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.
Nonviolent Requests Guide
A four-part script — observation, feelings, needs, request — for raising a hard conversation without it landing as blame.
by Marshall Rosenberg & Stefano Mastrogiacomo & Alexander Osterwalder (Strategyzer AG), 2021
Persona Canvas (DABB variant)
A persona built as a trends-to-emotion cascade, not a flat goals-and-frustrations list.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Personal Maps
Everyone draws a quick mind-map of themselves, then shares it in two minutes flat.
by Jurgen Appelo & Management 3.0
Prototype Canvas
Five boxes that turn one promise from the value proposition into a testable brief.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Quality Planning Canvas
Four boxes for defining what quality means for a feature, before any code gets written.
by WE WILL TECH
Riskiest Assumption Canvas
A Jenga-tower grid that sorts assumptions to find the one that collapses everything.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Screenplays
A minute-by-minute run sheet for a meeting, scripted and shared before it happens.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Storytelling Canvas
Eight boxes that build a business narrative with a before-and-after, not a slide deck.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business)
Team Charter Canvas (DABB variant)
A nine-zone charter with a dedicated protocol for what the team does when trouble hits.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Business Models Inc. (Design a Better Business), 2016
Touchpoint Map
A single-touchpoint worksheet: user, task, channel, then the steps, data, and processes behind it.
by Austin Govella (PXD.GD), 2019
User Attribute Grid
A spreadsheet-style grid scoring every studied user against shared attributes, before anyone writes a persona.
by Austin Govella (PXD.GD), 2019
UX Research Repository
A tagged, searchable board of past research findings, so studies stop getting quietly re-run.
by Shipra Kayan & Miro
Validation Canvas
A four-box log for tracking each riskiest-assumption experiment and whether it held up.
by Ash Maurya & Design a Better Business
Wall Of Ideas
A rapid-fire trigger-question sprint that floods a wall with sticky notes fast.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Design a Better Business, 2016
War Room Checklist
A seven-point checklist for setting up a project room where work stays visible on the walls.
by Patrick van der Pijl & Design a Better Business, 2016
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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Recent Comments (3)
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!