Hello Francesco,

Thank you for your detailed observations based on how you have used the canvas in practice! Good to see how it can be used to identify gaps/troubleshoot the business model.

Yes, i think it makes sense to add the KPIs as a second stage.

Thanks again, Dave

I’m attending a MBA and the business model canvass is something that my lecturers are teaching in this period. I have used this model for a MBA project (marketing and digital marketing consultancy) and I have to say that this is a model that can help you to draw a general map of the company under analysis in order to understand better its SWOT analysis and, in a certain way, what it is missing in its business model and/or what is not working at all (aka: no results).

In a nutshell, it helps to have a general idea what is good, what is wrong and what is missing, for the company, to be competitive and/or to run the business in the most efficient and effective way.

In my opinion, having used it, the KPI can be considered in a second period when the situation is clear: once we have the map, and we know what we need and where we want to go, we can start to define the KPI.

In this project I had to analysis especially their digital strategy and the results they had. From my analysis I found a lot of mistakes that they have done without being aware BUT this could be avoided if they established a direct relationship with their webmaster (that wasn’t involved almost at all in their business strategy).

In this case, the business canvass told me that in their “key partners” part the webmaster was missing and, because of this, I had this kind of chain of problems

KEY PARTNERS missing (webmaster) therefore KEY ACTIVITIES weak (sales on line) therefore no VALUE PROPOSITION and no RELATIONSHIP WITH CUSTOMERS because the digital CHANNEL has been used in the wrong way.

This was also influenced by the fact that the staff did not know how to use Google Analytics (KEY RESOURCE) and, because of this, they had no idea of their CUSTOMER SEGMENT.

They paid a lof of money for the interent (COST STRUCTURE) but with no results (REVENUE STREAM)

Now, when I started to work on this project, what the manager of this company told me was “we don’t have so much traffic and contacts from the digital channels and we don’t know why despite we paid a lot in online communication”.

Now, If you read my business canvass backwords, you have a logic process that goes from the problem, to the cause.

As you can see the business canvass helps you to have a map that explains you what and why it is not working and, by conseqence, where to find the solution (or the cause).

In my example, once you understand that the webmaster or a digital agency has to be involved (or someone of the staff can be trained in Google Analytics and Google Adwords), you can start to understand what you need and, therefore, establish your KPI with their support and knowledge.

I didn’t know about that one – thank you Carmen! For others reading it’s here: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2012/02/why-lean-canvas/.

Best for your idea – do let us know how you get on with that.

Dave

The Lean Canvas, unlike the original one, does have a Key Metrics box which, as you rightly point out, is one of the essential elements missing. Another interesting aspect of the Lean Canvas is that it has a Problem/Solution pair of boxes. While these are meant to be used to develop a product that’s fit for market using agile techniques, I’ve recently started looking at using something similar to tackle digital business problems in a more structured but agile way, with analytics at the very heart if it. 

It’s still (very) early days but I hope it may help drive more action by focusing attention on one problem (and solution) at a time

Thanks, Dave,

Yes, you’re right to focus on VP and Customer though our branding model explicitly links brand competences to customer needs / jobs-to-be-done.

I’d be delighted to contribute a short post with an example of brand-centered business models, illustrated from my experience at The Body Shop. DM me on twitter @opento

Thanks for flagging that up Guy – that is a very weird coincidence!

I have embedded the video and referenced the HBR piece – good to have the example of it in action!

Thank you for your comment Sandra, could you expand on that please? Which parts relate most closely to brand dev – value prop and customer presumably.

If you were able to expand on it in a guest post that would be really interesting.

Thank you for your comment Sandra, could you expand on that please? Which parts relate most closely to brand dev – value prop and customer presumably. If you were able to expand on it in a guest post that would be really interesting.