The Canvas Directory
Every canvas worth knowing.
Credited properly.
Somebody made each of these. Osterwalder and Pigneur spent years on the nine boxes everyone now sketches from memory; Ivanov and Voloshchuk gave away the Team Canvas with a license that says share it onward. This page is the map and the credits: 75 canvases, who made them, when, under what terms, with a page on each and a link to the original.
Where a creator's license lets us show the canvas, we do, with their credit line. Where it doesn't, we don't. That's the whole editorial policy.
Find your canvas
Not sure where to start? Say what you're walking into and we'll point you at the right one.
Describe what you're walking into. A team that's never worked together, a strategy day, a product that won't move. A sentence is plenty.
4-Corners Sketching
Four questions about user, task, and workflow, answered before a single interface gets sketched.
by Austin Govella (PXD.GD), 2019
5 Bold Steps Vision Canvas
Seven boxes that turn a vision statement into five sequenced, bold actions.
by David Sibbet & The Grove Consultants International
5W2H
Seven questions — What, Why, Who, When, Where, How, How Much — for scoping a plan before it's built.
by Quality-management tradition
Blank Canvas
One open sheet with no imposed structure, for building a bespoke tool or parking loose ideas.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Bounded Context Canvas
A Business-Model-Canvas-style one-pager for one software service's purpose, roles, and contracts.
by ddd-crew & Kenny Baas & Kim Lindhard & Michael Plöd & Maxime Sanglan-Charlier, 2019
Business Landscape Canvas
A six-round workshop building a shared current-state and future-state view, plus the forces around change.
by Austin Govella (PXD.GD)
Category Design Canvas
A six-cell canvas for naming and justifying a market category, not just positioning a product in one.
by Hans-Jörg Roser (H&F Solutions)
Concept Map
A node-and-labeled-link diagram where every connection has to read as a sentence, not just a line.
by Joseph D. Novak & Miro (IHMC), 1972
Context Canvas (DABB variant)
Eight zones mapping the outside forces acting on a company, built to be revisited, not filed.
by David Sibbet & The Grove Consultants International
Conversational Design Canvas
A seven-cell canvas for a chatbot or voice agent's persona, intents, and failure handling.
by Andreas Martin (FHNW)
The Course Design Canvas
A Business-Model-Canvas-style one-pager for a training course's learners and outcomes before any slide gets built.
by Netmind, 2016
Cover Story Vision Canvas
Seven boxes that design the magazine cover story your boldest future would earn.
by David Sibbet & The Grove Consultants International
Creative Matrix
A grid that forces one idea at every category-by-segment intersection instead of free brainstorming.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business), 2012
Customer Journey Canvas (DABB variant)
A named persona's journey plotted against touchpoints, a mood line, and stage-by-stage needs.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Customer Transformation Canvas
A before/after canvas — current state, transformation, future state — for a value proposition grounded in real change.
by Ben Crothers (Bright Pilots)
Spotted a wrong credit? Tell us and we'll fix it the same week. Know a canvas that belongs here? Send it with a link to the original.
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This workshop was incredibly effective for our remote team! We adapted it slightly for a virtual setting and it worked wonderfully. The key was breaking into smaller breakout rooms.
Great resource! One tip: prepare all materials the day before to avoid any last-minute rushes.
Used this for our quarterly planning session. The structured approach really helped us stay on track!