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I'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

I'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 ago
I 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 ago
I'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 ago
It'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.
- peterlk 8y ago
  To be clear, though, there is a difference between the business model canvas [1] and the lean canvas [2] [1] http://creatorconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Business_Model_Canvas.png http://creatorconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Busi... [2] http://3daystartup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lean-Canvas-Official--1024x791.png http://3daystartup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lean-Canva...
draugadrotten 8y ago
Successfully used Business Model Canvas to present new business model to a larger organisation's board and get approval to start a new business unit. I feel it made the presentation of the key benefits of the business model easier, because the board was familiar with the Canvas and thus there was more shared ground.

arkitaip 8y ago

I 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 ago

I'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 ago

It'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.

peterlk 8y ago
To be clear, though, there is a difference between the business model canvas [1] and the lean canvas [2] [1] http://creatorconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Business_Model_Canvas.png http://creatorconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Busi... [2] http://3daystartup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lean-Canvas-Official--1024x791.png http://3daystartup.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lean-Canva...

draugadrotten 8y ago

Successfully used Business Model Canvas to present new business model to a larger organisation's board and get approval to start a new business unit. I feel it made the presentation of the key benefits of the business model easier, because the board was familiar with the Canvas and thus there was more shared ground.