Let’s open the (Portfolio Kanban) Cards

A question you’re probably asking yourself as you’re trying to visualize and manage the flow of your most significant initiatives/projects (Aka Portfolio Flow) is - what should the cards represent? What information should they contain?

Following SAFe Lean Portfolio Management? your cards will reflect Epics. And you’ll probably use Epic hypothesis statements and Lean Business Cases as the artifacts supporting these cards. 

Focused on Outcomes? Your cards might represent OKRs - meaning each card will include an Objective and a small set of Key Results. 

Serious Lean shop? Your cards might represent A3 documents focused on a problem/opportunity. 

Inspired by the Spotify Model? Your cards will represent Bets based on DIBBs (Data, Insights, Beliefs, Bets)

Here’s the thing though

 if you’re not following any of these approaches, you can start with the cards simply reflecting the artifacts you ARE using to manage your initiatives. Whatever those look like. 

Start with what you have. 

Using the different approaches above can definitely help improve the outcome orientation and evidence-informed rigor of your portfolio and nudge it towards being product-oriented. 

But start with baby steps. Start with visualizing flow. Then, begin to manage it. 

Yes, it’s even ok to start with solution-oriented names :-) 

Hey - are you using a portfolio kanban? What’s in your cards?

If you want support implementing this in your context, see Portfolio Agility.