See also 'Workshop-Concern Model Canvas'

What's the Business organization Model Canvas?

If yous're already familiar, you can skip to the side by side section, 'How do I go started?'.

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) gives y'all the structure of a business plan without the overhead and the improvisation of a 'back of the napkin' sketch without  the fuzziness (and coffee rings).

The Sail has nine elements:
Business-Model-Canvas-Annoted-760

Together these elements provide a pretty coherent view of a concern' cardinal drivers–

  1. Client Segments: Who are the customers? What practice they recall? Run across? Experience? Do?
  2. Value Propositions: What's compelling well-nigh the proposition? Why practice customers purchase, employ?
  3. Channels: How are these propositions promoted, sold and delivered? Why? Is it working?
  4. Customer Relationships: How practice you interact with the customer through their 'journey'?
  5. Revenue Streams: How does the concern earn acquirement from the value propositions?
  6. Fundamental Activities: What uniquely strategic things does the business organization practise to deliver its proposition?
  7. Key Resources: What unique strategic avails must the business accept to compete?
  8. Primal Partnerships: What can the company not do so it can focus on its Key Activities?
  9. Price Construction: What are the business' major cost drivers? How are they linked to acquirement?

The Canvas is popular with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for business organisation model innovation. Fundamentally, I find it delivers iii things:

  1. Focus: Stripping away the forty+ pages of 'stuff' in a traditional business concern plan, I've seen users of the BMC improve their clarify and focus on what'south driving the business organization (and what's non-core and getting in the manner).
  2. Flexibility: It's alot easier to tweak the model and try things (from a planning perspective) with something that'due south sitting on a single folio.
  3. Transparency: Your team will take a much easier time agreement your business organization model and be much more probable to buy in to your vision when it's laid out on a single page.

How practice I go started?

The first time you appoint with the canvas, I recommend printing it out or projecting it on a whiteboard and going to town (see below for a PDF). Fill up out the elements for your business and and then inquire yourself 'Does this make sense?' 'What are the most important linkages and components of the model?'

If y'all're set up to put together something a little more formal (for distribution, presentation, etc.) here's a Google App'due south template you can copy or download every bit MSFT PowerPoint:

LINK TO THE DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATE

If the canvass is working for you lot, you'll probably end up editing it a lot and presenting it, and then in that location are a few options below for documenting your canvass in an editable format:

Sail Presentation Printable PDF Google Doc/PowerPoint Omnigraffle* Stratygizer Web App
Good for… Brainstorming lonely or in a pocket-size group Documenting the Canvas in Google Physician'southward or MS Office (PowerPoint) Documenting a sail (if y'all have a Mac & Omnigraffle) This is a nice tool and very robust.
Go information technology! DOWNLOAD Copy/DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD LINK
By the style…… You tin can take whatever of these and projection them on to a whiteboard for group sessions This uses the presentation app in Google Doc's, which does a pretty good job of exporting to PowerPoint.LINK TO INSTRUCTIONS This one uses layering to manage the canvasLINK TO INSTRUCTIONS This one needs a little more ready upwardly but has lots of features

*Omnigraffle a popular diagramming programme for the Mac. It has a adequately easy to employ layering surroundings which you may find handy as you lot want to tinker with and produce unlike views of the canvas. You can try Omnigraffle for free (the basic paid version is $99).

What if I desire more structure to work through this?

If yous'd like a piffling more construction, the link beneath will have yous to a related curriculum item that has workshop slides, prep. items, and calendar.

LINK TO WORKSHOP Page

Otherwise, the next sections (10 steps) offer a tutorial on how to use the template. The closing sections describe how to apply the Google Doc'due south/PowerPoint and Omnigraffle templates.

Step ane (of 10): Customer Segments

Customer SegmentsFor purposes of using the canvas you should brand certain you tin can answer these questions:
i. Segment Dimensions
Do you have a single or multi-sided market? If yous have a multi-sided market y'all'll have at least equally many segments as you lot have sides. An example of such a marketplace is a media property like CNN.com: they have readers on the one side and advertisers on the other.
two. Segment Composition
If the segment dimensions are the 'macro' analysis of your customer base of operations, then looking within each segment at individual customer types as 'Personas' is the 'micro'. As with economic science, this is where virtually of action happens. You should be able to visualize these Personas- what kind of shoes do they wear? And you lot should understand what they call back, see, feel, and do in your production area. Be sure to list both buyers and users of your production (many Personas will be both). For coaching on this, check out: Tutorial- Personas.
iii. Issues, Needs, Habits & Current Alternatives
What task are you lot doing for the customer? What need are y'all fulfilling? There are no new behaviors- brand sure that you can identify an existing need/problem and identify specific alternatives that your customer uses today. If yous're not sure, become out and notice, talk to some representative people. Yous'll want to exist able to clearly link your Value Propositions back to these in the next section.

Output: a list of Personas, organized by Customer Segment if yous have more than one segment. I recommend trying to prioritize them- Who would you pitch start if you could just pitch one? Who next? So forth…

Notes: If you're spending a lot of time on this commencement item, that's OK (and it's probably expert). The Canvas is a tool, not a strategy and not all the nine blocks are equal. The pairing of Customer Segments and Value Propositions is really the 'independent variable' that should be driving everything else in your business model. When I use the Canvas in my Venture Pattern classes, we usually spend all of the first session (plus time for field research) on Client Segments and Value Propositions.

Footstep 2 (of ten): Value Propositions

Value PropositionsWhich of the Issues or Needs that y'all identified in your Personas are yous fulfilling? What is unique well-nigh your Value Propositions and why does your customer prefer them to their Current Alternatives? You may take a whole lot of these- and that's fine. When you're getting going with this, jot them all done on a whiteboard, index card, Post-It, etc. Just then rank them and you'll probably want to winnow out all but the virtually critical. What things exercise you exercise that really cause a customer to pick you over a competitor or alternative?

For instance, at Leonid, an enterprise software company I founded, we idea our largest customers worked with the states considering of the cost savings we offered and our cognition about best practices. It turned out that was more often than not wrong- reducing their time and risk to get new services to market was the most important. It's not that the other things weren't of import, but they weren't the superlative Value Proposition. That made a divergence on how we sold the product and how we focused on operationalizing information technology for customers.

One time y'all've isolated these, try mapping them to the Customer Segments; it volition look something similar this:

LINK TO THE DOWNLOADABLE TEMPLATE

This mapping says 'Nosotros accept 3 personas. Persona i cares about VP 1 & 2. Persona ii cares well-nigh VP two; Persona 3 cares nearly VP3. (One segment but so segments non noted)'.

Output: a prioritized list of Value Propositions and linkages from each Personas to the VP's relevant to them.

Notes: Again, this pairing is the key commuter for most business organisation models and if you want more on how to describe and discovery what to put in this part of the sail, I recommend this: Tutorial- Personas.

Maybe you feel like you're in skilful shape on understanding the customer'south earth but you don't have any validation on whether the Value Propositions are clicking because this is a new venture? If you're not sure, that'due south OK and good for y'all for acknowledging the uncertainty! It'southward the responsible affair to exercise. The primal is to write downwardly those assumptions, prioritize them, and figure out the quickest and cheapest way to prove or disprove them. That's what Lean/Startup is most and there are resources hither to help you with that, if yous'd like- Tutorial: Lean Startup.

Step iii (of 10): Channels

Channels

Channels includes entities you lot use to communicate your proposition to your segments, as well as entities through which you sell product and after service customers (meet AIDAOR journey below). For example, if you sell bulbs for light houses and there'due south a website all light house attendants purchase equipment, that site is a sales Channel. If you use Google AdWords, that's a Channel, too (for getting attention). If you utilise a tertiary party company to service the bulbs when they interruption, that'south likewise a Channel.

Output: a list of important Channels, linked to Personas or Segments if they differ substantially. Brand notes on what steps are relevant for each- promotion, sales, service, etc. See Note this section for more than structure on this.

Notes: Channels and the next item, Customer Relationships, define your interface with the Client. Information technology's important to think all the way through the client 'journey' in specific terms. For near businesses, the way they get a customer's attention is different than the mode they onboard them or support them over the long term. For this, I recommend the AIDA.OR framework (attending-interest-desire-activity-onboarding-retentiveness) and storyboarding your style through it. Here's a post explaining all that- Storyboarding AIDA(OR). If you don't desire to do the storyboards, I recommend at least making notes about your customer journey through the AIDA(OR) steps.

Some other consideration is whether your channels volition give you enough visibility into the user, including, for example, a fashion to follow upwardly with users. Not sure? Document your assumptions Lean Startup fashion and figure out how you'll apace show or disprove them.

Stride iv (of x): Customer Relationships

Customer RelationshipsHow does the customer interact with you through the sales and product lifecycle? Practise they have a dedicated personal contact they see? Call? Is all the interaction over the web? Do they never come across you at all but instead talk to a Aqueduct? A few litmus test questions you may want to ask yourself at this point:
– Tin can the Value Proposition exist delivered to the Customer this manner? All the way through from promotion, to sale, to mail service-sale service? (Meet AIDAOR to a higher place on this.)
– Can y'all brand the numbers work?
– Is there a premium back up product you need to create/test? Many companies, like Apple, take rejected the fake choice of 'Do we provide phone back up or not?' instead offering personal back up for a reasonable charge.

Output: a description of Customer Relationships, with notes if they differ across Customers (betwixt Segments or amongst Personas within a Segment) or across the customer journey.

Notes: If you lot're a startup, be certain to document and review critical assumptions here. Also, the focal items are in a kind of specific club- you should validate your Segments and their relationship to the Propositions above all else. If this means you provide personal back up in the early on days (a 'concierge test' in Lean Startup terms) to do discovery and validation of Segments and Propositions, that's OK. You can subsequently test the Customer Relationship models. (Here's a postal service on using consulting as a concierge vehicle in B2B if y'all want more detail: Consulting as B2B Concierge Vehicle).

Step five (of x): Revenue Streams

ChannelsI won't bore you lot with proclamations about the importance of revenue- you get it. If yous accept an existing business, this volition exist cocky-evident.

At this point, you should map Segments to Propositions to Revenue Streams. The instance below says 'Acquirement stream 1 is driven past Persona 1′s interest with Propositions 1 & 2; Revenue Stream 2 is driven by Persona two′due south involvement with Proposition 2; and Revenue Stream 3 with Persona three′s involvement with Proposition three.' That's relatively various- yours may be much simpler and that's fine.

Output: a list of Revenue Streams, linked (mutually) to Personas (or Segments if the mappings are the aforementioned inside a fix of Personas) and Value Propositions

Notes: If y'all have a startup or are re-engineering the business organization, this is a time to wait at where you're driving revenue and whether it aligns with the rest of your focal points. Are you charging on value? Perceived value? They say everyone loves their banker; hates their lawyer. Why is that? Is there an actionable analog in your concern?

Congratulations on making it halfway! At this signal, you may want to step back and await at the flick y'all've created virtually your Offer and Customers. The next four steps deal with your 'Infrastructure', the plumbing you need to execute:

Step 6 (of ten): Key Activities

Key ActivitiesThese are the crucial things the business needs to practice to deliver on its propositions and make the residuum of the business work- for example, if selling through iiird parties is role of the model, then activity around channel management is probably pretty important.

For a product-driven concern, this probably includes ongoing learning almost users and new techniques to build amend production. If you're focused on doing a bunch of things for a particular prepare of customers (ex: comprehensive IT for constabulary offices), this probably includes maintaining superior expertise on the segment(s) and creating or acquiring products and services that are a good fit, whatever that entails. For an infrastructure business (ex: electric utility), it probably includes keeping the infrastructure working reliably and making it more efficient.

You'll then desire to consider how the Key Activities (and/or Central Resources) drive your Value Propositions:

Outputs: a list of Fundamental Activities linked to your business' Value Propositions.

Notes: 1 question this assay should raise for you lot is whether or not certain Activities and Resource are really core, really focal to your business organization, something you'll want to remember through .

Step seven (of x): Central Resource

Key ResourcesKey resources are the strategic assets you need in place, and you demand in place to a greater or more targeted degree than your competitors. The Business concern Model Sheet proposes that at that place are three cadre business organisation types: product, scope, and infrastructure. These tend to accept similar types of Key Resources.

The post-obit diagram describes how Key Activities drive the accrual of Key Resources:

Outputs: a list of Key Resources linked to your business' Primal Activities.

Notes: Product-driven businesses have a differentiated product of some sort. Rovio, the company that makes the pop app Angry Birds, is such a visitor. Key Resources in product-driven businesses are typically key talent in critical areas of expertise and accumulated intellectual property related to their offering.

Scope-driven businesses create some synergy around a item Customer Segment. For example, if you started a business that would take care of all the IT needs for law firms, that would be a telescopic-driven concern. These businesses typically have key knowledge nearly their segment, a repeatable set of processes, and sometimes infrastructure, similar service centers.

Infrastructure-driven businesses attain economies of scale in a specific, highly repeatable area. Telecommunications is traditionally an infrastructure business concern. Retailers focused on retail, like Walgreens or Costco, are primarily infrastructure-driven businesses. The Fundamental Resource for this type of business are, you lot guessed information technology, various types of physical or virtual infrastructure.

Allow's take a single product category: diapers. The Honest Company or another innovating around compostable or otherwise more environmentally friendly diapers would be a product-driven take on the category. Procter & Adventure which has a cradle-to-grave strategy for providing consumer products is a scope-based take; so are various baby-focused retailers. Kimberly-Clark (woods pulp) or DuPont (chemicals and polymers) are both infrastructure-based takes: diapers is merely some other style to sell something they produce at scale with relatively little differentiation.

Step 8 (of x): Fundamental Partnerships

Key partnershipsAt this point, hopefully the Canvas has helped yous sharpen and articulate your business' focal points. What Activities and Resource are important but not aligned with what's uniquely strategy for you? What'south outside of your business type? Could partners do some of those? Why? Which?

I recommend mapping Key Partners to Key Activities. If an action is fundamental, information technology's still part of your business model. This is a way to denote which specific Partners are handling various Central Activities for you.

Output: a list of Central Partnerships with notes on their relationship to Primal Activities.

Step 9 (of 10): Cost Structure

Cost StructureYou lot've worked to understand how your Key Activities drive your propositions and hence your revenue. How do they drive costs? Are those costs well aligned with the central Value Propositions? Are the costs more fixed or variable equally you test different business organisation models? Are they more linear with your scaling or more than fixed? Yous'll want to have these in mind as you tweak your model.

For purposes of linking things together, I'd wait at how your Key Activities drive your Cost Structure:

If in that location are major price components that don't map to a Key Activity, I'd take a closer look at those costs.

Output: a list of Toll Structure elements with notes on their relationship to Key Activities.

Congratulations- y'all have a working canvas! The section below offers a few analytical ideas and suggestions for next steps.

Step ten (of 10): Applications, Analysis & Side by side Steps

Cadre Applications
The nigh core and obvious applications of the Canvas are to ask:
– Does information technology make sense?
– Could information technology be amend?
– Does the remainder of my squad empathise and agree? Have additional ideas?
– (rinse and repeat at least quarterly)

Competitiveness
The sheet does a practiced job of helping you figure out your business, which is a good identify to first. Y'all also want to look at the competitive environs and retrieve about if and how you have/maintain a long term competitive advantage.

For this, I like Michael Porter'due south Five Forces framework (Wikipedia Page; see too Chapter 2 of 'Starting a Tech Business'). Endeavor walking through the Five Forces for your company and then bounce back to your canvas. How does it all hang together?

Adjacent Steps
Every business is a piece of work in progress (pitiful, I try to avoid maxim things similar that but it seemed to fit hither). As yous become through the canvas, you may encounter areas that give y'all problem. The table beneath summarizes a few of the most common that I come across in my piece of work as a mentor and coach:

Issue Resource
You're having trouble crystallizing your Customer Segments and Value Propositions I recommend the material here on Personas. See besides Chapters one-3 of 'Starting a Tech Business organisation'. This will assistance you create a deep, actionable understanding of your customers.
You're looking for a more than end-to-end view of how to design the venture- customer discovery, Lean-style experimentation, product pattern, product development. The Venture Design materials provide a more comprehensive view of how to approach a new product or venture.
You're looking for a systematic manner to organize your piece of work on the venture over a period of weeks. Startup Sprints is a popular program for stepping through a new product and/or venture. Information technology'south organized around active-style iterations which you can size according to your pace.
Yous're not sure how much product to build (vs. license, leverage, etc.) or how to put it together. See Chapter 4 of 'Starting a Tech Business'. This will help you recall most what you lot need to build from a functional perspective and so y'all can wait at the available technology considerately and make strategic blueprint decisions.
You're not sure where and how to partner. Encounter Chapter 8 of 'Starting a Tech Business'. This will give you a framework to utilise in partnership evaluations and a supplemental example.

Using the Google Doctor's/PowerPoint Template

If you're not familiar with it, Google Doctor'south is a web-based office suite, similar to MS Office. If you have a gmail account, yous tin access it (no guarantees- that was the case last time I checked).

First, yous'll want to link to the template file: BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE IN GOOGLE Md'South.

One time you're accessed the file, yous tin make brand it your own by going to the File menu and either 'Make a copy…', creating a copy in your own Google App's domain or you can use the 'Download as…' option to download it as PowerPoint (and a few other formats).

Probably the nigh cardinal matter here is that I set it upwardly so y'all edit the list of Canvas items (Segments, Relationships, etc.) in the Slide Master. I know what you're thinking- I hate those Master things and I never use them. Generally, neither practice I. But in this instance it's a good way to achieve some rudimentary layering, allowing you to do prove things on acme of the Sheet without having to recopy all the elements. You lot'll see what I hateful on the file. The key thing is that to edit the listing of Canvas items: Go to the 'View' menu, then go to 'Master' and edit the first slide you see under the Layout label over on the left:
Screen-Shot-Editing-Master

Using-Polyline-Google-DocsConcluding note: The lines with multiple bends that you see are called a 'Polyline' in Google Dr.'southward. If you click the downward pointer on the line detail in the menu bar, yous'll see it.

Talk Back

What's your experience with the Sail? How have you used it? What worked? What didn't? Please consider posting a comment!