One of the best ways to weigh competing business priorities is to use the Business Model Canvas, a strategic management and lean startup tool that condenses strategic planning onto a single page and covers nine areas: Key partners Key activities Key resources Value propositions Customer relationships Channels Customer segments Cost structure Revenue streams The Business Model Canvas gives you a bird’s eye view of your business while encouraging understanding, discussion, creativity and analysis among your team members. It’s used by successful innovators around the world like Intel, Panasonic, 3M, and MasterCard, and many users recommend filling out the canvas in just 20 minutes.

1. Business Model Canvas
A step-by-step guide

2. Contents
1. Introduction
2. Filling out the canvas
3. Improving your business model

3. Introduction

4. ● Fits on one page
● Broadly applicable
● Based on research
● Lean startup method
An overview of the
resources and
operations required to
make your business
successful.
What is the Business Model Canvas?

5. Why use it?
● Plan your strategy
● Share your vision
● Identify gaps
● Grow your business

6. Filling out the canvas

7. First, open a blank
template. Then, add the
information from the
following slides.
Source: Strategyzer.com

8. Products and services
you offer to meet
customers’ needs.
Value proposition
● Brand differentiation
● Quantity vs quality
● May vary by customer

9. People and
organizations for whom
you create value.
Customer segments
● Buyer personas
● Niche markets
● Multi-sided markets

10. The kinds of
relationships you want
to establish with your
customer segments.
Customer relationships
● Personal assistance
● Community
● Self service

11. The points at which you
interact with customers
to deliver value.
Channels
● Channels you own
● Partners’ channels

12. The resources you need
to sustain your business
and create value.
Key resources
● Human
● Financial
● Physical
● Intellectual

13. Activities that enable
you to fulfill your value
proposition.
Key activities
● Supply chains
● Processes
● Training

14. Other agents you rely
on to create and deliver
value.
Key partners
● Suppliers
● Distributors
● Joint ventures

15. A description of the
costs of operating your
business.
Cost structure
● Fixed costs
● Variable costs
● Changes in costs as
you scale

16. What customers pay
for, and how they pay.
Revenue streams
● Purchases
● Subscriptions
● Willingness to pay

17. Example: Kleenex

19. Improving your business model

20. ”
“In a startup company,
you basically throw out
all assumptions every
three weeks.
William Lyon Phelps
Professor, Yale University
Test your
assumptions

21. ● Track key metrics
● Try A/B tests
● Frequent, limited
releases
Find simple, small-scale
ways to test each
aspect of your business
model.
Validate your business model

22. The goal: a cycle of improvement
Plan Test Adapt Repeat Release

23. 1. Fill out the canvas
Action steps
2. Identify assumptions
3. Test for value

24. ● Flowcharts
● Mind maps
● UML diagrams
● Much more
Update your business
model today with
Lucidchart, the web’s
top diagramming app.
Thanks for reading!