7 Kanban Board Examples for Real Teams (With Columns You Can Copy)
The best way to design a kanban board is to steal one that already works. Below are seven boards for different kinds of teams, each with columns, card rules and one tip that makes it work. Copy the closest one, run it for two weeks, then adjust.
- Most boards need only 4–5 columns; the difference between teams is what the columns mean.
- Every example keeps one owner per card and a limit on work in progress.
- A "review" stage appears in almost every board — it's where small teams lose the most time.
- Start with the closest example and change one thing at a time.
1. Small software team
| Assigned | In progress | Code review | Testing | Done |
|---|
- Card: one change that can be reviewed in under an hour.
- Rule: a card can't enter Testing until it's been reviewed.
- Tip: set a WIP limit of 2 on Code review — waiting reviews slow everything down.
2. Marketing team
| Ideas | Assigned | In progress | Approval | Scheduled | Done |
|---|
- Card: one campaign asset — a post, an email, a landing page.
- Rule: every card in Approval names the approver in a comment with an @mention.
- Tip: keep Ideas separate from Assigned; ideas aren't commitments.
3. Design or creative agency
| Brief | In progress | Internal review | Client review | Revisions | Done |
|---|
- Card: one deliverable for one client, with the client name in the title.
- Rule: time is tracked on every card; client review time is not tracked, since nobody is working.
- Tip: watch how long cards sit in Client review — it's the most common cause of blown deadlines. See task management for agencies.
4. Content and blog
| Topic | Writing | Editing | Ready | Published |
|---|
- Card: one article, with the target keyword in the description.
- Rule: an article moves to Ready only with a title, meta description and image.
- Tip: track time per article to learn your real cost per post.
5. Customer support escalations
| New | Investigating | Waiting for customer | Fix in progress | Resolved |
|---|
- Card: one escalated issue, not every ticket.
- Rule: cards older than two days in Investigating are discussed at the daily check-in.
- Tip: "Waiting for customer" keeps the board honest — the team isn't blocked, the customer is.
6. Hiring pipeline
| Applied | Screening | Interview | Offer | Hired |
|---|
- Card: one candidate; the owner is the person responsible for the next step.
- Rule: every card has the next action and its date in a comment.
- Tip: close cards fast — candidates notice slow pipelines.
7. Personal board
| This week | Today | Doing | Done |
|---|
- Rule: Today holds no more than three cards.
- Tip: for personal tasks, an Eisenhower matrix often works better than a board.
Patterns across all examples
- A review stage exists almost everywhere. It's also where work waits the longest. Limit it.
- "Waiting" columns are honest. They separate blocked work from active work.
- One owner per card. In every example.
- Ideas ≠ work. Keep backlogs of ideas out of the flow of committed work.
Building it in Teamflows
Teamflows uses a fixed four-stage flow — Assigned, In progress, In review, Done — which covers most of these examples: use the description or comments for sub-stages like "client review", and track time on each card while it's in progress. Personal tasks go to the separate "My tasks" Eisenhower matrix.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most common kanban columns?
To do (or Assigned), In progress, Review and Done. Most boards are variations on these four.
Should different teams use different boards?
Yes. Each team's board should reflect its own workflow. Shared boards across teams work only when the stages are the same.
How many columns is too many?
When people can't explain the difference between two adjacent columns, you have too many. Six is a practical upper limit for small teams.
Can I use one board for multiple clients?
Yes — put the client name in the card title or use one board per client if the volume is high. See how to set up a kanban board.
We build Teamflows — a free kanban board with a timer inside every task — and use it every day at the Digital Plus studio to run dozens of client projects. Our guides come from that practice. Questions or corrections: mail@dp8.kz