Category Archives: Kanban & Lean

Posts related to Kanban and Lean methodology.

How to set up a good YouTube Video Production Workflow

December 20, 2022Best Practices, Kanban & Lean, Team CollaborationTask Board, Task Management, Teams, Templates, TutorialArun Kumar

Producing great video content is essential to a successful YouTube channel, but it can be a time-consuming task if you don’t have a proper process and workflow.

A very helpful tool for planning your content workflow is the Kanban board.

Kanban boards, like Kerika’s Task Boards, can help you plan and execute your video production process, ensuring that each step is completed in a timely and efficient manner.

In this article, we will show you how you can use Kerika to set up a great workflow and process for your YouTube video production.

A Workflow for You

This template will set you up with a good workflow. Each phase of this workflow is represented by a column; let’s take a look from left to right:

Resources

The cards in this column contain helpful resources for you to get started with. The first card, for example, helps you understand how to use video tags; the second card provides a guide for how to write a good video description. And so on.

Content Ideas

This is where you start to gather all your ideas for different videos. If you are having trouble coming up with ideas, take a look at the first card in this column.

Create Video Scripts

When you have decided a specific topic you want to work on, move its card from Content Ideas to this column and start writing your script. (And there’s a card in this column with some really useful tips on writing a template for a script.)

Record & Edit videos

Use this column to track the videos you are currently working on: once your script is ready, move the video’s card from the Create Video Script column to this column. This helps you keep track of the videos that are currently in production.

Review Videos

Once everything related to a particular is done, move its card to this column. This will help you track videos that are finished, but you haven’t published them yet.

Schedule / Publish Videos

When you have decided when to publish a video, move its card to this column. This way you and your teammates know which video is when going live. Kerika will remind you if you scheduled a video but forgot to publish it.

Promote Videos

Promoting videos is essential to growing your YouTube channel: once a video is published, move its card to this column and create a checklist of where your videos should be shared and promoted.

Best Practices of Great Teams

If you are working just by yourself, you are ready to go. But if you are working for an agency or the Marketing department of a company, there will be others you need to get involved in this project.

Set up your Team Members

Kerika makes it really easy to organize your team: if there are people who will be actively involved in the video production, e.g. photographers or content writers, add them as Team Members on this board.

They will be able to make changes to this board in real-time, as they get their pieces ready, and everything that they do will be instantly accessible for everyone else that’s on this board’s team.

Set up your Visitors

There are often people who need to be informed, but aren’t necessarily going to contribute in an active way. For example, there may be a product owner who needs to keep track of videos that are relevant to their product, or a senior manager who wants to be kept in the loop.

Add these stakeholders as Visitors to this board team: they will always have a real-time view of what’s going on, but they won’t be able to move any cards or make any changes (in other words, mess up with your careful workflow!) and you won’t have to keep giving status reports. That’s a double-win.

Understand the Workflow

In a Kerika board, every column represents a particular stage in a workflow, and every card represents a specific task (e.g. a video that needs to be produced).

Start at the top-left

Open the first card in the first column
Read the instructions inside
Check out any resources that are attached to the card
Take action.

Some tasks are best handled by you, and others should clearly be handed off to coworkers.

Update the cards as work gets done

A card can be assigned to one or more people, and this can change throughout the course of the project: something is initially assigned to you and then gets handed off to someone else.
As cards get worked upon, update the status of each card: start with READY, then IN PROGRESS, and so on. This makes it easy for everyone to always have a clear idea of where things stand.
Set due dates. This will help you make sure nothing slips.
Use Kerika’s chat instead of email: this will keep your communications quick and focused.
Move cards along the columns as the work progresses.

Get to Done

The team’s goal is to get all your cards all the way over to Done, on the right-end of the board.

Sometimes things that were initiated need to be discarded: maybe something turns out to be a bad idea? In that case, move the card to the Trash column. (If you change your mind later, you can always retrieve items from the Trash.)

Kerika gives you Resources

The Resources column, the first in this workflow, contains six cards to help you get started:

Video Tags: Tags are important as they help YouTube algorithms understand what your video is about. This influences when your video appears in search results.
Video Description Template: one of the most important things you can do is create descriptive, keyword-rich video titles and descriptions. This will help your videos rank higher in search results and give your audience a better idea of what your video is actually about.
Video Thumbnail Template: Your thumbnail is what appears first on your YouTube channel and in the search results, so it needs to be eye-catching and representative of your video content.
How To Edit YouTube Videos Quickly: All successful YouTubers put a lot of time and effort into their editing because that is what helps them stand out from the crowd. This card has useful links, including some of the best video editing tools.
The Easiest Way To Write A Video Script: Writing a video script for YouTube can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. If you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you want to say it, the process can be relatively straightforward.
10+ Places To Share Your Video For More Views: Sharing your videos on other platforms lets you borrow their audience and show your content to people who might not have found it otherwise. This helps get more views and subscribers on your channel, which leads to more success on YouTube.

Start Generating Content Ideas

The second column is Content Ideas and it contains five cards:

How to Generate Video Ideas: content ideas are the basis for your YouTube videos, and without a clear idea, it is hard to plan, make, and edit videos that are engaging and effective.

This card will help you generate good video ideas. It gives you useful resources and a list of content ideas that you can use for your videos.
Your Video Ideas: Use this card to keep a list of video content ideas. Remember, no idea is too specific or too vague! Refer to this card when you need a content idea to work on.
Example Video (DUPLICATE THIS): This card will come in handy while writing your video script: it contains a template for writing content that you can duplicate for each of your content ideas and a checklist that divides the script writing process into smaller tasks.

(Example) Video Idea: Latest Smartphone Review is an example of a video idea that discusses the latest smartphones. This video needs a script to educate the viewers about the pros and cons of the latest smartphones launched this year.

(Example) Video idea: How to create a successful advertising campaign is another example of a video with tips on how to create an advertising campaign:

Create Video Scripts

This column contains two cards:

The first card will save you time by giving you a ready-made format for scripts. It offers a clear and consistent structure for you to follow, which can help organize your script ideas and ensure that you tell the story in the most compelling way possible.

The card also includes guidelines for things like video titles, introduction, body, conclusion, and call to action. It will help you follow industry-standard conventions and make it easy for you to read and follow later on.
The second card will help you write a script that keeps your audience interested and engaged in your content, and this card shares some of the most useful tips to help you with it.

Record & Edit Videos

This column contains two cards:

The first card helps you understand keyword optimization, which is an important aspect of creating and promoting YouTube videos.This will increase the number of views on your videos, ultimately leading to more engagement.
The second card has useful tips to improve the overall quality of your videos and make them more professional-looking.This will increase the chances that viewers will watch your videos all the way through and even share them with others. Overall, video editing is an important part of creating successful videos on YouTube.

Review Videos

As videos are ready, drag the video card here and assign them to the folks who will be reviewing them, and change the status of the card to NEEDS REVIEW. If you need feedback by a certain date, set the Due Date on this card so people understand its urgency relative to everything else that’s going on.

Schedule & Publish Videos

When a video is ready to be scheduled for publication, move its card here. This makes it easy for everyone to know what the publishing queue looks like.

Finally, Promote Your Video

When you promote your videos, you are essentially making people aware of its existence and inviting them to visit and subscribe. This can help attract more viewers and subscribers, which can in turn help your channel grow and become more successful.

We have some tips for you in this template.

Like what you just read?

Here’s the template: just one click, one the USE TEMPLATE button, will set you up with a new Kerika account and your first board, in just seconds.

You can try everything free, with your entire team, for 30 days.

How to manage a Product Launch

December 5, 2022Best Practices, Kanban & LeanTeams, WorkflowArun Kumar

A product launch is a critical moment for any company. It is the moment when a new product is introduced to the market and becomes available for purchase. A successful product launch can drive sales, create buzz, and generate excitement for a company and its products.

But before you launch your product, there’s a lot of preparation that needs to happen. Here’s a quick guide to launching your product successfully.

Pre-launch preparation.

As you prepare for your product launch, there are a few key things to keep in mind. First, you need to make sure that your product is ready for launch.

This could include collaborating with team members, creating a mock for a press release, finalizing the product name, planning media outreach and pitching, briefing experts and analysts, and more.

Check out the pre-launch preparation of this company.

Internal preparation documents:

Before launch day, you have to create an Internal preparation document that outlines everything that needs to be done.

It will help you stay organized and on track on the launch day. This prep document could be about what problems your product solves, building a buyer persona, and creating a growth strategy framework.

Create internal content.

This could include creating scripts for product demos, product battle cards, and creating content for talking points. This will ensure that your team is prepared for the lunch and ready to answer any questions that come up about the product.

Create external content

This is the content that will be used to promote your product, like product images and videos, content for the knowledge base, blog content, in-app messages, email announcements, landing page, etc.

Pre-launch internal & communication

Make sure everyone on your team knows about the product launch and what their role is. This will help prevent any confusion on launch day. This could include preparing the sales team, customer support team, content training, and PR team.

Pre-launch logistics.

This includes things like sending internal calendar invitations, updating staging/test versions, and sharing the launch day schedule. Basically, everything needs to be done to make sure the launch goes smoothly.

Launch day execution.

On launch day, make sure everything is ready to go. Do a final check of all your content, make sure your team is prepared, and then go live!

This includes pushing website updates, making landing pages, product pages and FAQ pages live, sending email announcements, pushing press releases, publishing a knowledge base, etc.

If you want to set up a board like this, we have a free template ready for you.

A new template: Career Development for your Employees

July 19, 2022Kanban & LeanEmployees, HR, TemplatesArun Kumar

We have a new Kerika template for folks who need to manage Career Development for their employees, in the private, public or nonprofit sectors.

This template contains all tasks you need to complete, and it also comes with document templates, like this one for doing a Performance Appraisal:

This template was prepared for Kerika by an experienced HR professional; we hope you find it useful!

Let us know what other templates we should be building.

How to make sure someone sees your Chat

February 12, 2022Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, UsabilityChat, Kanban, Notifications, Scrum, Task Board, Task Management, Usability, WorkflowArun Kumar

With our latest update we have made it easy for you to ensure that someone on a board team always sees your chat message, even if they are not assigned to that card.

The old rule was that everyone who is currently assigned to a card would get new chat pushed to them as emails. Now, you can make sure someone gets that email notification right away, even if they aren’t assigned to a particular card:

Screenshot showing examples of directed chat — Directed chat

Using this feature is simple: just type the letter “@” anywhere in your chat message and Kerika offers all the matching suggestions:

Screenshot showing example of sending new chat — Sending new chat

“@All” lets you push your chat to every Board Admin and Team Member — something you should do only rarely to avoid annoying people!

Try this feature and let us know if we can improve it.

A simple weekly calendar

February 4, 2022Kanban & LeanTemplatesArun Kumar

Here’s a simple template that you can use to plan your work week: for yourself, and the team.

Screenshot of simple template for Weekly Schedule — Click to view this template

How to use this template:

As tasks land on your desk through the day, add them as separate items (cards) in the left-most To Do column.
- At least once a day make sure everything in the To Do column is sorted by priority, with the most important items on the top of the column.
Every Monday plan out your week by dragging tasks from the To Do column to one of the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)
When you plan your week, consider any deadlines for your tasks. Not all tasks will have firm deadlines, but if they do, you should open the task and set a due date.
1. Click on your face/avatar in the top-right corner of the app and use the Sync Calendar option to make sure your due dates from Kerika also show up in whatever calendar you use: Apple, Microsoft or Google. This needs to be done only once: after you connect your personal calendar with your Kerika account, any changes in due dates that you make in Kerika will automatically show in your calendar as well.
Consider whether this is a personal calendar or a team calendar: if you want to plan out the week for an entire team, add them as Team Members to this board by clicking on the Board Team button. This is a great way to keep an entire team in sync.
If you are using this as a team board, when you pick up tasks one by one make sure you set the status of each to In Progress, or whatever is relevant. This makes it easy for everyone on the team to know what’s happening, which is especially important in these days of remote work.
When a task completes, mark it as Done! If you decide that a task doesn’t make sense anymore (maybe it is no longer needed?) you can move it to the Trash.

At the end of the week, hopefully, everything in the Monday through Friday columns will be moved to Done.

At the beginning of the next week, you can repeat the process: pull items from the To Do column into the other columns as you plan your next week.

New tasks will, of course, show in the middle of the week: the best thing to do is add them to the To Do column unless they are urgent; this will help you and your team not get disrupted too often during the middle of the week.

Try this template and see if your workweek gets less hectic.

How to manage an Email Marketing Calendar

February 1, 2022Kanban & Lean, TutorialsMarketing, TemplatesArun Kumar

Here’s another new marketing template for our users: a complete Task Board for folks that need to manage an email marketing calendar for their business or nonprofit.

Screenshot for Quarterly Email Marketing Calendar template — Click to view this template

As with all other templates we have been building, this one comes with tasks that are ready to go, with details of the work:

Screenshot showing Example Task — Example Task

Handy checklists of subtasks so you don’t miss anything:

Screenshot showing Example Checklist — Example Checklist

And links to useful resources for completing the task:

Screenshot showing Example Attachments — Example Attachments

Check out this template and let us know if we can improve it!

How to manage your Job Search

January 31, 2022Kanban & Lean, TutorialsTemplatesArun Kumar

We continue to add templates that we hope can help our users get more done with Kerika, and today it’s a Task Board Template for managing your job search:

Screenshot of template for Job Search — Click to view this template

Folks are changing jobs at a faster pace right now than we have ever seen, and while some people are highly organized and proficient at job searching, others can do with a little help, and that’s what we had in mind with this template.

Check it out and let us know if we can improve it!

How to Manage a Product Announcement

January 27, 2022Kanban & Lean, TutorialsMarketing, TemplatesKerika

We have a new template that is a very comprehensive checklist of all the activities that a product marketing manager needs to consider, when launching a new product:

Screenshot of template for a Product Announcement — Click to view this template

The tasks are grouped into stages, represented by columns:

Pre-Launch Prep: this includes tasks like finalizing the product name and starting outreach to media and analysts.
Creating Internal Prep Documents: tasks in this include creating a competitive analysis and jobs-to-be-done matrix.
Creating Internal Content: demo materials, talking points for sales team.
Creating External Content: prepping (but not launching!) the product video, website landing pages, etc.
Pre-launch Internal Training & Communications: training the sales and customer support teams.
Launch Day Execution: the big day! Pushing all the materials you had prepared to production.

To give credit where credit is due, this template is inspired by a blog post by Chris Orlob.

Check out this template and let us know how we can improve it!

How to Plan your Social Media Content

January 26, 2022Kanban & Lean, TutorialsMarketing, TemplatesArun Kumar

Another Marketing template for our users: this time, for folks that need to plan and execute on a social media content strategy.

Screenshot of the Social Media Content Planner template — Click to view this template

You can use this advance your marketing goals using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This template comes with a bunch of useful resources, like this card on listing your Call-To-Actions (CTAs):

We have also provided sample task cards for managing your posts, like this one for posting on Facebook:

Screenshot of Task for Facebook Post — Task for Facebook Post

This task, like the others, also comes complete with a checklist of subtasks so you don’t miss anything:

Screenshot of Checklist for Facebook Post — Checklist for Facebook Post

These sample task cards can be easily duplicated as you move through your social media content strategy.

Check out this template and let us know what you think!

How to Plan your SEO Blog Content

January 24, 2022Kanban & Lean, TutorialsMarketing, TemplatesArun Kumar

We have a new template to help folks plan their blog content to maximize their blog’s SEO effectiveness, and thereby drive more inbound traffic:

Screenshot showing template for creating blog content — Click to view this template

As with other Marketing Templates we have been creating for our users, there’s a column with useful resources for folks that are new to incorporating their blogs within their marketing activities.

The workflow itself is fairly simple: To Do → Researching → Drafting → Designing → Scheduled → Done.

There’s a sample task in the To Do column that you can duplicate for each blog post; it contains a complete checklist of subtasks to make sure you don’t miss anything:

Screenshot showing an example of blog post task — An example of blog post task