Strategy 2010

Lean Canvas

The Business Model Canvas rebuilt for startups: problems and unfair advantage instead of partners and relationships.

What it is

Ash Maurya kept Osterwalder's nine-box layout and swapped four boxes for the ones early startups actually argue about: problem, solution, key metrics, unfair advantage. The result reads like a pitch you can test, not an org chart of the business.

Reach for it when

• A founding team has a deck but can't say the problem in one line
• A product bet needs its riskiest assumption named before the sprint
• An innovation workshop needs one page per idea, comparable at a glance

Running it

1. Fill the problem box first. Three problems, ranked. If this box is weak, stop; nothing downstream matters.
2. Move to customer segments and early adopters, then the one-line unique value proposition.
3. Time-box it: 20 minutes for a first pass, alone or in pairs, then compare canvases out loud.
4. Circle the single scariest box. That's the experiment.