Strategy 2010

Business Model Canvas

Nine boxes that hold a whole business on one page. The canvas the others descend from.

What it is

One page, nine boxes: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure. Fill them with sticky notes and the whole business model sits in front of the room at once, arguable and movable.

Reach for it when

• A leadership team describes the same business three different ways
• A new venture needs its assumptions on the wall before it builds anything
• A strategy offsite keeps drifting into feature lists

Running it

1. Print it A0 or draw it on a whiteboard. Small canvases make small thinking.
2. Start with customer segments and value propositions. The right side is the value conversation; the left side is the plumbing that delivers it.
3. One sticky note per claim, one color per segment. 45 to 60 minutes gets a first full pass with a team of five or six.
4. Mark the three riskiest notes. Those are next week's work, not the canvas's.