{"id":22318,"date":"2021-10-22T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T17:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/?p=22318"},"modified":"2025-05-14T17:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T17:41:06","slug":"what-is-a-lean-model-canvas","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/what-is-a-lean-model-canvas\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Lean Model Canvas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last article, \u201cProblems With Minimum Viable Product<\/a>,\u201d we talked about the importance of doing the right analysis, research, and prototyping to avoid the types of pitfalls that can prevent your MVP from being the learning and enablement tool it\u2019s meant to be. This research is essential for forming a meaningful hypothesis and scoping the right features to include. After all, your MVP is the \u201ccoming out party\u201d for your innovations, so you want to get it right! Fortunately, there\u2019s a way to centralize and codify your data-driven analysis. It\u2019s called the Lean Canvas Model.<\/p>\n

The Lean Canvas is an effective tool to help you deconstruct your idea into the key building blocks that enable you to formulate your business plan. It can help you centralize and visualize these critical components of taking your idea to market. It centralizes the data and research you\u2019ve already done onto a single page, allowing stakeholders to quickly and easily grasp the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Further, Lean Canvas helps guide MVP ideation by exposing gaps in your knowledge and serving as a prompt that encourages team members to ask the right questions and achieve alignment. As Michael Rabjohns, UX Practice Leader at 3Pillar Global, explains, \u201c[These] are important questions, and it\u2019s invaluable to get the whole team in the same room at the same time talking about them, to ensure alignment at the outset. If there are significant misalignments, and that doesn\u2019t become clear until several months later, you\u2019re in deep yogurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this article primarily focuses on the value of the Lean Model Canvas as it relates to your MVP, you should know that the canvas goes beyond product ideation. Because it prompts you to dig into the problem you\u2019ll solve for users, your unique value proposition, cost structure, and revenue streams, it connects your offering to the big picture business strategy in a lean way.<\/p>\n

This article will explore the Lean Canvas Model and its most powerful component, the Value Prop Canvas.<\/p>\n

The Lean Model Canvas And Its Origins<\/h2>\n

Traditional business plans generally don\u2019t excel at considering customer needs and interests. Swiss entrepreneur Alex Osterwalder called these plans time wasters and created the Business Model Canvas in 2010 to streamline and focus the process. His canvas is a one-page way to break a business model down into nine components, helping analyze both risk and opportunities. It\u2019s well-suited for established businesses to nail their big picture goals, but it isn\u2019t the best tool for startups or those looking to explore more untested waters.<\/p>\n

The Lean Canvas Model, created by Ash Maurya, is an even more streamlined and focused (and startup-friendly) version of the Business Model Canvas that is particularly amenable to the needs of MVP ideation and validation. This model hones in on viability and the minimum components necessary to create value for the customer while taking business needs into consideration.<\/p>\n

The Components of The Lean Model Canvas<\/h2>\n

Each area in the Lean Model Canvas should be informed by research and data to help ideate your MVP. We\u2019ve explored why it\u2019s crucial to examine every aspect of viability through rapid prototyping<\/a> in a previous article. The data you gather through the prototyping process will help you populate your Lean Canvas and, in turn, inform your MVP planning. Let\u2019s briefly look at each section.<\/p>\n

Customer Segments:<\/strong> Who are your target users? To whom will you market your MVP? Prototyping will help you understand your market and learn the answers to these questions.<\/p>\n

Problems:<\/strong> What problems do people face that your product is meant to solve? This should include the top 2 to 3 issues you believe your product will address. If you\u2019ve verified this with potential users and buyers using prototypes, you should feel fairly confident that the problems you\u2019re aiming to solve are valid.<\/p>\n

Revenue Streams:<\/strong> What is your revenue model? What would your customers be willing to pay for your solution? How much does each individual revenue stream contribute to your overall revenue?<\/p>\n

Solutions:<\/strong> Every feature you offer must be backed with a benefit that solves a user problem. In other words, what do potential solutions look like in relation to the issues mentioned above?<\/p>\n

Unique Value Prop:<\/strong> How is your solution different from what\u2019s already out there? To answer this, you\u2019ll need to do a competitive analysis. This involves identifying your major competing solutions and researching their products, benefits, and marketing strategies.<\/p>\n

Channels:<\/strong> Even the best solutions won\u2019t be adopted if no one can find them. Where will your market find out about you? Channels could include social media, partnerships, direct sales, email marketing, referral marketing, and\/or SEO strategies. Whether physical or digital, it\u2019s critical to have a thorough understanding of the supply chain.<\/p>\n

Key Metrics:<\/strong> How will you track usage and measure success? If you don\u2019t establish a measure of success, you\u2019ll have no idea what went right\u2014or wrong\u2014with your MVP.<\/p>\n

Cost Structure:<\/strong> What are the essential building blocks of your budget? Think: hosting costs, marketing costs, licensing, personnel, etc.<\/p>\n

Unfair advantage:<\/strong> Is there a feature or component of your product that no one can replicate? It\u2019s essential to think about what will differentiate you from the competition, and it is one of the biggest reasons you do a competitive analysis.<\/p>\n

The most powerful part of the above is the Value Proposition Canvas. It\u2019s essentially a zoomed-in portion of the value prop and customer segments sections. In fact, both sections are identical in the business and lean model canvas.<\/p>\n

The Value Proposition Canvas<\/h2>\n

There are two critical aspects to the Value Proposition Canvas: what it can help you understand from a user perspective and what it can help you understand from the product perspective and the relation between those. These are actually two sides of the same coin, and as such, they are interdependent.<\/p>\n

The customer profile is a more granular version of the customer segments and delves into three key areas: Jobs to be Done, Pains, and Gains.<\/p>\n

Former Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, the late author of The Innovator\u2019s Dilemma<\/em> and Competing Against Luck,<\/em> first articulated what would come to be known as Jobs To Be Done Theory in a 2005 article for the Harvard Business Review<\/a>. He wrote, \u201cWhen people find themselves needing to get a job done, they essentially hire products to do that job for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) is really about understanding what people are trying to accomplish and what services they want. Products change, but the underlying jobs\/services don\u2019t. For example, listening to music is a job. Over time, in JTBD lingo, consumers have \u201chired\u201d record players, tape players, Walk- and Discmans, and iPods to make the way these services are delivered more convenient. Jobs also have more than one component. The functional job is just what it sounds like: Does this product\/service do what it purports to do? The emotional job refers to how a product makes someone feel, while the social job describes how someone wants to be perceived by others.<\/p>\n

Pains are the things that stand in the way of getting the job done. Pain also represents an opportunity for innovation. If you want to hire a product to do the job of listening to music while you exercise, then a portable CD player is a vast improvement over a record player but still creates annoyances and barriers to progress when the music skips or the battery dies. Gains, on the other hand, are about how people measure success and define positive outcomes. In 2001, someone who wanted a seamless experience of listening to music while going for a run would have been more likely to hire a first-generation iPod than a cassette player to accomplish that job.<\/p>\n

Combined, this information helps you generate a better understanding of your target user.<\/p>\n

On the product side, the value map is a granular version of the value proposition. The three components here are pain relievers, gain achievers, and products and services, which mirror the three elements in the customer segment: pains, gains, and job to be done.<\/p>\n

Products and services ask you to consider which of your offerings can help customers get a functional, social, and\/or emotional job done. In this case, \u201cproducts and services\u201d refers to your MVP. Which specific features act as pain relievers to offset the pains you outlined on the customer side? How will specific features in your MVP act as gain achievers and help customers accomplish their goals?<\/p>\n

Together, this information helps you design your MVP and test your value proposition. It directly helps you assess the minimum<\/em> feature set that will deliver the most value, i.e., relieve the most pain and provide the most gain.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Using the Lean Model Canvas in combination with the Value Prop Canvas means you won\u2019t just \u201cfeel like\u201d you did your due diligence; you\u2019ll know you did. Applying a systematic method to record the most salient data you gather sets you up to learn. Now you can begin to formalize the scope of your MVP and truly understand the job you\u2019ll do for customers and the value you\u2019ll provide.<\/p>\n

To learn more about 3Pillar Global\u2019s services and how we can help you fill out your Lean Model Canvas and create a Minimum Viable Product to test and validate your assumptions with real customers, contact an expert today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Special thanks to these members of FORCE, 3Pillar’s expert network, for their contributions to this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\"LinkedIn\" Angel Almada<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn\" Joshua Bauder<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn\" Lindsay Kloepping<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn\" Henry Martinez<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn\" Michael Rabjohns<\/a><\/p>\n

\"LinkedIn\" Scott Varho<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FORCE is 3Pillar Global’s Thought Leadership Team comprised of technologists and industry experts offering their knowledge on important trends and topics in digital product development.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last article, \u201cProblems With Minimum Viable Product,\u201d we talked about the importance of doing the right analysis, research, and prototyping to avoid the types of pitfalls that can prevent your MVP from being the learning and enablement tool it\u2019s meant to be. This research is essential for forming a meaningful hypothesis and scoping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30775,"template":"","industry-types":[],"service-types":[],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-22318","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is a Lean Model Canvas? - 3Pillar<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Lean Model Canvas is based on the business model canvas and is more focused on entrepreneurs who are starting a new business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/what-is-a-lean-model-canvas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is a Lean Model Canvas? - 3Pillar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Lean Model Canvas is based on the business model canvas and is more focused on entrepreneurs who are starting a new business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/what-is-a-lean-model-canvas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"3Pillar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-14T17:41:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/MVP-Lean-Model-Canvas_1208x680.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1208\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/what-is-a-lean-model-canvas\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.3pillarglobal.com\/insights\/blog\/what-is-a-lean-model-canvas\/\",\"name\":\"What is a Lean Model Canvas? 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