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Show HN: Make a business model canvas in your browser
- davidjgraph 8y agoThe github project itself is at https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch Question: how do you save/load? We had a similar idea for draw.io [1] [1] https://www.draw.io/?splash=0&url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jgraph/drawio-diagrams/master/templates/business/business_model_canvas_1.xml https://www.draw.io/?splash=0&url=https://raw.githubusercont...
- realPubkey 8y agoThe whole state json-stringified and then stored as base64 in the localstorage. Looks like a valid solution for that amount of data.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoI think the question should be restated as: how do you save to a file and load from a file? The use of localStorage means you can only have one version of a canvas per browser/device pair.
- todd3834 8y agoMaybe not ideal but you _could_ use the browser inspector and copy the data from local storage and send it around manually. Not suggesting this is a workable solution but if you just needed to get it off one computer to another.
- Gcam 8y agoCould just offer downloading the data as JSON in a file as well as having it in local storage?
- numbsafari 8y agoCreate a gist and support loading from a gist URL? It's shareable between devices and people, and even editable if you pretty-print the JSON, rather than base64 encoding it. I would probably support both options. https://developer.github.com/v3/gists/#create-a-gist https://developer.github.com/v3/gists/#create-a-gist
- sleepychu 8y agoput my contact info in a public gist and say goodbye to me as a business partner.
- numbsafari 8y agoYeah, good point. You can make the gist non-public by default (set public=false), and perhaps gists are the wrong tool, but something akin to gists seem like a good way to do something like this. I know Dave Winer was using the DropBox API in this way for some of his outlining tools. But your point is well made, one of the downsides of the "web" as a platform is that it's hard to know what happens with the data you save to a random web application. I've had experience with product managers loading entire customer lists of emails into random "email validation tool"s, which were clearly just honeypots for foolish people's data.
- pspeter3 8y agoWhy convert to Base64?
- sbussard 8y agoA former version of the app I made a few years ago had the ability to download a json file with all your data. Then to open you would just drag the file from your computer and drop it on the canvas. But that obviously didn't work for mobile
- davidjgraph 8y agoCopy JSON to clipboard function?
- sbussard 8y agobrilliant!
- ddgflorida 8y agoThis project could easily use FileSaver.js to download the JSON locally. You could then easily read it back. This is how I do it for my site that runs locally only.
- desireco42 8y agoI can't speak for the author, but I bet he would accept Pull Req if you made one :)
- aepc2 8y agoJust quick off topic: i use draw.io often. It's the best tool for mockups etc that I've come across, all things considered. Thx.
- Viccco 8y agoLooks nice! Would be nice to have a comment option, cuz sometime keyword could have a looooooong description - it's good to have it hidden
- addedlovely 8y agoNice use of CSS grid! Noticed special characters seem to break the site. e.g. …
- yoavm 8y agoVery nice and useful! I guess that's not your main concern, but when I tried to type some Hebrew characters the whole board disappeared (try שלום).
- sbussard 8y agoGood find! It has to do with base64 encoding. I'll add an issue to the project
- sbussard 8y agoFix merged https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch/pull/16 https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch/pull/16 https://sbussard.github.io/canvas-sketch/ https://sbussard.github.io/canvas-sketch/
- al_ramich 8y agoGreat, very clear and easy to use but are you meant to be able to share this. What is the intended use case?
- spr2 8y agoif you are looking for a free online version of the business model canvas and many more templates, you can also try out our tool canvanizer.com as an alternative. This also supports sharing and collaboration through edit or readonly links. Does not build on local storage though.
- al_ramich 8y agobit of cross-selling never harms ;) thanks, will check it out. Already utilising various tools but always keen to find better alternatives.
- sbussard 8y agoIt's for sketching out business ideas, kind of like a white board.
- kristiandupont 8y agoI'd love to hear about peoples experience with this. I have the book and I tried setting up a canvas a few times but I didn't find it very helpful. It might be because of nature of the projects that I tried it on, I am not sure. Can anyone tell me about a time where they got explicit value/insight from setting one up?
- arkitaip 8y agoI have used the canvas a lot (bought the book too!) and found it an useful tool to externalize the thoughts in my head and make them concrete on paper. It's not a silver bullet though and you can create amazing canvases that ultimately lead nowhere. I believe the reason why I'm not using the business model canvas anymore is because I've internalized most of its core principles and find it much easier to write down the core aspects of a business model in a text file. Much easier and less meaningless meta work (finding the right online tool, strictly following the canvas when it doesn't make sense in many industries/niches).
- numbsafari 8y agoI've used them collaboratively quite a bit. They are a quick way to talk about different players you are working with and talking to, and the layout of the canvas gives you a common vocabulary to talk about how you are viewing different players. Early on at my current startups, we were doing quite a bit of discovery and talking about a lot of different organizations and a lot of different relationship options, and the canvas gave us a way to keep track of that while we were working on other things. We still keep one up to date and use it for on-boarding and documentation of learning. It's not a heavy-weight process. Super light-weight. If you get too formal about it, it's a waste of time, like UML.
- ArtWomb 8y agoIt's part of the Lean Startup methodology. And the very first step in getting to MVP. Where I believe it is helpful is getting feedback. You have something concrete to show people. And hopefully their feedback will help you to crystallize your design.
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- filleokus 8y agoCould OP maybe post an example of a board to play around with?
- sbussard 8y agoAdded to backlog. Thanks!
- dugluak 8y agoWhere's the data stored?
- wmblaettler 8y agoIn your browser's LocalStorage as a base64 encoded JSON string
- peterlk 8y agoShameless plug: we built business model canvas building [1] into Aha! In addition to being able to create them, you can save them and put various versions into presentable notebooks [2] to see how they change over time or just to compare them. Also, it's configurable, so you can create a lean canvas or SWOT diagram or others [3] [1] https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/205738519-Create-an-Aha-business-model-canvas-strategic-model https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/205738519-Create-an... [2] https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/360006871731-Customize-notebook-slides https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/360006871731-Custom... [3] https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000716906-Create-your-own-strategic-models https://support.aha.io/hc/en-us/articles/360000716906-Create...
- sbjs 8y agoThis should be made into an Electron app with load/save, and then sell licenses to it for $50 USD. ;)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- wodenokoto 8y agoFor something like this, if you want low memory, use a piece of paper! I imagine this is something you either have showing on a screen on the wall next to your dashboard, or open when you need to look at it. In either case, electron won't stop you or bottle-neck your system :)
- nojvek 8y agoI’m really bummed Chrome discontinued Chrome apps. Basically what I really want is to be able to make electron like desktop apps but not ship and load an entire browser with it. Chrome apps were light weight and you could do a lot of desktop like things with it. Progressive web apps are nice but there’s a ton of things lacking.
- sbjs 8y agoChrome apps always felt weird to me. They're not really separate from Chrome, but they.. live outside Chrome? And you have to launch them like a real app? Even though they're not real apps. It's just so weird. I would prefer an Electron app any day over those weird Chrome app things.
- corobo 8y agoI know it's not exactly what you're looking for but for personal use anyone else wanting this sort of thing, this is how I display sites as apps (Google Calendar, Todoist) google-chrome --app="https://sbussard.github.io/canvas-sketch/" https://sbussard.github.io/canvas-sketch/" Replace google-chrome for the correct binary for your system
- Aaargh20318 8y agoYou can find a BMC and a bunch of similar tools for free on https://www.businessmakeover.eu https://www.businessmakeover.eu
- b45 8y agoCool! Fyi, when adding an item with 30+ characters, the item spills over to the next grid. Since you are already using css grid there are some css grid properties that handles minimizing/ wrapping values within a parent grid. Cheers!
- sbussard 8y agoThanks for the feedback! I'll create an issue for that
- OldSchoolJohnny 8y agoFYI to other business software developers: this does not refer to a "canvas" object in HTML 5 sense nor tying that to a business domain model object as we might expect, it's a Business tool for apparently brainstorming business ideas for people that don't already have a clear business idea.
- chm0022 8y agoAwesome! I think this tool is great. I would recommend adding to your future MVP is an info highlight to each block of the canvas, so the user doesn't have to research the type of questions he/she needs to fill the canvas.
- sbussard 8y agoThanks! I'll add it to the backlog!
- kowdermeister 8y agoThe design is really nice. I'd add these things though: - rearrange cards inside segments - add a tooltip to the icon to each segment to briefly explain what's expected there or what are good examples - change color of cards
- sbussard 8y agothese are good additions! Issue created!
- matejlatin 8y agoThat's really cool, but when I want to print it, it doesn't keep the business model canvas layout :/
- sbussard 8y agoThanks for the feedback! I'll add it to the backlog
- jaredandrews 8y agoVery cool seeing this here! Hope things are good out in Nashville!
- sbussard 8y agoThanks Jared! Let me know the next time you're in town!
- briodf 8y agoThat's a nice technical implementation of the Business Model Canvas. However, you should check the licensing under which it has been published as the result of accademic research: https://strategyzer.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/506842-business-model-canvas-and-value-proposition-canvas https://strategyzer.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/506... >The Business Model Canvas, released under Creative Commons license, is open for building other approaches and variations on the concept. There have been a number of variations discussed and demonstrated here in the Hub and externally. Where variations have been made, recognition of the original source material must be included in the variation. The text and link Strategyzer.com should be clearly visible and legible under every canvas. If you're interested in the topic, you should definitely check out https://strategyzer.com/ https://strategyzer.com/ which is the company co-founded by the former PHD that developped the concept of the Business Model Canvas.
- dosy 8y agoCan a concept really be restricted? I thought ideas were not patentable.
- alnorth 8y agoWho mentioned patents?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- onli 8y agoIn the current US patent climate disaster it is not really a big leap to see something that is clearly not protected by copyright and then think "maybe they got a patent for it and throw licenses around because of that."
- Freak_NL 8y agoThat does sound dubious. The specific graphics created by Strategyzer can be copyrighted with a Creative Commons license of course, but I can't see how the concept of the business model canvas can be protected. The name may be trademarked of course.
- kkotak 8y agoI don't get it. Is this anything more than post it notes on a grid?
- sbussard 8y agoIt's from this book https://strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation https://strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation
- macspoofing 8y agoIt looks OK. It's light on features and the UX isn't that great (why input popups at the top of the page?). Why not spend a bit more time on it before showing it off to a big audience?
- sbussard 8y agoI had absolutely no idea it was even going to be noticed. I posted an older version several years ago and no one paid attention.
- NKCSS 8y agoI have no idea what to do here, maybe pre-populate it when first time visiting to show the concept, add a button (with confirm) to start over?
- sbussard 8y agoYeah I put an issue in the backlog to help https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch/issues/9 https://github.com/sbussard/canvas-sketch/issues/9 There's a whole book dedicated to the topic if you're interested. It's a quick read. https://strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation https://strategyzer.com/books/business-model-generation
- webbdev 8y agoVery cool!
- desireco42 8y agoHey really cool. I like what and how you did it, it is appropriate level of storing data. Few years ago I made a html version, so people can create number of canvases. Gitignore ignores anything starting with model- and you have business and lean canvas examples. https://github.com/desireco/BusinessModelCanvasTemplate https://github.com/desireco/BusinessModelCanvasTemplate
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