How to fill in the Lean Canvas.

The Lean Canvas, created by Ash Maurya and adapted from Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, fits a business model on one page. It takes about 20 minutes to fill in and shows you, quickly, where the biggest risks are.

Fill it in this order

1. Problem. The top one to three problems your customers have. Add how they solve them today under “existing alternatives”.
2. Customer segments. Who has those problems. Name your early adopters: the customers who feel the problem most and will try something new first.
3. Unique value proposition. One clear sentence on why you are different and worth paying attention to. Add a short “high-level concept”, such as “Xero for vets”.
4. Solution. The simplest features that solve each problem. Keep it short: this box is the one tech founders overfill.
5. Channels. How you will reach your customers: direct sales, partners, search, communities, marketplaces.
6. Revenue streams. How you make money, at what price, and the lifetime value of a customer.
7. Cost structure. The costs of acquiring customers, building and running the product, and the team.
8. Key metrics. The few numbers that show whether it is working: activation, retention, revenue.
9. Unfair advantage. Something that cannot easily be copied or bought: insider knowledge, a community, network effects, data. Leave it blank if you do not have one yet. Most do not.

Tips

• Fill it in one sitting, then improve it over time. Use a new canvas for each customer segment.
• Mark each box as a fact (evidence) or an assumption (to test). Test the riskiest assumptions first.
• Revisit it monthly. A canvas that never changes means you are not learning.

Try it here

Fill in the canvas below this guide. It is saved in your browser only, and nothing is sent to us. Go to the canvas ↓