Kanban Tools
Browse our suite of kanban tools. Select a tool from the tabs below to learn more about how it works and when to use it.
Available Tools
Story Breakdown
Collaborative task breakdown for user stories
What is it?
A session dedicated to taking large, ambiguous user stories and breaking them down into small, executable engineering tasks.
Why use it?
To reduce risk, improve estimation accuracy, and ensure everyone understands the technical implementation details before work begins.
How it works
The Product Owner presents a story. The engineering team discusses the architecture and creates specific sub-tasks (e.g., 'Update DB schema', 'Create API endpoint', 'Build UI component').
When to use it?
During Backlog Refinement or just-in-time before pulling a story into development.
Who should attend?
The Development Team and Product Owner.
Facilitator tips
- 1
Break stories until every task takes one day or less. Anything larger still carries hidden risk and will block the daily standup.
- 2
The team breaks, the PO clarifies. Engineers define the tasks — the PO's role is to answer 'what does done look like?' not to prescribe how.
- 3
Every task needs a clear done-criteria before moving on. 'Create API endpoint' is not done-ready; 'Create POST /api/tasks endpoint returning 201 with task object' is.
- 4
Watch for tasks that span multiple layers in one (DB + API + UI together). They're usually three tasks disguised as one, and they're the most common source of mid-sprint surprises.