An Introduction to Lean Canvas
- 1. An Introduction to Lean Canvas Vithushan Vijayaratnam Director Accelerator Program (Uki) Yarl It Hub
- 2. Why Lean Canvas ? • Quicker way to get ideas out of your head. • Business Plans are waste of time for Startups at the initial stage. • Elimination of waste—this includes time, processes, inventory and more. “Business Plan: a document investors make you write, that they don’t read”. - Steve Blank Lean Canvas has been adapted by Ash Maurya from the very popular Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder
- 4. 1. Problem • List the one to three high priority problems that your customer segment (CS) has. • Without a problem to solve, you don’t have a product / service to offer.
- 5. 2. Customer Segments • The problem and Customer Segments can be viewed as intrinsically connected.
- 6. 3. Unique Value Proposition • A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. • It’s the primary reason a prospect should buy from you. • Think why are you different and why should your CS buy / invest time in you.
- 7. 4. Solution • Finding a solution to the problem is the golden egg! • You may not get this right off the first shot - it’s OK • What you need to do ? - Get Out The Building • Interview your customer segment, ask them questions, and take those learnings. • Lean Startup is validated learning through a continual Build—Measure—Learn cycle.
- 8. 5. Channels • Channels are ways for you to reach your CS. • Initial stage - don’t think about scale but focus on learning. • Think which channels will give you enough access to your CS at the same time give you enough learning. • Channels can be email, social, CPC ads, blogs, articles, trade shows, radio & TV, webinars etc. • You don’t have to be on all of them, just where your CS are.
- 9. 6. Revenue Streams • Quite common for startups to lower their cost, even offer it for free to gain traction however this can pose a few problems. • It actually delays / avoids validation. • Getting people to sign up for something for free is a lot different than asking them to pay. • There is also the idea of perceived value.
- 10. 7. Cost Structure • List all the operational costs for taking this business to market. How much will it cost to build ? What is your burn rate—your total monthly running costs? How much will it cost to interview your customer segment? How much do market research papers cost? etc. • Can use these costs and potential revenue streams to calculate a rough break- even point.
- 11. 8. Key Metrics • Every business will have some key metrics that are used to monitor performance. • How can you measure the success of your business ?
- 12. 9. Unfair Advantage • Most difficult to block to answer. • Will help when it comes to seeking partners & investors. “The only real competitive advantage is that which cannot be copied and cannot be bought.”—Jason Cohen. • Unfair advantage can be insider information, a dream team, getting expert endorsements, existing customers etc. • Think about what you have that no one else can buy.
- 14. Conclusion • Idea here is to spend around 15–20 minutes to get that idea down on to paper. • Now that you have your first Lean Canvas, the key is to test. • Try as many iterations as possible, and test each one for a winning business model. • Sounds like hard work? - going through this process will save you time, energy and money. • The worst possible outcome for any entrepreneur is to build something that no one wants!
Editor's Notes
- #3: Lean Canvas uses the same 9 blocks concept except they’ve been modified slightly to suit the needs / purposes / requirements of a Lean Startup.
- #4: Completed Lean Canvas, Next see in order of how to fill this canvas,
- #6: without a CS in mind you can’t think of their problems, and visa versa.
- #8: the solution is not in your office, it’s out there in the streets.
- #14: Completed Lean Canvas