Recently, I am reading "Agile Transformation: Building an Efficient Organization of the Times" by Mr. Wang. I was a little puzzled by the lean canvas mentioned in the book, so I learned more about it and wrote it to share with you.

In this article, I will introduce lean canvas from the following aspects:

Lean canvas is adapted from Alex Osterwalder's business model canvas by Ash Maurya, and its definition is as follows:

The nine modules it provides are (Chinese translation of agile transformation):

The following are templates for lean canvas:

The following is an example of using lean canvas to analyze new projects:

Lean canvas looks so simple, what benefits can it bring us?

When you plan to launch a new product, lean canvas is very helpful for your decision. It can help you in the following ways:

Lean Canvas is a powerful framework, covering almost all important aspects that need to be considered when creating new business. Just like a 360-degree scanner with no dead ends, it lists possible opportunities and problems on the way forward for final decision.

Here are some examples I have seen. I don't know if you feel the same way:

These problems can sometimes be solved without lean canvas, such as the famous "standing in the wind, pigs can fly"! However, the advantage of using lean canvas is that it forces you to think carefully about who your customers are before you decide to do something. What problem do you want to solve? How much do you want to invest? How to promote it? How to make profits? ..... such a simple piece of paper can build the framework of your whole business model.

Moreover, another advantage of lean canvas is that it can be filled without any specific skills or professional knowledge. Therefore, every entrepreneur should use it when starting a business.

But how to fill in and tell the nine modules of lean canvas?

Lean Canvas is a "one page business plan template". However, it does more than that. It can help you:

At this time, you may wonder: Do the nine modules of lean canvas have the correct filling order?

The answer is none.

However, Ash Maurya gave a suggested order. At first, he gave the following filling order in the book Lean Entrepreneurship:

But after several years, the author adjusted the order: he prefers to start with the current customers, because problems are always common in the same customer group, so the order he recommends now is this, adjusting the order of "problems" and "customer group classification":

My suggestion is that you can fill in the order given by Ash Maurya first, and if you feel uncomfortable, you can explore your own suitable order, which is also the "keeping away" advocated by Agile.

No matter how to change the order, we can see from the above two pictures that everything starts with the customer segmentation you want to serve and what their problems are.

If these people have no problems, they don't need solutions; In other words, no new products are needed. Therefore, you need to pay great attention to whom you want to solve the problem.

When filling in, it should be noted that there are no so-called important modules in this drawing. All modules are very important and need to be filled in. However, you may not know how to fill in some modules for the time being, so leave them empty first. A blank grid means that you and your team have a blank understanding of this piece. Next, you should spend some time exploring deeply and try to finish the project before it starts.

Although the design of lean canvas is simple and clear, it may still bring some challenges to beginners. To complete this canvas, remember the following three key rules:

The order of lean canvas has been decided, and the rules of filling are given. How to fill in the details? Let's take a look through an example ~

In this section, I will provide you with an example of lean canvas. The oil painting is about Uber passengers in London:

Let's look at the problem first:

These are practical problems for Londoners and tourists.

If you have identified problems in your customer base, you can:

So it is important to define the customer problem, which should be your starting point. This applies to both new products and adding new features and functions to existing products.

Let's look at the solution and unique value proposition:

As long as you define your own solutions according to the problems you solve, unique value propositions will naturally appear. In fact, after clarifying the problems and solutions, everything else will follow!

Finally, let's take a look at the story told by Uber passengers' lean canvas:

Uber provides an application for Internet-savvy young people and young Londoners and tourists, tracking their location and ensuring quick pick-up, displaying the driver's name, grade, license plate and model in advance, and allowing them to automatically pay reasonable price solutions directly from the application, which helps them to reduce the difficulty of taking a taxi immediately, reduce their concerns about safety and car condition, and avoid paying high fares in cash. They will learn about Uber through public relations, recommendation and outdoor advertising channels, and will be persuaded to join us, because we let Londoners call a car with one click through the app and reach the unique value proposition from A to B in a comfortable, safe and reasonable way, and we already have 40,000 drivers in London, and our brand awareness among adults has reached an unfair advantage of 84%. We will charge them a revenue stream by cashing in 75% of the fare according to the route and free time, which we believe will cover our IT infrastructure development, marketing, public relations, law and driver recruitment/management cost structure. We will measure our performance by tracking how many customers have installed our application, how many people have created accounts, how many trips they have booked, how much revenue they have generated each month, and how many friends they have invited to join the key indicators.

You can use the same method mentioned above to analyze the tilted canvas on the driver's side:

The first four sections introduce what is lean canvas, why and how to use it, and give an example of Uber passenger lean canvas in London. I believe you have a general understanding of lean canvas. Before you do this, there are several points to note:

Ok, now you can practice!