Status labels worth keeping

Draft, internal review, with the client, changes, locked, scheduled, published, skipped. You can live on those. "With design," "with strategy," and "almost" are hiding inside draft or internal review.

If you need a person's name, that is an owner field, not a new status. Status is the stage. Owner is who moves it.

Add blocked only if you also write what would unblock it. "Blocked" alone becomes a parking lot. "Blocked on spring price" can be chased.

Do not use blocked for work you simply have not started. That is draft, and it is yours to begin.

If the legend is required to read the board, the words are wrong. Say the stage in text. Color can repeat it for people who like scanning.

Red for everything urgent means nothing is urgent. Use it for missed approval dates only, or drop it.

New hires should see the definitions in the tool, one line each. A workshop that is not written down will be retold differently by every manager.

Revisit the list twice a year. If a label has not been used, delete it. Unused labels are how the next person invents a synonym.