How to Choose the Right Canvas for Building the Right Product (2024)

It’s so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas. — Paul Cezanne

An artist realizes her vision on a blank canvas by connecting simple lines into a subtle sketch, then puts brush strokes to shape a form and gradually refines details into a final picture. Entrepreneurs go through similar steps when doing business. Both start with the idea that it has to be filled in a blank canvas or a page if you wish. The canvas empowers; it sets a foundation for the masterpiece. Probably, that’s why technology leaders picked it up as an excellent metaphor for such a dull thing as a business plan.

“Business Plan: a document investors make you write, that they don’t read”. — Steve Blank

The traditional approach to writing a business plan and requirements gathering consumes a lot of time and paperwork. Moreover, the business plan is not actionable. It doesn’t help you build the right product; it shows only an intention and plans to make it, supported by vague figures and dates. Also, it is static and doesn’t give a big picture of an idea or business. Simply put, the business plan is not value-added unless you are kindly requested to create one for investors or some institutions like banks.

Business canvases (e.g., Business model, Lean, Product, and Opportunity canvases) have evolved to be effective tools in driving your innovation from a bright insight to value-creating products. You can quickly sketch out your ideas before diving into real work, iterate, add more details, and finally deliver a masterpiece. The business canvas is a distilled version of a traditional business plan that focuses on essential parts of your business.

The business canvas is a distilled version of a traditional business plan that focuses on essential parts of your business.

The business canvas:

• is an easy to comprehend single page business document;
• that captures a holistic view of an organization, product, backlog, or feature;
• intended to facilitate discussion and share insights iteratively;
• responsive to changes;
• while being structured and waste-reducing.

I put on the canvas whatever comes into my mind. — Frida Kahlo

So, what is the best business canvas for building

• the right solution
• for the right product
• in the right organization?

The Business Model, Lean, Product, or Opportunity Canvas? It depends, of course, because each of them focuses on different levels of your business:

• Business Model Canvas — business level. You have a product and want to set up the right business model (Business discovery);
• Lean Canvas — product level. You have an idea and want to turn it into a successful product or fit it into an existing one (Product discovery);
• Product Canvas — product backlog level. Once you come up with the product concept, you want to roadmap its implementation. (Product implementation);
• Opportunity Canvas — feature or capability level. You want to implement a value-added solution for your customers. (Feature discovery).

You can use these canvases depending on your business's lifecycle phase, product maturity, or making strategic decisions.

Business Model Canvas is a shared language for describing, visualizing, assessing, and changing business models — Alex Osterwalder

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a strategic management tool for developing a new business model or documenting an existing one. Alex Osterwalder has introduced it in his book “Business Model Generation”; many other business canvases have appeared since that time.

The BMC is a one-page visual chart of 9 fundamental building blocks that give a holistic view of a company’s or product’s value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. All building blocks set a clear and structured layout that helps you define and organize business activities and their relations into a revenue-generating business model.

The BMC is split into two groups of business activities. The left-hand side of the BMC (Key activities, Key resources, Key partners, Cost structure) represents business efficiency or costs of value delivery. At the same time, the right-hand side focuses on the value being delivered to customers or revenue captured by the business (Customer relationships, Channels, Customer segments, and Revenue streams). The Value proposition is a central building block where the business and customer exchange value.

You want to use the BMC because it:

• reflects a big picture of your entire business model in simple terms;
• helps to build assumptions and hypotheses about how your business should look like;
• identifies production costs and sources of revenue;
• identifies the core value proposition, customers, and distribution channels;
• helps to understand connections and relations in your business model;
• helps to share a common understanding of how your business works;
• saves tons of paper and time spent on business documentation;
• applies to organizations of any scale, from a startup to multinational corporations.

You need the BMC when you want to:

• shift from a startup to an organized and structured business;
• develop an effective business model;
• challenge or pivot the existing business model;
• understand better how your business works;
• develop an effective strategy for delivering value to your customers.

Lean canvas is a 1-page business plan template that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions using 9 basic building blocks. — Ash Maurya

Ash Maurya, the creator of the Lean Canvas and author of Running Lean, has adapted the BMC to narrow down its focus from designing the business model to finding solutions that address customer problems. His main objective was “making it as actionable as possible while staying entrepreneur-focused.” To address the customer-problem-solution focus - key partners, activities, resources, and customer relationship blocks in BMC were changed to the problem, solution, key metrics, and unfair advantage in the Lean canvas.

The left side of the canvas (Problem, Solution, Key metrics, and Cost structure) describes the product to be delivered on the market that is represented by the right side (Customer segments, Unfair advantage, Channels, Revenue streams) through the Unique value proposition which is the focal point of your business.

The Lean canvas:

• is a product design roadmap;
• shapes your idea from bare understanding to a concise and actionable business plan;
• “Customer-problem-solution-focused”;
• helps to validate your business hypotheses;
• identifies problems worth solving for your target audience;
• allows to share ideas with a team and stakeholders;
• facilitates validated learning through experimenting and measuring results;
• encourages the iterative creation of multiple alternatives for your idea.

You need the BMC when you want to:

• validate your ideas in a fast and focused way;
• validate your business hypothesis;
• understand your customers and find solutions to their problems;
• prove your business model and strategy;
• understand what makes your product special and how to benefit from it.

“… Product Canvas, a simple but powerful tool that helps you create a product with a great user experience and the right features. … The canvas supports Lean UX by combining user centered-design and agile techniques.” — Roman Pichler

The Product canvas was created by Roman Pichler (the author of Agile Product Management with Scrum, and Strategize) as a visual tool that captures goal-oriented product ideas and requirements for a specific target group. It is designed as “a learning tool” to set a goal, describe the ideas on how to reach it, and put just enough stories to be implemented to test your initial assumptions.

The Product canvas is “putting the users first,” so create your persona, sketch out solutions, and then plan the next iteration.

The Product Canvas:

• supports “user centered-design”;
• a “learning tool” that enables you to iterate and update the canvas with the knowledge and insights you have gained;
• ensures that your development efforts are focused on stories that address particular customer needs and problems;
• an alternative to traditional backlog compatible with Agile principles and Lean startup;
• enables setting different sprint goals for specific personas.

Use the Product canvas when you want to:

• create a customer-focused product backlog;
• plan and iterate development efforts aligned with sprint goals;
• measure the success of each sprint;
• bring visibility and transparency to product development.

An Opportunity Canvas is a simple one-pager I like to use to facilitate a discussion about a new feature or capability. — Jeff Patton

Jeff Patton, the author of User Story Mapping, created the Opportunity Canvas inspired by the Lean Canvas and Opportunity Assessment method. With the Opportunity Canvas, you can quickly discuss and evaluate new opportunities for your product taking into account their impact on your business. Unlike other canvases, it focuses on new features or capabilities that you want to introduce.

Thinking in terms of opportunities that can improve your business creates less cognitive resistance. Opportunity is not a commitment; it is a set of favorable events or conditions that can bring positive outcomes for your business. Opportunities set a broader field for creativity.

The Opportunity canvas is a self-explanatory and easy-to-use business canvas. It is self-contained, meaning that you don’t need to spend time figuring out how to fill in each block. Just follow the numbers and answer questions. When you have a problem, start with filling out the problem section first and the solution last. When you have come up with a solution first, fill out the problem section last.

The Opportunity canvas

• is a structured way to discuss and evaluate an idea with your team;
• helps to evaluate how solving or ignoring a user problem can influence your business;
• encompasses budget and opportunity cost considerations;
• discovers how users deal with a problem today;
• is a self-guided business canvas with embedded questions, so you need minimum effort and time to learn how to use it;
• helps to develop a user adoption strategy for your solution.

You need the Opportunity canvas when you want to

• brainstorm finding solutions for user problems;
• figure out the business impact of implementing the solution or ignoring the problem;
• make assumptions on how the users will use your solution;
• challenge existing solutions against potential ones;
• evaluate the feasibility of implementing the solution;
• develop adoption strategy.

The business canvas is a great tool to smooth the way to building innovative products and facilitating discussion and learning. Many business canvases have different intentions and purposes. Among the most popular ones are the Business model, Lean, Product, and Opportunity Canvases.

Each canvas targets specific areas of your business or product and helps you to solve particular problems. The BMC helps to design and optimize your business model. The Lean Canvas focuses on the creation of the right products for customers who need them. The Product Canvas helps organize a product backlog towards a specific release goal. The Opportunity Canvas assists in solving your customers’ problems.

You can use any of these canvases separately or combined, depending on your needs and business lifecycle.

• Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
• Running Lean by Ash Maurya
• Why Lean Canvas vs. Business Model Canvas?
• What is the Right Fill Order for a Lean Canvas?
• Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age by Roman Pichler
• User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton
• Assessing Product Opportunities