Framework library · Innovation and product
Lean Canvas
The Lean Canvas, which Ash Maurya derived from the Business Model Canvas in 2010, describes a venture that does not yet know its customers, starting from the problem and the customers who feel it first. The workbench here is Blue Prysm's own. It reads as three rows (the customer, the answer and the business), and a second part ranks the assumptions behind them by how little evidence there is and how much is at stake, so the first test goes where it can change the most.
Use it when
- You are starting a new venture, or a new business inside an established company, and need the whole model on one page.
- Several versions of the idea are in play, for different customer segments, and you want to compare them side by side.
- You need to find the riskiest part of the plan before deciding what to test first.
- A sponsor or investor wants to see the business model quickly, with the untested parts made obvious.
Avoid it when
- The business is established and the customers are known. The Business Model Canvas, with its partners, activities and resources, describes a working business better.
- You need a financial case. The canvas names revenue and cost lines; it does not model them. Use unit economics or an investment appraisal.
- You want to test one assumption in depth. Design a minimum viable product for it.
How to run it
Start with the customer and the problem
Name who has the problem, the early adopters who feel it most, the top one to three problems, and what they use today instead.
Write why they would switch
One clear message, aimed at the early adopters, saying why this is different and worth paying for.
Sketch the answer after the problem
The simplest thing that solves each problem, and anything you have that rivals cannot easily copy or buy. Leave the advantage blank rather than inventing one.
Fill the business row
How you will reach the first customers, how you will be paid and at what price, what it costs, and the few numbers that will show the venture is working.
Rank the assumptions
In the second part, write the assumption behind each box that matters, how strong the evidence is and how much is at stake. The workbench ranks them.
Test the riskiest and redraw
Give each assumption rated high a test, an owner and a date. Update the canvas when each result is in.
Work through it
Answer the questions below, or load the worked example to see a finished one. The drawing updates as you type. Export the result as a PowerPoint deck, a Word document, an Excel workbook, a PDF or plain text.
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Mistakes to avoid
- Filling the canvas for "everyone". Problems, channels and prices differ by segment, so one canvas averages them into a venture nobody would buy.
- Listing things a competitor could copy, such as being first or working harder, as the advantage, which leaves the venture exposed the day a larger rival notices.
- Treating the first sketch as the plan. The canvas is meant to change as each box is tested, and a frozen one funds the wrong build.
- Describing the offer in detail while the problem box is thin. If the problem is not real, the work on the offer is wasted.
Where it comes from
Developed by Ash Maurya in 2010, adapting Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas for start-ups, and set out in his book Running Lean (2010; second edition 2012). Source.
The Lean Canvas is the work of Ash Maurya (LEANSTACK). This workbench is Blue Prysm's own design, built from the published idea. It does not reproduce the canvas and is not endorsed by LEANSTACK.
Use it with
Further reading
Work through it with us
The frameworks here are free to use as they stand. If you would rather work through the question behind this one with us, these are the ways an engagement starts.