Lean Canvas
What is a Lean Canvas?
A Lean Canvas is a one-page template that captures the essential assumptions about your product and business: who it’s for, what problems it solves, how you’ll reach customers, and how you’ll make money. It’s a cheat sheet for testing whether an idea is worth building.
Use it when: you’re exploring a new product or pivot and need to make assumptions explicit and testable. Fill it early; update it as you learn.
Copy/paste template (nine blocks)
- Problem – Top 3 problems your customers have; what they do today instead.
- Customer Segments – Who exactly (early adopters first).
- Unique Value Proposition – One clear reason they should care.
- Solution – Minimum solution that addresses those problems.
- Channels – How you’ll reach them.
- Revenue Streams – How you’ll make money.
- Cost Structure – Main costs.
- Key Metrics – 2–3 numbers that show you’re winning.
- Unfair Advantage – What you have that’s hard to copy.
Fill order: Customer Segments → Problem → Value Proposition → Solution → Channels → Revenue → Cost → Metrics → Unfair Advantage. Problem before solution.
Why the Lean Canvas matters
- Forces you to name assumptions instead of keeping them in your head.
- Fits on one page so the team can align and iterate quickly.
- Designed for startups and new products where you’re still learning.
- Connects problem, solution, and business in one place.
What a good Lean Canvas includes
Checklist
- [ ] Problem before Solution – you’ve described real problems, not just your idea.
- [ ] Concrete segments – “restaurants with 5–20 employees”, not “small businesses”.
- [ ] Testable assumptions – you can say how you’d validate each block.
- [ ] One segment per canvas – if you have two different customers, use two canvases.
- [ ] Living document – updated as you learn, not filed and forgotten.
Common formats
- Paper or sticky notes: fast for workshops; photo and digitise.
- Digital whiteboard (Miro, etc.): good for remote teams and versioning.
- Tool (e.g. Leanstack): if you want a dedicated template and export.
Examples
Example (the realistic one)
Product idea: Meal planning app for busy parents. Problem: Parents waste time deciding what to cook and money on food that goes bad. Customer Segments: Working parents with kids 5–12 who cook at home 4+ times a week. UVP: “Plan healthy meals in 5 minutes, get your list, never wonder what’s for dinner.” Solution: App that suggests weekly plans from preferences, generates lists, tracks pantry. Channels: App store, parenting blogs, word of mouth. Revenue: Subscription. Key metrics: MAU, conversion to paid, retention. Unfair advantage: Algorithm that learns preferences and reduces waste (testable claim).
Common pitfalls
- Starting with Solution: building the canvas around your idea instead of the problem. → Do this instead: fill Customer Segments and Problem first; Solution only after.
- Vague segments: “small businesses” or “everyone”. → Do this instead: be specific enough to find and talk to them (e.g. “UK restaurants with 5–20 staff”).
- Weak value proposition: feature list, not benefit. → Do this instead: one sentence that says why they should care and what they get.
- Untestable assumptions: you can’t imagine how you’d validate it. → Do this instead: rewrite until you can say “we’ll know this is true when…”.
- Treating it as final: one version, never updated. → Do this instead: revisit after customer conversations and experiments.
Lean Canvas vs. related concepts
- Lean Canvas vs Business Model Canvas: Lean Canvas is adapted for startups and product; it puts Problem and Solution central and is tuned for assumption-testing.
- Lean Canvas vs problem statement: the canvas has a Problem block; a problem statement is a fuller, evidence-backed description of one problem. Use both: problem statement deepens the Problem block.
- Lean Canvas vs MVP: the canvas frames assumptions; the MVP is what you build to test them. Canvas first, then MVP.
Related terms
- Problem statement – sharpen the Problem block with evidence.
- Value proposition – the Unique Value Proposition block in one sentence.
- Minimum viable product – what you build to test the canvas.
- User research – to validate Problem and Customer Segments.
- Jobs to be done – helps frame the “job” and context in Problem and UVP.
- Continuous discovery – keep updating the canvas as you learn.
- Product strategy – the canvas is a tactical tool within strategy.
- Feature prioritisation – Solution and Key Metrics inform what to build next.
Next step
Block 20 minutes and fill the first three blocks (Customer Segments, Problem, Value Proposition) using the fill order above. Then read Problem statement to add evidence to your Problem block.