigger Andon automatically: In Lean and the Toyota Production System (TPS), Andon is a system for raising help requests. For instance in the factory, traditional Andon might be a song or a loud spearker call, triggered by delays, but Kanban boards can serve as a digital Andon, alerting team leaders on some flow issues.

The great benefits of Kanban Boards is their ability to focus on One Piece Flow. While Agile limits the number of simultaneous tasks, Lean emphasizes on the "One Piece Flow," focusing on completing tasks one at a time. Kanban boards help visualize and manage this flow.

Adapting Kanban for Product Teams

While Kanban boards are familiar to tech teams using user stories and epics, adapting them for product managers and designers can be challenging.

Here's how I use Kanban boards with my product managers:

• Daily Reviews:?Daily Kanban reviews help us identify and address issues that might arise when deadlines shift or work stalls.
• Focus and Prioritization:?Reviews keep the team focused on the right tasks and priorities, ensuring we're working on the most impactful things (more on this coming soon!).
• Raise Andon as seen earlier

So give it a try. Using Kanbans with your Product Team or your Design Team is really hard at the beginning, but it’s worth it.

Image credits: Wikimedia commons + Canva IA