When we think of scaling Kanban, we usually think about applying Kanban's principles and mindset to more people or more teams.
"Kanban scaled" is fundamentally the same, just bigger.
If you were to "unscale" Kanban, what would that look like?
By analogy, you would still apply the same Kanban principles and mindset, but to fewer people, not more. The ultimate unscaled Kanban would be when you are directly optimizing the value delivered by a single person: yourself.
So why might you want to scale Kanban down to only yourself?
One reason is that you yourself are a complex system. Don't you deserve high-quality self-management?
In addition, for those of us who are interested in Kanban, unscaling Kanban like this is a perfect laboratory for learning how Kanban works not just in theory but in practice. Your day-to-day living becomes a Kanban lab of sorts where you can do rapid experiments on to solve your own problems without needing anyone's permission.
You will find that when you are using Kanban unscaled, your Kanban techniques change. Some techniques that are crucial for Kanban at the team or organizational level become no longer as important, change significantly, or even disappear entirely. Other techniques remain critical even at single-person scale. Seeing what changes and why is incredibly edifying.
Unscaling Kanban allows you to apply basic principles in a different context, which deepens and broadens your understanding of these fundamental ideas of Kanban. (E.g., how does it feel as you make trade-offs while actively managing yourself for effectiveness, efficiency, and predictability?)
I have been using Kanban unscaled to manage items in my personal life for over a year now. Both my flow metrics and my lived experience have shown me that Kanban is hugely positive when applied unscaled like this. In this article, I'm going to describe how I implement Kanban for my exclusive benefit.
This is Kanban unscaled.
I present this not in the hope that you will imitate my specific methods. Just like my clothes will not fit you well, my methods will not fit you either. I offer my methods to encourage you to experiment and find your own way. I was able to do it, and that means you can do it too, at your own pace, in your own way.
Principles:
- Follow the Kanban Guide
- Keep it simple.
- Keep trying until you find methods that work for you.
In the spirit of "keep it simple", my Kanban board is a letter-size manila file folder opened so it lays flat on my desk. I put sticky notes onto the inside of the folder itself.
I use small sticky notes, just large enough to write a few words onto each one.
The left side of the opened folder has room for a maximum of eighteen sticky notes without overlapping, since I have discovered that it's important for me to see all of my items at a glance. These left-side items are my Options.
The top right side of the opened folder holds my In Progress stickies. My WIP is limited to no less than one and no more than two. Why? Because this WIP limit leads me to a pleasing balance for my effectiveness, efficiency, and predictability.
The bottom right side holds today's Done stickies.
So three states in total: Options, In Progress, and Done.
I write the start date and the end date for that item in the lower corners of each sticky note. At the start of each day, I use a text editor to enter these dates into my flow metrics data file. This takes me less than thirty seconds per day to do. Cut-and-paste minimizes the amount I need to type.
When I travel, I close the folder with the stickies still in place and take it with me. When I arrive at my hotel, I just open my folder next to my laptop, and my Kanban board is up and running again.
What if I need more than eighteen options? It's rare that my Options area completely fills up like this, because I actively manage them. When it does, that is a signal for me to stop work and prune my old options to make room for new ones. Out of eighteen options, there's always at least one I can delete or renegotiate. Limiting WIP is something we talk about frequently in Kanban, but limiting my options like this has proven to be a worthwhile practice for me.
Active management happens formally once a day, usually in the morning over a cup of tea. I review my Kanban board, update my flow metrics data file, review my flow metrics, decide what I want to do next, and throw away all the Done sticky notes that have accumulated since yesterday. In total, this takes less than two minutes to do.
Additionally, there are dozens of informal moments for active management that happen throughout the day, whenever I create new stickies, purge old ones, and consider what my next moves should be.
Anything that I want to consider as a future option but not as a current option I store as a reminder in my calendar. I review my calendar once a day and create new options stickies based on today's reminders.
I use a text file to store the data to generate flow metrics. I update this file daily using a text editor. I generate my flow metrics with an AWK script and display them using gnuplot.
I use these tools because they are simple enough for me to set up and maintain by myself. Better tools are available.
None of this is cumbersome or difficult. If this was difficult to do, I never would have kept doing it.
I am sure there are many reasons why my methods won't work for you. If you choose to unscale your own Kanban, I encourage you not to worry about all the things you think of
that you can't do and that won't work for you. Instead, read the Kanban Guide, figure out what you can do, then do that instead.
Good luck with your unscaling. Please let me know how it works out for you.