What is a Kanban board?
Kanban is a visual method before it is a feature. Work is written on a card, cards sit in columns that represent stages, and moving a card is the update. The board is a picture of flow, not a schedule.
What matters here
- Columns represent stages of work
- Cards hold one item each
- Limits on work in progress expose bottlenecks
- Movement replaces status meetings
- Useful when the order of work changes often
Where the method comes from
Kanban started on factory floors as a way to signal that a step was ready for more input. Software borrowed the board because the visual is immediately readable: you can see a pile up in review without asking anyone.
Columns should match your stages
A generic to do, doing, done board is fine for personal work. Teams get more from columns that match their real handoffs, because the interesting information is where cards wait.
The trap of the tidy board
A board that is never updated is worse than no board, because it looks authoritative while being wrong. If moving cards feels like reporting, the board will rot.
Frequently asked questions
Keep reading
- What is a countdown timer?A countdown timer counts down to a moment, such as a deadline, a launch or eight minutes of steeping tea.
- What is an epic?An epic is a large body of work that can be broken into smaller stories, used to keep a big goal visible without turning it into one enormous task.
- Prysm Note for travel planningA trip plan that holds bookings, a day by day outline and the small errands that make travel easy, without turning into a spreadsheet.
Turn talk into a plan
Capture a thought in plain language and let Prysm Note shape it into tasks and a timeline.
Disclaimer
This page is general information, not professional, legal, financial or medical advice. It describes common ways of working and how Prysm Note approaches them. Software changes over time, so details may differ from what you see in the product. Any product, company or brand names that appear are the property of their respective owners and are used only for identification. We do not claim any endorsement or affiliation. Where we compare approaches, we aim to describe each one honestly, including where a different approach may suit you better. Try the tools that matter to you and judge for yourself.