6 Kanban board templates to support your project management

Imagine your team is trying to complete a complex task.

There are tons of moving parts and deadlines, and you’re finding it hard to track what task is at what stage. And because of that oversight, you end up missing a key milestone.

Your team needs the right system in place to visualize and streamline work — one that lets you easily see task statuses and shift to-dos whenever necessary. Enter Kanban project management.

Kanban boards show you ongoing work in one place, giving your team an easy way to manage busy workloads without dropping the ball. And project board templates make the set-up process even faster.

A Kanban board is a visual representation of the tasks in a given project. It displays ongoing work quickly, shows the tasks your team needs to complete, and tracks what you’ve already done. 

The most notable feature of the Kanban board is its card system. Each task has its own card, on which you can add assignees, highlight due dates, and attach any relevant docs or links. And you can drag and drop it to new statuses in seconds — usually “To-Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”

You can use Kanban tools for just about any project, from software engineering to a marketing campaign. In software development, it could track the progress of coding or testing, or in content creation, it could visualize the progress of social media posts as they move through different stages. You could even apply it to your own personal productivity goals.

A Kanban board template is a pre-designed Kanban layout that lets you plug in information quickly without worrying about formatting. They’ll differ slightly depending on the platform you use, but these templates typically include:

• Cards — cards represent the tasks your team needs to accomplish. You can also use them to represent an activity or exercise, such as a meeting or training session. 

• Columns — use these to show the progress of tasks: and are usually named “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” But you can adjust them to your team’s needs. Depending on the task type, you might want to add “Requested” or “Awaiting Feedback.” 

• Work-in-progress (WIP) limits — most Kanban boards come with a WIP limit that caps the number of tasks a team can work on at a given time. This ensures your team isn't overwhelmed with work, which could lead to missed deadlines or low-quality deliverables.

• Swimlanes — you can use swimlanes, which are horizontal lines that turn or point to where a certain card is going, to set the priority or category of your Kanban tasks. Some templates will display these by default, and others might require you to turn this feature on in the settings.

Kanboard templates ease your prep process by giving you a pre-set system — all you have to do is copy and paste your information. Here are more benefits of using a Kanban board online:

• Saves time — using Kanban board templates allows you to save time during planning. You don't have to waste time creating labels or columns manually because they’re already there for you.

• Customizes your process — you can use these boards for any project, and templates allow you to change the existing details in a few minutes to suit your needs.

• Promotes focus — Kanban boards provide a high-level overview of your project, and you can see the state of your project in minutes. This no-nonsense broad approach helps complete tasks without the distraction of minute details. 

Kanban project management is about more than the board itself. It’s about streamlining your team’s day-to-day and planning ahead to make the whole process easier for everyone.

Here are a few effective free Kanban board templates to try:

This traditional Kanban board does everything you need it to — and then some. It has “To-do,” “In Progress,” and "Complete” columns, along with enough space to add more if necessary. This template is entirely customizable and comes with swimlanes and filter options. 

The Projects & Tasks template is excellent for managers looking to keep track of every piece of the puzzle in the same place. Your team can view projects as a Kanban board, a table, or a calendar — whatever makes the most sense for your workflow. You can also include designs, assign due dates, and indicate task priority with color-coded tags. 

The Agile project management template embraces the Kanban style, allowing you to divide projects into smaller tasks and view them in a sprint timeline. You can organize tasks into different sprints and look at a quick breakdown of the task, status, and due date without even leaving the page. And you can hide finished or canceled cards so they don’t clutter your board.

The Issue Tracker template is perfect for high-risk projects with lots on the go. It offers Kanban board features along with diverse filtering options so any team member can view cards in a style that works for them. You can also connect project tools like Figma, Slack, and Github to keep teams focused by working in one place.

Notion's tasks template is a time-saver for anyone looking to track their personal tasks on a private board — but it’s particularly useful for managers who want a high-level view of action items. You can view multiple projects spanning multiple teams in one place, and easily link out to more detailed or specific pages. 

The project hub template is an all-in-one design that allows you to create Kanban boards, define and track teams, and plan your calendar in one place. You can build your project knowledge base with predefined sections like “competitors,” “analysis,” and “customer segments,” and easily share it with your team so everyone’s on the same page. Plan everything in this template from scratch, from the project vision statement to sprint plans. 

If you want to take greater control of your project or make task-tracking faster for every key player on your team, Notion has the templates to help you. 

The projects tutorial template will provide you with everything you need to start a project plan, with the help of Notion AI. And the dynamic project-task-skill tracker shows your day-to-day activities — and gives you the tools you need to grow professionally along the way.