What is a Business Model Canvas?

A business model canvas is a design thinking tool that helps companies and individuals move from a human-centric or product-centric approach to a business-centric approach with the purpose of visualizing the product, service or experience as a business.

A business model canvas will enable a company or individual to:

• Visualize and communicate a simple story of the existing business model.
• Design new business models.
• Explore and exploit business models.

A business model canvas is broken down into 9 blocks, which are described below:

This block within the business model canvas describes the:

• Key partners.
• Key suppliers.
• Key resources.
• Key activities that the partners perform.

This block within the business model canvas describes the key activities required by the value proposition.

This block within the business model canvas describes the resources that are required to fulfill the value proposition.

This block within the business model canvas describes the:

• Value delivered to the customer.
• Problem that we are helping the customer solve.
• Bundles of products, services or experiences that is being offered to each customer segment.
• Customer needs that is being satisfying.
• Minimum viable product, service or experience.

This block within the business model canvas that describes:

• How customers are acquired, retained and grown.
• Which customer relationships are established.
• How the customer relationships are linked to the rest of the business model.
• How costly the customer relationships are.

This block within the business model canvas that describes:

• Through which channels the customer segments want to be reached.
• How other companies reach the customer segments.
• Which channel works the best.
• Which channel is most cost efficient.
• How the channels are integrated with the customer routines.

This block within the business model canvas describes:

• The target audience.
• Who the most important customers are.
• What the customer archetypes are.

Pleas note that you may wish to link archetypes to personas.

This block within the business model canvas that describes:

• The most inherent costs of the business model.
• Which key resources are most expensive.
• Which key activities are most expensive.

This block within the business model canvas that describes:

• What value customers are really willing to pay for.
• What customers are currently paying for.
• How the business makes money (i.e. advertising, sales, services).
• What the pricing tactics are.

To learn our approach to creating business model canvases, consult the link below.

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