What is a Lean Model Canvas?

Your business model is an integrated view of your entire organisation, bringing together your social model, strategy and operational plans. These components form the ‘engine’ of your organisation, with your vision and mission providing the context of what you do. A business model describes how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value.

A good way to keep your business model front and centre in your mind is by using a Lean Canvas model. This simple, one-page sheet asks you key questions that are vital to your operation. You might even use this Canvas several times in the process, as elements are bound to change as you refine your idea and move toward implementing it (see pdf documents and an explanatory video of the Lean Canvas below).

How to Create a Lean Model Canvas

1) Read the Lean Model Canvas: Key Definitions and watch the video given in the resources below. These will guide you through the different sections of the Business Model Canvas.

2) Print out a Lean Model Canvas.

3) Sit down and start to fill out the sections of the Lean Model Canvas. When you fill it out the first time, expect for there to be holes. It’s okay not to know exactly how everything will work.

4) You may need to leave some columns blank, do research or reflect on them, and then come back and fill them out.

5) When you’re done, go test those assumptions in the outside world and revise the Canvas with what you learned.

If you don’t have a business idea, apply the Lean Canvas model to one of these organisations:

Case 1: Circo Para Todos An organisation that support disadvantaged children and youth in Colombia by teaching them circus arts as a profession. Discover the story of Circo Para Todos.

Case 2: Sealand Sealand make upcycled bags built to last a lifetime. Sealand is based in Cape Town, a dramatically beautiful city in South Africa where oceans and mountains vividly meet.