Kanban cards: what to put on them, with examples

Kanban is Japanese for a signboard or visual signal. In Toyota's production system, a kanban card was a physical signal to make or deliver more parts: when a bin of parts ran out, its card went back upstream to ask for more. Factories and warehouses still use kanban cards this way to restock inventory.

In knowledge work, a kanban card is one piece of work on a board. It moves from column to column as the work moves, so anyone can see what's waiting, what's in progress and what's done without asking.

Always:

• A title that says what will be different when the card is done.
• An owner, once someone starts it.

When it helps:

• A description with the context someone needs to start: why it matters, links, and what done looks like.
• A checklist for the steps, so progress shows without opening the card.
• A due date, only if the date is real. A board where every card has a date makes the dates mean nothing.
• A priority for the few cards that must jump the queue.
• A size, if the team plans sprints or wants to spot cards that are too big.
• Tags for the area or customer it belongs to.

Decisions, questions and files go on the card too, as comments and attachments, so they aren't lost in a chat thread.

A good title describes the outcome, in words someone outside the team would understand, short enough to read on the board.

• Weak: "Login"
• Better: "Sign in with Google"
• Weak: "Look into slow page"
• Better: "Pricing page loads in under 2 seconds"
• Weak: "Email stuff"
• Better: "Send the welcome email after sign-up"

Start with a verb or describe the end state. Avoid titles that only make sense to the person who wrote them.

Small enough to finish in a few days. Large cards wait longer, hide more surprises and sit in In Progress for weeks, which makes the board look busy while nothing finishes.

If a card would take more than a week, split it by outcome: what could be finished and shown on its own? "Billing page" might become "Show the current plan", "Change plan" and "Download invoices". A checklist covers the steps inside one card; separate cards cover separate outcomes.

The Kanban Method describes 4 classes of service: kinds of card that move through the board under different rules.

• Expedite: urgent work that goes ahead of everything else, like a production outage. Allow very few at once.
• Fixed date: work with a real deadline, like a contract date or a launch. It gets pulled early enough to make it.
• Standard: most work. First in, first out, in priority order.
• Intangible: work with no deadline that still matters, like paying down technical debt. It fills the gaps.

On a board, these are usually shown with a colour, a tag or a priority, so everyone can see which rules apply to a card at a glance.

• Cards as reminders. "Think about pricing" never moves. Make it a decision: "Choose the Pro price".
• One card, many outcomes. If a card needs a long checklist of unrelated items, it's several cards.
• Hidden blockers. A card waiting on someone should say so, with a comment or a Waiting column.
• Cards nobody owns. Once work starts, every card in progress needs a name on it.
• Dead cards. Archive what you'll never do. A shorter board is easier to trust.

A craaft card holds a title and description, an assignee, a due date, a priority from low to urgent, a size, tags, a checklist, and threaded comments with @mentions. On Pro, cards hold files too. Its activity log records every move and change, with who made it and when.

• Use the urgent priority for expedite cards, and a due date for fixed-date ones.
• Tags mark the area or customer a card belongs to, and the board filters by them.
• Focus flags cards that need tidying: no details, untouched for 2 weeks, or yours without a date.
• Press P on a card to copy it, with its checklist, newest comments and the board's brief, as a prompt for Claude, Cursor or any chat window.

Start with the kanban board template, or see kanban board examples for the columns other teams use.