Kanban boards inside messengers: Does it boost productivity?

Illustration of the Kanban board tasks
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Kanban boards integrated into messaging apps significantly increase team productivity and visualize tasks. They help create an agile communication environment and manage tasks effectively. When your goal is to make the most of time and resources, a Kanban board is the right tool to visualize things, track who and what is doing, and how much remains to be done. Software developers, sales teams, marketers, HR teams, and more have adopted Kanban to reduce waste and increase efficiency. Let's see what makes this tool so popular and whether it really boosts productivity.

How Kanban Board facilitates workflow

A Kanban board represents the workflow of tasks or projects visually through a board with columns and cards. Each column on the board signifies a specific stage of work, while the cards represent individual tasks.

Here are the main principles of the Kanban board:

  • Improves workflow transparency. The card system of the Kanban board shows the tasks that are being worked on, done, and backlog. Managers can easily monitor the success and make reports based on the information on the Kanban board.
  • Visualizes tasks. Everyone sees the status of work items at a glance. By displaying all tasks as cards on the board, team members can quickly understand what needs to be done.
  • Helps to detect bottlenecks and delays. Monitoring the flow of work through the Kanban board allows you to identify bottlenecks or interruptions in real time. This way, you can quickly take the necessary measures and save projects from failed deadlines.
  • Limits the number of tasks in progress. The Kandan board prevents team members from taking too many tasks and helps them to focus on bottlenecks.
  • Enhances team collaboration. By having a visual representation of the workflow at their fingertips, team members collaborate more efficiently and actively participate in task distribution.

Differences between stand-alone and integrated Kanban boards

Kanban board in instant messenger and Kanban board as a separate application have certain differences. Let's compare Trello and Task Board in Virola Messenger:

Features Trello Free Package Task board in Virola Messenger
Price $0 $0
Workspaces Unlimited 1
Boards 10 1
Collaborators 10 Unlimited
Storage 10MB/file Unlimited
Workspace command 250/month
iOS and Android mobile apps
Activity Log
Tasks from messages

Platforms for project management, like Trello, have powerful features for task tracking. They can be integrated with instant messaging apps, like Teams and Slack. However, you will need to pay additionally for this integration and purchase both subscription packages. At the same time, Virola offers a free integrated Task Board. It is quite simple and is not overloaded with features. However, it provides everything you need to monitor and track tasks:

  • Cards with issue status, priority, assigner, and assignee
  • Powerful filters to view tasks per chat group, assignee, priority, or status
  • Unlimited file storage
  • Viewing task in chat history
  • Discussion per task
  • User mentions

Depending on your team size and requirements, using an integrated Kanban board can be very convenient and cost-effective, as you will easily access all information and your team will have everything at their fingertips.

Benefits of an integrated Kandan board compared to a stand-alone tool

Instant messengers with integrated Kanban boards make the communication and collaboration process not only simpler but also more secure, since all communication is conducted in one place. Let's talk about the benefits of using an integrated Kanban board vs a stand-alone platform:

  • More focus. Constant jumping between tools wastes mental energy and distracts. Having all tools in one ecosystem makes communication smoother, more secure, and facilitates workflow.
  • Real-time collaboration in one place. You can discuss everything in one place, create tasks and issues from chat messages, and have everything at your fingertips.
  • Integrated search and conversation history. You can get all the information with one search without the necessity to jump between tools.

With the help of an integrated Kanban board, you can easily turn conversations into action, keep all your team on the same page, and reduce tool fatigue.