Working with canvases

Ideas and canvases

One idea, up to sixteen canvases, all generated to agree with each other.

Every canvas belongs to an idea. The first canvas you generate starts the idea; every canvas you add afterwards is another view of the same business, with the same name and description.

Moving between canvases

The pills next to the title are the idea's canvases — BMC, Lean, SWOT and so on. The highlighted pill is the one on screen; click another to open it.

The canvas header with the title, canvas pills and toolbar — Title, the idea's canvases, and the toolbar.

Adding another canvas

1Click the canvas button just after the pills.
2Choose a canvas the idea does not have yet.
3Wait for it to generate. It opens on its own when it is ready.

How the canvases stay consistent

When a canvas is generated, the idea's existing canvases are sent with the request as established fact: their segments, channels, partners, products and figures. The model is asked to use the same names for the same things, not to contradict them, and to spend its words on what the new canvas adds rather than repeating them.

The more canvases an idea has, the more there is to send, so detail is shortened to fit — first fewer items per block, then titles only — but every canvas is always represented. The canvas being generated is left out of its own context, so generating it again gives a fresh take rather than a copy.

Generating a canvas again

From the same canvas button, Generate this one again replaces the canvas on screen with a new one from the same idea. To change the idea itself first, open the idea (the button beside the title), edit the description, and choose Save and regenerate this canvas.

The sixteen canvases

Canvas	Blocks	What it answers
Business Model CanvasBMC	9	The nine building blocks of a business model, laid out on the Strategyzer grid.
Lean CanvasLean	9	Ash Maurya's problem-first adaptation of the business model canvas, for startups and new products.
SWOT AnalysisSWOT	4	Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats on the classic four-quadrant grid.
Value Proposition CanvasVPC	8	The customer profile beside the value map, so what you offer can be checked against what the customer actually wants.
Idea CanvasIdea	9	A first pass at an idea: what it is, who it is for, why now, and what would have to be true for it to work.
Problem Solution Fit CanvasPSF	8	The problem, who has it and how they cope today, set against the solution and the evidence that it actually solves it.
Product Market Fit CanvasPMF	10	The customer segment beside the product, row by row, so what you offer can be checked against who you offer it to.
Brand CanvasBrand	10	What the brand stands for, who it is for and how it shows up — essence, positioning and personality on one sheet.
Product CanvasProduct	10	The vision, the users and the needs above what is actually being built — with the metrics, constraints and risks that decide whether it lands.
Marketing CanvasMarketing	9	Who is being reached, what they are told, through which channels — and what the whole thing is measured on.
Sales CanvasSales	10	The ideal customer, the buying committee and the stages a deal moves through — with the objections, pricing and targets around them.
Process CanvasProcess	11	A process on one sheet, in SIPOC order: what it is for, what feeds it, the steps themselves, what comes out and who receives it.
Service Delivery CanvasService	10	A service as it is actually run: the offering and its customers, the frontstage and backstage that deliver it, and the levels it is held to.
Solution Delivery CanvasSolution	10	A solution being delivered once: outcomes, stakeholders and scope above the architecture and approach, with milestones, risks and acceptance below.
Supply Chain CanvasSupply	10	The chain in SCOR order — plan, source, make, deliver, return — with the partners, risks and numbers that hold it together.
Value Chain CanvasVCC	10	Porter's value chain: the support activities that serve the whole business, the primary activities that add value in sequence, and the margin left at the end.