A definition of done for small teams (not just software)
"Is it done?" "Yes." Two days later: "Actually, it still needs the client's sign-off, the files are not uploaded, and nobody told the accounts team." Work that is done in one person's mind and unfinished in another's is one of the most common sources of friction in small teams.
Software teams solved this with a "definition of done", a shared checklist of what must be true before work counts as finished. The idea comes from Scrum, described in the Scrum Guide, and it works for any kind of work.
Why "done" is slippery
People mean different things by done:
- "I did my part"
- "It is ready for review"
- "The client approved it"
- "It is live, delivered and invoiced"
All of these are reasonable. They are not the same. When a team does not agree, finished work comes back, and the Done column cannot be trusted.
Write it down, per type of work
A definition of done is a short list of conditions. For example:
Client deliverable - Reviewed by a second person - Client approved in writing - Final files delivered in the agreed format - Invoice raised
Blog post - Edited and proofread - Images with alt text - Links checked - Published and shared
Event - All vendors paid - Thank-you messages sent - Lessons noted for next time
Three to six conditions is enough. Longer lists get ignored.
Separate "my part is done" from "it is done"
A lot of confusion disappears when you separate handing work over from finishing it. When your part is done and someone else needs to act, the work is not done. It is waiting on them. On a 2D board, it moves to Other with their name, not to Done. See the handoff is the work.
Make Done mean something
If Done is trustworthy, it becomes a source of momentum: a visible record of what the team has actually finished. If it is not, people stop looking at it. See the psychology of the Done court.
Review it occasionally
When finished work keeps coming back for the same reason, add that reason to the definition. When a condition never catches anything, remove it.
In Axtio
Axtio's Done column is where actions go when they are finished by your team's definition. A "Mark active" option brings an action back if it turns out not to be done after all: to Other if it has an assignee, or to Mine if not. A shared definition of done makes that the exception rather than the rule.