Kanban Isn’t Just Boards: It’s About Brains
Exploring the psychological foundations that make the Kanban strategy effective for game development teams.
Deep Dive by NotebookLM
Kanban works because it aligns with how people naturally think, focus, and stay motivated, making it more than a workflow tool.
Its strength lies in reducing mental friction and creating clarity, helping teams work with less stress and more purpose.
By supporting a healthier team mindset, Kanban builds environments where productivity, satisfaction, and collaboration thrive.
Why does levelling up your RPG character feel so rewarding? What's behind the irresistible urge to have "just one more run" in a roguelike? And why is ticking off achievements in your favourite game so satisfying?
After over thirty years of making games, I've become fascinated by the psychology and behavioural economics shaping player engagement. I'm especially interested in understanding what motivates players emotionally, what keeps them returning, and what gently nudges them towards in-game purchases. Understanding these underlying needs helps create games players genuinely love to return to.
While I'm no psychology professional, my formal training consists of just a few university courses, and I've long been an enthusiastic armchair reader. Over time, I've noticed how many psychological principles I've casually encountered have found their way into my work, primarily through strategies like Kanban.
Kanban isn’t just a productivity tool; it's deeply connected to human psychology. Understanding Kanban's psychological principles can transform how producers and game development teams manage workflow, maintain focus, and boost motivation.
Let’s explore the psychological foundations that make the Kanban strategy so effective. By recognising these principles, you can proactively create an environment that empowers your team and fosters productivity and well-being.
But Wait, Isn’t Kanban a Framework?
Kanban is widely recognised as a flexible framework, but at its heart, it’s fundamentally a strategy for managing workflow. Instead of strict rules or roles, Kanban focuses on visualising work, limiting tasks in progress, and encouraging continuous improvement. It’s less about rigid structure and more about shaping how teams approach tasks by emphasising adaptability, collaboration, and clarity. This makes Kanban not just a set of tools but a strategic mindset that influences team behaviour and productivity.
The Power of Flow State
One of the most substantial psychological concepts supporting Kanban is the idea of 'flow'. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined this term to describe a state of deep immersion, where people lose track of time and are deeply engaged and motivated by their tasks. Achieving this state consistently is a game-changer for teams, significantly boosting productivity and satisfaction.
Flow typically occurs when:
Tasks present the right balance of challenge and skill.
Immediate feedback is available.
External distractions are limited.
Kanban naturally nurtures this state through its core practices:
Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) ensures team members focus on fewer tasks, reducing context-switching. This deeper engagement directly contributes to entering the flow state more frequently.
Clear Visualisation through Kanban boards provides immediate visual feedback. It allows team members to see progress at a glance, reducing uncertainty and enhancing the conditions for flow.
Pull-based workflow empowers team members to take on tasks as they're ready, reducing overload and anxiety and creating an optimal environment for sustained flow.
Fewer switches between tasks reduce wasted energy and increase clarity, helping teams maintain focus and sustain a productive, steady flow.
In Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport shows how achieving flow can help you accomplish more in less time while providing genuine fulfilment from mastering your craft.
Cognitive Load Theory: Less Stress, More Productivity
Another critical aspect of Kanban is its alignment with Cognitive Load Theory, which highlights the brain's limitations in processing complex or excessive information. When overwhelmed, productivity decreases, and stress escalates. Managing cognitive load effectively is crucial for any high-performing team.
Kanban actively reduces cognitive load through several approaches:
WIP Limits discourage multitasking, ensuring team members focus their cognitive resources effectively on fewer, higher-quality tasks.
Breaking Work Down into Smaller Tasks turns complex challenges into manageable pieces, significantly reducing mental strain and encouraging clear, focused thinking.
Visual Management via Kanban boards offloads mental task tracking onto the visual system. This allows teams to devote cognitive energy to solving problems creatively rather than simply remembering task statuses.
Clear Prioritisation helps teams avoid decision fatigue by explicitly indicating task importance, reducing unnecessary cognitive processing and allowing sharper focus on high-value tasks.
Explicit Policies and Workflow Definitions provide clarity and structure, removing ambiguity. This helps the team spend less cognitive effort interpreting processes, freeing the mental capacity for creative problem-solving and task execution.
Feedback Loops and Regular Reviews enable continuous reflection and incremental improvement, easing cognitive load by identifying stress points early and adjusting workflows before overload occurs.
Limiting Interruptions ensures minimal disruption, allowing team members to engage in deeper concentration, thus preserving cognitive resources for the actual task rather than context-switching.
The Zeigarnik Effect: Unfinished Business and Mental Clutter
Have you ever found unfinished tasks persistently occupying your mind? This is explained by the Zeigarnik Effect, where incomplete tasks remain mentally prominent, creating tension and distraction. Kanban addresses this psychological phenomenon directly, reducing mental clutter and enhancing clarity.
Kanban mitigates the Zeigarnik Effect through clear strategies:
Fewer Open Tasks by enforcing WIP limits; teams finish existing tasks before initiating new ones, significantly reducing mental noise from unfinished work.
Structured Workflows that clearly defined columns ("To Do," "In Progress," and "Done") allow for mental closure at each step, freeing cognitive resources and easing mental stress.
Emphasis on Completion encouraging a continuous flow of tasks toward completion significantly reduces lingering stress from unfinished work, promoting a calmer and clearer mental state.
Clear Visual Progress Indicators on Kanban boards show tasks moving steadily towards completion, providing psychological reassurance and reducing uncertainty-related anxiety.
Regular Check-ins and Reviews help teams reflect on and celebrate progress, facilitating mental closure on tasks and preventing incomplete work from accumulating mentally.
Explicit Task Definitions and Acceptance Criteria clarify what ‘done’ looks like, preventing tasks from remaining mentally open due to ambiguity or confusion about completion.
Rapid Feedback and Short Cycles allow quicker task completion, minimising the amount of unfinished business lingering in team members' minds and reducing psychological stress.
Dopamine Hits: Small Wins, Big Motivation
Motivation is critical in game development, and dopamine—the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure and reward—plays a central role. Regular dopamine releases through task completion reinforce positive behaviour and sustained motivation.
Kanban taps into this psychological mechanism effectively:
Frequent Task Completion: By breaking work into manageable segments, teams achieve regular dopamine boosts, sustaining motivation and engagement.
Progress Visibility: Observing tasks move visibly towards completion provides psychological rewards, reinforcing progress and achievement.
Celebrating Small Wins: Regular retrospectives and team check-ins celebrate progress and maintain high motivation, reinforcing a positive, productive atmosphere.
Immediate Feedback Loops: Short, visible progress cycles offer immediate reinforcement, keeping dopamine levels consistently elevated and team enthusiasm high.
Clear Goals and Milestones: Clearly defined objectives and achievable milestones provide predictable dopamine hits, enhancing confidence and reducing uncertainty.
Acknowledging Effort Visually: Explicitly marking completed tasks on a Kanban board creates a tangible sense of accomplishment, amplifying dopamine release beyond verbal acknowledgement alone.
Incremental Progress: By encouraging minor, incremental improvements and progress, Kanban maintains a continuous feeling of advancement and motivation, preventing burnout and enhancing long-term productivity.
Decision Fatigue: Simplifying Choices
Every decision we make drains mental energy, and too many choices lead to decision fatigue, which decreases productivity and reduces decision-making quality. In fast-paced game development environments, minimising unnecessary decision-making is vital.
Kanban helps reduce decision fatigue through the following:
Clear Prioritisation: Kanban explicitly defines the following tasks: removing unnecessary deliberation and conserving mental energy.
Visual Organisation: Tasks presented on Kanban boards streamline decision-making, eliminating ambiguity and simplifying choices.
Explicit Policies: Clear rules and criteria for task management reduce the cognitive load associated with ad hoc decision-making, promoting clarity and efficiency.
Work-in-Progress Limits (WIP) help restrict the number of concurrent tasks; Kanban significantly reduces the frequency of context-switching decisions, preserving cognitive resources for high-impact choices.
Standardised Workflow Stages clearly defined stages for each task reduce uncertainty around 'what's next,' simplifying decision-making and maintaining team momentum.
Routine Cadences (Stand-ups and Reviews) with regular, predictable meetings reduce spontaneous decision-making, allowing the team to make decisions thoughtfully rather than impulsively.
Enhancing Team Psychology: Transparency and Safety
Game development thrives on effective teamwork, where transparency, psychological safety, and clear communication are foundational. Kanban significantly enhances these team dynamics, creating healthier, more collaborative environments.
Kanban improves team psychology through several key mechanisms:
Transparency with visible workflows builds trust, reduces misunderstandings, and enhances accountability, creating an open and collaborative environment.
System-level accountability that focuses on workflows rather than individual blame promotes a safer environment for identifying and resolving issues constructively.
Psychological Safety with transparent processes and visible task statuses encourages team members to raise concerns, request support, and collaborate openly without fear.
Collaboration through highlighting bottlenecks visibly encourages collective problem-solving, enhancing teamwork and strengthening studio culture.
Putting It All Together: Building Better Game Teams
Kanban isn’t merely about organising tasks but fundamentally enhancing how teams experience their work. By actively applying these psychological insights, game producers and studio leadership can create environments that significantly boost productivity, satisfaction, and overall team health:
Flow State: Deepens engagement and intrinsic motivation.
Cognitive Load: Keeps complexity manageable and minds clear.
Zeigarnik Effect: Minimises mental clutter through task completion.
Dopamine Rewards: Sustains motivation with frequent accomplishments.
Decision Fatigue: Reduces cognitive burden through clear priorities.
Team Psychology: Builds a safer, collaborative, and transparent team culture.
Understanding these psychological foundations unlocks Kanban’s full potential, helping create an efficient and fulfilling studio. The outcome is clear: happier, more productive game development teams.
The best part? These are tactics any producer can start adding today. No big overhaul is needed—just small shifts that make a big difference.
After reading this, I want to put a Kanban board on the fridge. :D