A Complete Guide to the Kanban Method

Kanban is a visual workflow management method that helps teams see projects at different stages of completion as they progress from start to finish. The idea is that better visualization of the entirety of a project can help highlight bottlenecks or work that has stalled.

To apply Kanban, it helps to understand its origins, why it works, and how to implement it in modern workflows. In this article, you’ll learn how Kanban helps teams improve flow, limit overload, and stay aligned on shared goals. You’ll also find out how platforms like Slack bring Kanban principles to life in a single collaborative hub.

What is Kanban, and how does it work?

The Kanban system is a workflow management method that helps teams visualize work using task cards, making the status and any bottlenecks obvious at a glance. Kanban is a Japanese concept meaning “visual sign,” “signpost,” or “card.” It was coined by industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno, who was tasked with reducing waste and boosting efficiency at automotive factories in the 1940s. This approach is now a go-to system for managing tasks, projects, and workflows across many industries.

A typical Kanban setup includes a board with columns that represent workflow stages, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”” The columns may include sub-steps like “Code Review,” “Quality Assurance,” or “Stakeholder Approval” that vary by project. 

Each task in a project is represented on the board as a Kanban card that includes the task name, owner, deadline, and other relevant details. As work progresses, cards move from left to right across the board, making it easier for teams to see what’s happening and where projects are stuck.

One of the defining features of Kanban is its focus on limiting work in progress. Rather than starting multiple tasks and letting them pile up, team leads can set limits on how many tasks can be in each column at once. This encourages teams to complete existing work before starting new tasks, resulting in greater focus and fewer bottlenecks.

What are the Kanban principles?

The Kanban method is grounded in five core principles that help teams optimize workflows and improve performance over time:

• Visualize workflow. Display your process visually with a Kanban board, making it easy for everyone to see the status of each task and identify blockers.
• Limit work in progress. Set limits on the number of tasks in each stage at any given time. This prevents overload, minimizes context switching, and helps teams focus on finishing work before starting new items.
• Focus on flow. Monitor how quickly and smoothly items move through the system and eliminate friction points to improve throughput.
• Make process policies explicit. Define clear rules for how work progresses from one stage to the next. Explicit policies help manage expectations across teams and projects and reduce confusion.
• Implement feedback loops. Regular reviews, retrospectives, and performance metric readouts help teams reflect on what improvements are needed.

These core principles come to life in Slack, which integrates with many major Kanban project management tools. Using Slack channels alongside Kanban boards keeps the whole team aligned on board changes, blockers, and decisions.

Steps for getting started with Kanban

Using the Kanban method doesn’t require a massive operational overhaul. In fact, it works best when you start with a single, simple board, then iterate and scale from there.

1. Create a project board

Choose one team or project to pilot your Kanban board. Keep the initial columns simple, such as To Do, In Progress, and Done, and add steps later if needed. This gives everyone a chance to get familiar with the approach and adopt the process gradually.

2. Define workflow stages

Work with your team to identify the key stages of your workflow. These should reflect how work progresses, not just the ideal number of steps or stages to finish projects. For example, a marketing team might have columns such as Intake Approved, Intake Denied, Backlog, Drafting, In Review, or Published.

3. Set work-in-progress limits

Decide how many tasks can be in each stage at once. For example, you might limit In Progress to three tasks. These limits help teams focus on completing work rather than leaving tasks unfinished. Adjust limits over time based on team capacity or business needs.

4. Use Slack for notifications

Integrate Slack with your Kanban tool so board updates, such as new cards, status changes, and deadline reminders, are posted in relevant channels. This reduces context switching and keeps everyone in sync. Slack notifications can also alert teams when work-in-progress limits are reached.

5. Encourage daily updates via channels

Make it a habit for team members to update card statuses regularly, especially before daily stand-ups or weekly check-ins. If a task is blocked, move it to the Blocked column and discuss solutions in the Slack channels where teams are already collaborating. 

6. Review metrics weekly 

Review key flow metrics such as lead time and cycle time to understand how work moves through the system. Hold a weekly review to adjust work-in-progress limits, revisit workflow stages, and discuss ways to smooth bottlenecks.

Checklist for the first 30 days of Kanban

Starting small with Kanban makes it easier to establish a proof of concept within your first 30 days. For example, you can:

• Create your first Kanban board
• Set initial work-in-progress limits
• Connect your board to Slack channels
• Hold daily stand-ups with board updates
• Conduct your first workflow review
• Adjust columns and work-in-progress limits based on feedback
• Share progress and insights with the broader team

With a completed 30-day checklist in hand, you can make the case to leaders to scale and expand Kanban adoption.

The benefits of Kanban for project management

The Kanban system can simplify workflow management by streamlining processes and improving transparency and efficiency.

Here are a few key ways teams can benefit from implementing the Kanban system:

• Increased efficiency. The Kanban method helps you focus on completing tasks instead of juggling too many things at once. By integrating Slack into this system, you can set up task list alerts and reminders, so team members get notifications about project updates and deadlines without switching platforms.
• Better visibility. With a visual project map, it’s easier to see where each step or task stands. You’ll always know what’s coming next and what needs your attention most. Plus, you don’t have to worry about digging through spreadsheets, emails, or direct messages to find information.
• Fewer bottlenecks. If work starts piling up at one stage, or specific team members are overwhelmed with tasks, the Kanban system helps you quickly identify the issue and address it before it slows the project.
• Improved collaboration. The transparent Kanban system ensures that teams always know who’s working on what. Slack users can integrate with Kanban tools like Trello to let your team share real-time project updates, add new cards to boards, change due dates, attach conversations, and a lot more, directly from Slack. This alignment can help reduce confusion, improve team collaboration, and make handoffs smoother.
• Proactive decision-making. A Kanban approach helps teams prioritize the most important tasks. Slack AI can then analyze past and present data to give project managers quick, critical, and actionable insights. For example, if an important upcoming task has historically been delayed by lengthy approval processes or supply chain issues, you can address these before they become a problem.
• Reduced stress. By limiting the number of tasks anyone tackles at once, project managers can keep workloads manageable. Slack can provide an additional layer of support through automated reminders and progress check-ins via project channels or team huddles.
• Continual improvement. A Kanban workflow can help you spot patterns and trends and generate insights you can apply to future projects. Whether you’re striving for better resource allocation or time management, you can capture the data you need to optimize your workflow, find new ways to improve, and adapt for better results.

Kanban best practices

Keep these Kanban best practices in mind as you build and optimize workflows, whether you’re starting small with several projects or scaling the method across an entire organization.

• Visualize every workflow stage. Include all meaningful steps, from Backlog to Done, to spot bottlenecks early.
• Limit work in progress. Cap active tasks per stage to help prevent overload, reduce delays, and maintain a steady flow from start to finish.
• Review and refine regularly. Hold short retrospectives throughout the project to identify improvements and address stuck items in real time. One of Kanban’s key strengths is its emphasis on iteration and refinement.
• Prioritize transparency. Use consistent labels, terminology, assigned owners, and clear due dates to ensure work progresses smoothly.
• Use Slack for real-time feedback. As the central hub for collaboration, Slack channels and threads enable teams to discuss board changes, flag issues, and make decisions together.

Wherever you sit in an organization, these best practices help establish the Kanban method as an iterative, effective system that supports the dynamic nature of cross-functional projects.

Kanban vs. Scrum vs. Agile: Key differences

Kanban method is often discussed alongside Scrum and Agile, but they’re not the same. 

Agile vs. Scrum is a common but somewhat misleading comparison. Agile, an umbrella term for adaptive project management, includes methodologies such as Kanban and Scrum.

When comparing Scrum vs. Kanban, consider their frameworks to determine which approach works best for your team or organization. Kanban is regarded as a flow-based method that visualizes work and adapts continuously. Scrum structures work into fixed-length sprints with defined roles and events, or ceremonies, as they’re called in the framework. Kanban has teams pull work as capacity allows, whereas Scrum commits to a set scope for each sprint.

In an Agile workflow, Kanban and Scrum can coexist or be blended. This blended approach, sometimes called Scrumban, applies Kanban’s flow principles within Scrum’s structured sprints. Slack workflows can support either methodology by integrating planning tools, notifications, and retrospective updates.

This chart shows how Kanban, Scrum, and Agile compare:

How to implement Kanban in Slack

Slack integrates with many Kanban project management tools, helping teams collaborate more effectively through instant notifications and updates. With AI powering notifications and updates, important workflow notifications are less likely to slip through the cracks.

With the right tools, your everyday processes can become more streamlined with each new project. Here’s how to get started with implementing Kanban in Slack:

1. Choose your Kanban board tool

Use a Kanban-friendly tool that integrates with Slack, such as Trello, Jira, Asana, Notion, Miro, or ClickUp, to create your board. This Kanban board will be the single source of truth for this project.

2. Define columns for workflow stages

Create columns that reflect each meaningful step in your process between Backlog and Done. Include columns such as Blocked or Review as needed. Align with leadership on the terminology everyone will use on the boards to reduce miscommunication.

3. Add task cards

Each card should include:

• Task title
• Owner or assignee
• Deadline
• Relevant notes or attachments

Use colors or tags to indicate priority and type. Given Kanban’s highly visual nature, unique colors can highlight urgency — for example, using red for a Blocked task.

4. Connect to Slack

Integrate your board so updates, including new cards, status changes, and deadlines, automatically post to designated Slack channels. This helps keep everyone informed asynchronously, either before or instead of a live sync meeting. Deploying Kanban for remote and hybrid teams can be especially helpful in these situations.

5. Use Slack updates to track progress

You can set up Slack to automate alerts, such as notifying specific channels when work-in-progress limits are approaching or hit, when a task is overdue, or when a card moves through the workflow. 

Encourage team members to report progress and blockers in Slack threads tied to specific cards, keeping communication and visibility in one tool. Use message actions to convert Slack messages into tasks or assign owners, reducing manual updates and one-off stakeholder communications. For example, if someone spots an issue and responds in Slack, a project manager or team lead can turn their comment into an action with a new owner.

After following this five-step implementation, teams can monitor progress, tackle problems, and celebrate completions, all in one place.

How to measure Kanban success

Measuring Kanban success is about understanding how work flows and improving that flow over time. That means reviewing metrics with an eye toward continual improvement rather than perfection. Track these key metrics when evaluating the success of any workflow.

• Lead time: Total time from task request to delivery
• Cycle time: Time from when work starts to when it’s completed
• Throughput: Number of tasks completed in a specific time period
• Work-in-progress trends: How often limits are reached or exceeded

Tracking these metrics helps teams identify bottlenecks, predict delivery timelines, and adjust workflows. Many Kanban tools include dashboards with built-in analytics that show trends over time. When integrated with Slack, alerts for slow cycle times or overloaded columns help teams respond quickly before problems escalate. Plus, teams can use Slack analytics to monitor channel engagement and member activity to understand how the team engages with the project.

Best Kanban tools and integrations

These are some of the best project management software tools that support Kanban workflows and integrate well with Slack. Receive notifications, comment on tasks, assign owners, set reminders, and more — all without leaving your workspace.

• Trello. Lightweight board with cards and lists; integrates deeply with Slack channels for updates and actions, such as enabling users to add Trello cards to boards without leaving Slack.
• Jira. Robust Agile project management tool for managing and reporting software bugs, with configurable Kanban boards. A new Jira bot can post messages to relevant Slack channels, such as a summary of a reported bug.
• Asana. Flexible task and project management with board views, allowing users to turn Slack conversations into Asana tasks or take action on tasks directly from Slack.
• Notion. All-in-one workspace and knowledge management platform with Kanban boards. It allows users to turn updated knowledge from Slack conversations into Notion, preserving the organization’s source of truth.
• Miro. Collaborative visual whiteboards that are ideal for mapping workflow stages. When integrated with Slack, stakeholders can stay up to date on sticky-note updates or “at” tagged comments on a board.
• ClickUp. Customizable boards and task views with rich integrations, which also allow users to create tasks from Slack and receive real-time updates from a ClickUp Space.

Kanban in action: real-world examples

Whether you’re managing sales pipelines, software development sprints, or manufacturing production lines, Kanban can help you visualize tasks, prioritize effectively, and improve overall efficiency. Here’s how Kanban works in practice across different types of teams.

Sales teams

Sales teams handle multiple leads, proposals, and follow-ups, which can be overwhelming without a clear system. A Kanban board tracks leads through each stage of the pipeline, from initial contact to closed deals. This visibility makes it easier to see where deals are stalled and to coordinate follow-ups. Real-time Slack updates keep everyone informed when leads change status, ensuring no opportunity slips through the cracks.

Software development

In software development, Kanban is a powerful tool for managing sprints — short, fixed-length periods during which a team works together to complete a specific set of tasks — and resolving delays. Developers can break projects into tasks like To Do, In Progress, Code Review, and Deployed. Integration with Slack means that when a card moves to Review or gets blocked, the right people are notified instantly.

Manufacturing

Manufacturers can track production stages, including Raw Materials, In Production, Quality Check, and Ready to Ship. Kanban cards can signal when inventory needs replenishment or when production stages are overloaded. For example, a car manufacturer might use Kanban cards to signal when more parts are needed on the assembly line. These signals make it easier to balance supply and demand.

Get an efficiency upgrade with Kanban and Slack

Instead of wasting hours tracking down project details or resolving delays, you can adopt Kanban project management software to quickly organize next steps and manage projects effectively.

One way to get organized and keep your teams aligned is to integrate Slack with your preferred Kanban software. Because Slack integrates with many major project management tools, teams can collaborate and receive instant notifications and AI-generated updates for any project. With the right tools, you can streamline everyday processes and improve projects.

Visit the Slack integration directory to connect your favorite Kanban tool and start transforming team operations and output today.

Kanban method FAQs