1.
Using the Lean Canvas to
Map + Drive Your Startup
Presented at to
Oct 1, 2015
Kingston, Ontario

2.
Agenda
● What is the lean canvas?
● The lean canvas as map
● Driving with the lean canvas

3.
Caveats + Clarifications
● Frame of reference = tech
● Goal = a real tool for you to use!
● One size does not fit all + YMMV
● Academic context is specific
● Questions any time!

4.
1. What is the lean
canvas?

5.
Let’s start with a definition
“Lean Canvas is an adaptation of Business Model
Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder which Ash Maurya
created in the Lean Startup spirit. Lean Canvas promises
an actionable and entrepreneur-focused business plan. It
focuses on problems, solutions, key metrics and
competitive advantages.”
https://canvanizer.com/new/lean-canvas

6.
Business Model Canvas (2008)
http://www.freemium.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Blank-Business-Model-Canvas.jpg

7.
Lean Canvas (2009)
https://milanpevec.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/lean-canvas_blank.png

8.
The “canvas” movement is part of
larger trends in the business world
● Agile
● Lean startup
● Decreasing cost of entry
● Seed investment explosion
● Startup “hacking”

9.
These trends are equally relevant to
startups and big companies
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book

10.
The Business Model Canvas is a
work of “practical business theory”
● Arose out of PhD work - “The Business
Model Ontology. . .”
● As such, it’s a distillation of specific
theories about value creation
● But it’s also a (very popular) strategic
planning tool for business practitioners

11.
The Lean Canvas offers a similar
tool focused more on risk and action
My main objective with Lean Canvas was making it as actionable as
possible while staying entrepreneur-focused. The metaphor I had in
mind was that of a grounds-up tactical plan or blueprint that guided the
entrepreneur as they navigated their way from ideation to building a
successful startup.
My approach to making the canvas actionable was capturing that which
was most uncertain, or more accurately, that which was most risky.
I had found the initial Business Model Canvases I created back in
August 2009 missing on things I’d consider very high risk while
other things on the canvas didn’t register as high enough risk.
http://leanstack.com/why-lean-canvas/

12.
Here’s what Ash removed

13.
Here’s what he added
https://milanpevec.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/lean-canvas_blank.png

14.
2. The lean canvas as
a map

15.
Now that we’re situated, let’s have a
closer look

16.
Now that we’re situated, let’s have a
closer look
PRODUCT/COMPANY MARKET/CUSTOMER

17.
1. Problem
● be specific!
● start small
● multiple problems
● nested problems
● is it falsifiable?

18.
2. Customer
● be super specific!
● can you find them?
● multiple customers?
● consider personas

19.
3. UVP
● Not your product!
● Marriage of problem
and customer
● Value creation!
● Differentiation
● Tag line?

20.
4. Solution
● Your product!
● Key features
● Platform?
● Core use case?

21.
5. Channels
● Be specific!
● Multiple channels
● Now vs. later
● Cost matters

22.
6. Metrics
● Measuring success
● KPIs
● Vanity vs. Actionable
● Unit economics
● OMTM
● Data availability?

23.
7. Revenue
● Be specific!
● Back of envelope
● LTV
● Gross margin
● Revenue vs. users
● Future streams?

24.
8. Costs
● Salaries!
● Channels?
● CAC
● Operations
● Unit economics

25.
9. Unfair Advantage
● Not my favorite box
● Often doesn’t exist
● Often must be
developed/earned

26.
3. Driving with the
lean canvas

27.
But What Does a Business Model Have to Do With My Startup?
Your startup is essentially an organization built to search for a repeatable and
scalable business model. As a founder you start out with:
1) a vision of a product with a set of features,
2) a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who
are the customers/users? What’s the distribution channel. How do we price
and position the product? How do we create end user demand? Who are our
partners? Where/how do we build the product? How do we finance the
company, etc.”
http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-principles/
“Your startup is a series of
hypotheses. . .”

28.
Your job is to fill the Canvas
with hypotheses. . .

29.
Then prove or pivot them.

30.
Every startup is at a
different stage of
proving hypotheses!

31.
Entrepreneurship Class

32.
Problem/Solution Fit

33.
Product/Market Fit

34.
Know your stage,
know your riskiest
hypothesis, and
start testing!

35.
isouweine@gmail.com | @sonofsarah