WWW… Wednesday! Trello – Kanban Board App

I recently wrote about how Kanban Boards can be useful in creative processes for both teams and individuals. If you’ve read that piece then you understand what a Kanban Board is, but for those who haven’t, a Kanban Board is a system for visualizing goals and the various tasks that contribute to their completion. The board as a whole can be made to represent a goal. That goal is then divided into columns to represent the various stages in the process towards its completion. Any individual tasks that contribute towards the goal are placed onto cards.

The cards begin in the left-most column and as you work on them, they progress towards the right until they reach the final column to mark their completion. Kanban Boards are great tools for keeping teams of any size on the same page throughout a project, but are also useful to individuals, especially if you’re juggling multiple projects at once.

In traditional work settings, like an office space or factory, these boards would be placed in a high-traffic area with great visibility. These days, it’s common to work with both clients and teams remotely, but that doesn’t mean Kanban Boards are out of the question. In these cases, Kanban Board apps provide all the same utility of a traditional board with additional quirks unique to their digital nature.

Trello is one such app. It functions in very much the same way as your standard Kanban Board. It allows you to create goals and invite others to join your project. You can create cards that can be further detailed with due dates, checklists, and progress towards completion. You can also easily delegate tasks and manage team members by leaving comments on projects and individual cards. Just like a physical Kanban Board, you’ll outline the plan of attack with lists and chart the steps toward completion using the same intuitive left to right flow to keep track of what’s finished and what requires more work.

Additionally, Trello integrates with other tools commonly used by teams such as Slack, Dropbox, and Evernote. Users can easily link to projects and share files from other apps as attachments, reducing the need to jump back and forth between programs to keep in touch. Trello is a great tool for teams who are unable to meet in person, but its possibilities don’t end there. You can invite anyone to your project so the potential applications are virtually endless. Organize your next Dungeons and Dragons campaign, cross-country road trip, or even a surprise party. Trello’s utility is only limited by your imagination. You can try it for yourself here.