Are you working on a business model canvas assignment? Here are some tips that I’ve learned over the years that help me to put a business model canvas together very quickly and generate lots of insights.
If you use them as you work on your assignment then you’ll stand out from everyone else and have a much better chance of getting a distinction. It’s always good to up your grade 🙂
Draw it Fast
How to Tell a Story
The business model canvas is a piece of paper with some squiggles on it. If it was a powerpoint slide your watchers would go to sleep. There is too much information on it!
The solution is to use it as a prop to tell a story. That means focusing on one item – say a customer persona and talking it through from there. Here’s an example :
Make an Instant Pitch
When you come up with a new idea for a business the first time you try and explain it’s often embarrassing. The ideas tumble, get jammed in your mouth and you look like an idiot. It was so clear when it was in your head!
It’s easy to avoid embarrassment! What you do is capture your thoughts on the business model canvas and then talk through them. Writing them out helps structure your ideas – and you instantly sound confident and authoritative!
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Make The Pain Explicit
One of the advantages of the Lean Canvas is that it makes the problem that you are solving explicit. I often cut the Value Proposition segment in half and put the problem/pain in the bottom half.
Then you have a nice simple situation. Every customer segment should have a ‘pain’. Every value proposition should solve a ‘pain’.
If it doesn’t go back and have another look
Here’s an example from a business model canvas that I created for a customer. As you can see I didn’t get it quite right. The ‘Better Marketing ROI’ didn’t explicitly solve a ‘pain’. The ‘tailored & relevant adverts’ was a value proposition aimed at a segment that didn’t have a matching pain.
What you can see is that we’ve unearthed a couple of assumptions about the business model doing something as simple as adding arrows!
Do the Key Partners Last
One of the key decisions for any business is whether to make or buy. Do we make or do something ourselves? Or do we get someone to do it for us?
When you make a business model canvas you don’t need to make that decision early. Capture what key resources you need and what key activities you need to undertake.
Then decide whether you do them or someone else does. If it’s someone else then they go in the key partners.
Random Starting Point
This is a fun play on the Pitch idea above. Chose a random segment on the business model canvas. Then talk through the canvas starting from that point.
You can’t use the usual schtick. You unfreeze your thought patterns and often see something, and insight, that you’ve never had before.
It’s Apple’s challenge to IBM and Microsoft.
Think Different
Steve Jobs
User Journey
The final tip is talk through the business model canvas pretending you are a user on a journey.
Here are some user journeys that are very powerful
- I am an investor and I make money from my investment in X…….
- I am a customer of X and this is how I buy and use their value proposition
- I am a supplier of X and this is how my product or service contributes to them making their customer happy
- I am a manager or entrepreneur at X and this is what I need to do to keep the customers happy and impress my investors
Are You Ready to Be an Entrepreneur?
Read my guide to YOUR 9 Steps to Success
