The Napkin Business Canvas

2016-11-25

I’m a big fan of both Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas, but sometimes both can be a bit unwieldy.

At Weld we’re constantly refining our business model, and we needed something faster. So we made this:

The Napkin Business Canvas

The Napkin Business Canvas is a super-agile business model framework. It looks like this:

Drawn version:

Text version:

  • (Product)
  • is a (what)
  • for (target group)
  • who want to (job to get done)
  • to (achieve result).
  • We do this by (problem solved)
  • unlike (competitors)
  • so (relevant difference).
  • This is worth (price) for our customers,
  • which we find through (channels).

How to use it

Inspired by the Bullet Journal system, it follows a simple syntax:

  1. Fill in all the placeholder words with your current hypotheses.
  2. Mark the most critical lines with a dot (•) in the left-side box.
  3. As you verify your hypotheses, change the dots to “X”.
  4. Repeat step 2–3 until your entire business model is validated.

Download the template

I made two templates in PDF and Markdown format.

Let me know what you think

Would love to hear your comments on this. Can it be made even more agile? Is it redundant? Let me know!

UPDATE: use my online tool

Amazing Startup Guide is a way of using the Napkin Business Canvas, coupled with some other features.