What is Kanban? How to manage incoming work

Understanding your work's status is valuable, and agreeing on next steps keeps progress moving. In Asana’s 2024 State of Work Innovation research, 83% of surveyed knowledge workers reported that slow approval processes sometimes delayed their work. A Kanban board helps your team identify queues and decide who needs to act next.

Kanban supports Agile project management by helping teams adapt and improve over time. Start with how your team already works, then agree on when a task is ready to start, who reviews it, and when it’s complete.

While software and product teams were early adopters of Kanban, any team managing incoming work can benefit from it. This guide covers Kanban methodology’s core components and principles, how to set up a board, and how to manage requests and reviews using an example and a workflow template.

Who uses Kanban?

Kanban is most effective when work arrives continuously, and priorities frequently change. It is also well-suited for tasks that follow consistent review steps, such as content approvals or code reviews. Below are examples of how different teams use Kanban in project management.

Regardless of your team’s function, Kanban relies on limiting the number of tasks in progress at any time. A work-in-progress (WIP) limit sets the maximum number of tasks allowed in an active stage or across the workflow. When a stage reaches its limit, complete or unblock existing work before adding new tasks. This approach turns a visible queue into a prompt for action.

Five core components of Kanban

Kanban systems use several essential components to help teams organize work and track tasks from request to completion. As you build your board, use these elements to represent how your team reviews, starts, completes, and improves work.

1.  Kanban board

A Kanban board is where your team tracks every task in one place. Some teams use a whiteboard with sticky notes, while others use a digital board in a project management tool. In both cases, everyone can see task progress and identify dependencies and bottlenecks.

2. Kanban cards

Kanban cards represent individual tasks or work items. Each card should include essential details: task title, owner, due date, priority, description, and supporting files. For tasks requiring review, specify the reviewer and the requirements the deliverable must meet before completion.

3. Columns

Columns represent the stages a task progresses through. A basic board may include "To do," "In progress," and "Done," while more detailed boards can add stages such as "In review" or "Approved."

4. Swimlanes

Swimlanes are horizontal rows that separate categories of work within a board. You might group tasks by priority, assignee, or team, while stages appear in columns. Swimlanes are optional; begin with columns if they sufficiently represent your workflow.

5. WIP limits

A WIP limit is the team’s agreement on how much unfinished work a stage can hold. Begin with a stage where tasks often accumulate, such as review or approval, and adjust the limit as you assess team capacity. In Asana, note the agreed limit in the column name and project instructions so everyone knows when to stop adding work.

The core principles of Kanban

Apply these four change principles to introduce Kanban without overhauling your team’s existing processes. These principles guide improvements, while the six working practices explain how to manage the work itself.

1. Start with what you do now

You can incorporate Kanban practices into your team's current workflow. Start by mapping its actual stages and handoffs. Keep existing planning routines, including Scrum, as you identify where work is delayed.

2. Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change

Implement small improvements over time and build on successful changes. For example, agree on reviewer requirements before accepting a task, then assess whether fewer tasks are returned for missing information. You can test these changes without redesigning the entire workflow.

3. Respect the current process, roles, and responsibilities

Kanban does not require new job titles. Maintain your current team roles and structure, and agree on task ownership and review responsibilities.

Kanban also retains effective aspects of your existing process. For example, if your design team benefits from a weekly review, continue this practice and indicate where work waits for review. Agree on who prepares each deliverable and who checks it before the task advances.

4. Encourage acts of leadership at all levels

With Kanban, good ideas don't have to come from the top down. Kanban encourages everyone on the team to suggest better ways to run your process and take the lead on new initiatives.

What makes Kanban work?

A shared board displays the status of work. Kanban’s six practices help the team respond effectively:

• Visualize work. Show the stages each task passes through, including where it waits.

• Limit work in progress. Agree on how much unfinished work a stage can hold, and complete active work before starting new tasks.

• Manage flow. Identify aging tasks and blocked handoffs, then determine who will help move them forward.

• Make policies explicit. Write down what makes a task ready to start, ready for review, and complete.

• Build feedback loops. Regularly review waiting and completed tasks with the team members responsible for the work.

• Improve together. Test one change, evaluate the result, and decide as a team whether to keep or adjust it.

For example, when the review column is full, the next step is to resolve the work already waiting. Adding more cards to this stage increases the queue without increasing reviewer capacity.

Watch Asana’s Create a workflow in Asana video for an example of an ongoing request process. The board explanation begins at 1:10.

How to create a Kanban board in five easy steps

Kanban's first core principle is to start with your current process. You don't need to overhaul your workflow before you begin; simply map your existing process onto a board.

A work management tool like Asana enables you to set up a board in minutes. You can switch any Asana project to a Kanban-style board view and track each task from start to finish.

1. Start with a blank board

Start with a blank project or use Asana’s Kanban board template. If your tasks are already in an Asana project, switch to Board view to see them as cards. Begin with a small set of tasks to test the workflow before adding the entire backlog.

2. Create columns to represent work

Each column on a Kanban board represents a stage in your process. The specific columns will depend on your team, but most boards include variations of the following:

• Requests: Collect incoming work here while you check the brief and priority. A request can have an owner without having started.

• Ready: Move tasks here once the brief, priority, owner, and due date are agreed. The owner moves a task to the next stage when capacity allows.

• In progress: This column displays tasks your team is currently working on. You can divide this column into smaller stages. For example, a content team might use "Drafting" and "Editing," while an engineering team might use "Development" and "Testing."

• Review: Move a deliverable here when it meets entry requirements and the reviewer has capacity. If a task is blocked, document what is missing and who will address it next. Work that has started remains unfinished while it waits in this stage.

• Done: Move tasks here once the deliverable meets the agreed requirements and any required review is complete.

3. Add tasks to represent work

On a Kanban board, each task is represented by its own card. Begin each card title with a verb, such as "Draft launch email" or "Fix checkout bug," so your team knows exactly what action to take.

If you are using a digital board, keep the brief, files, and discussion attached to the card. Add an owner, due date, expected result, and review requirements so the next person knows what to check. Divide large cards into smaller deliverables when each can progress through review independently.

4. Move work through stages

Move the next task forward when it meets the stage’s entry requirements and capacity is available. Assignment alone does not indicate that a task has started. Before sending a deliverable to review, ensure its files, links, and other requirements are complete.

In Asana, you can drag tasks between columns or use rules to automate agreed steps, such as moving completed tasks to Done. Keep comments and files attached to the task so reviewers have full context. Set up automation to follow the team’s process rather than moving every assigned request directly into In Progress.

5. Review how work moves and improve the process

Because Kanban operates continuously, you can use the same board as long as it meets your team’s needs. There is no need to restart on a fixed schedule.

Review where tasks are waiting, how much work is completed, and why deliverables are returned for changes. Select one improvement to test, such as adding a required link to the review checklist, and agree on when to evaluate its effectiveness.

If you measure cycle time, define it consistently. For example, measure from when a task enters In progress to when it reaches Done. This approach captures total elapsed time, including waiting periods, rather than only active work hours.

Kanban example: Manage creative requests through review

Imagine a US creative team preparing a campaign launch. Nina coordinates requests, Leo writes the email and landing-page copy, Omar creates design assets, and Maya reviews the work. The team uses five stages: Requests, Ready, In progress, Review, and Done.

On November 9, 2026, six tasks are on the board. Design webinar banner is in Requests, Create social launch assets is in Ready, and Build launch landing page is in In progress. Create launch email and Update product one-pager are in Review. Approve campaign brief is in Done. This example Kanban workflow illustrates the team’s decision-making as tasks progress through review.

Agree when work is ready to start

Nina reviews each request’s expected result, brief, priority, owner, and due date. Design webinar banner is in Requests until these details are confirmed. Create social launch assets is ready to start and moves to Ready, where Omar can begin when he has capacity.

Ready indicates that a task is prepared to begin, not that it has started. Keeping these stages separate lets Nina collect and prioritize requests without committing the team to all tasks at once.

Keep Review within the team’s limit

The team agrees that Review can hold no more than two cards and notes “Review (limit 2)” in the column name. Maya currently has Create launch email and Update product one-pager to review, both due November 10.

Build launch landing page is due November 9, but Leo keeps it in In progress until it meets review requirements and a Review slot becomes available. He can complete the remaining checks or help resolve a blocker instead of adding a third card to Maya’s queue.

Two is this team’s initial agreement. Your team should set and review limits based on its own capacity. The column label makes the agreement visible, but it does not automatically prevent additional cards from being added.

Return incomplete work and finish the request

On November 9, Maya discovers that Create launch email is missing the final landing-page URL. She documents the missing requirement in a task comment, and Nina returns the task to In progress. Leo remains the owner, and Maya remains the reviewer.

Once the landing page is ready, Leo adds the final URL to the email task. He verifies the other requirements and returns the task when Review has capacity. Maya reviews the deliverable, and the team moves the approved email to Done.

The returned task remains work in progress while Leo addresses the missing URL. Moving it out of Review frees a review slot but does not eliminate the unfinished work or create additional capacity for Leo.

Use this Kanban workflow template

Copy the following agreement and adapt it with the team members who perform and review the work. Start with your current stages, then agree on the requirements each task must meet before progressing.

Use this blank version to define how your team will work. Rename the stages or add rows to align with your process.

For each card, complete the task title, requested outcome, owner, reviewer, due date, priority, files or links, acceptance requirements, and any blockers or next actions. If you plan to track elapsed time, also record when the request arrived, when work started, and when it was completed.

You can use this agreement without an account. To organize work in Asana, explore the Kanban board template and adapt it to your team’s stages.

Why teams use Asana for Kanban

A whiteboard can help a small team visualize its work. Kanban boards in Asana also retain the task owner, due date, brief, files, and review discussion with each card. Teams can coordinate incoming requests and handoffs while viewing the same work in multiple formats.

When selecting software, consider how it manages requests, reviews, automation, and reporting. Our Kanban software comparison can help you evaluate options. Asana AI Studio can classify and route incoming requests and send alerts, while your team determines priorities, capacity, and acceptance requirements.

The following customer experiences demonstrate how teams use Asana to review requests, coordinate recurring work, and return incomplete tasks for revisions.

Quadient: Coordinate recurring work across regions

Quadient’s marketing teams use Kanban-style boards for daily work, except for the annual user conference. Jayati Shah-Thiel explains that the boards help teams manage workloads and share improvements across regions. Tasks can also appear in multiple projects, enabling teams to collaborate on the same work.

“We set out to align our ways of working, and Asana has operationalised our Agile transformation,” said Jayati Shah-Thiel, Quadient’s Web Content Manager.

The key takeaway is to organize recurring work around shared stages and involve related teams. A board works best when team members can see both the tasks they own and the handoffs they rely on.

Read Quadient’s case study →

ClassPass: Review requests before assigning work

At ClassPass, channel owners submit creative briefs with due dates, ownership, and required approvals. Kerry Hoffman reviews each brief against department priorities, then moves it to the Creative Requests In Progress project and assigns the work.

“With Asana, we’re moving 30-40% faster than last year and we’ve launched almost twice as many ads,” said Kerry Hoffman, Senior Project Manager at ClassPass.

As the request progresses, teammates update its status using custom fields. Stakeholders are notified when an asset is ready for review and can provide feedback in task comments. Reviewing requests before assignment helps the team distinguish incoming demand from committed work.

Read ClassPass’s case study →

Trinny London: Send work forward or return it for changes

Trinny London coordinates photoshoot work across four boards: organizing shoots, retouching, editorial, and additional design. Design Ops Coordinator Penny Bavister established rules that move completed work to the next board. When something is missing, another rule updates its status and returns it to the previous board for further work.

“Asana is great for managing all tasks,” said Penny Bavister, Trinny London’s Design Ops Coordinator. “We have four boards solely for photoshoots: one to organise the shoots, one for retouching, one for editorial, and one for additional design.”

The team also keeps a task visible across boards to maintain communication. This provides the next person with the context needed to continue the work or explain required changes. For your workflow, agree on both the requirements for moving forward and the process for addressing missing elements.

Read Trinny’s case study →

Visualize your team's work

Choose one recurring workflow and agree on its stages, review requirements, and initial WIP limits. Add a small set of tasks, keep their owners and next actions visible, and review where work is waiting. You can use Asana’s Kanban board template to begin organizing this work with your team.

Get started with Asana

Frequently asked questions about Kanban