A lean canvas example, filled in box by box

Here is a short lean canvas example. A made-up meal-prep app names two problems, planning meals takes hours and groceries go to waste, for working parents and students sharing a flat. It promises "Dinner sorted for the week, with one shopping list" and charges €6.99 a month. To fill out your own, start with the problem and the customer, write your one-line promise, then fill the other boxes quickly. Write each note as a guess you could test, leave a box empty if you have nothing to write, then mark the guess you're least sure of and test it.

Ash Maurya created the lean canvas as an adaptation of Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas. In his account of why he changed it, he says the aim was to capture "that which was most risky". So read a finished canvas as a list of what you still need to find out.

We make Prompt Board, and our lean canvas template opens on this same app, with all nine boxes ready to overwrite. A sheet of paper with nine drawn boxes works too.

The first draft

Everything in this example is invented: the app, its founder Sofia, the grocer, the prices and the tests. These are the notes on the sample board in our template.

Sofia wrote this in half an hour, before speaking to a single customer. Every note is a guess, and the rest of this guide works out which guess she should check first.

Which box comes first

Our template starts with Problem and Customer segments, and fills the rest afterwards. Maurya's own comment on the order is short. He remembers publishing a fill order that labelled both boxes as number one, and he says "customer and problems are two sides of the same coin".

So fill those two together. You'll find other orders for the remaining boxes in other guides, and the one below is simply ours.

1. Problem and Customer segments. Who has this problem, and what are their top problems? Maurya's test for this part of the canvas is "Make your case for problems without relying on your solution." Sofia's notes pass, because meals would take hours to plan and groceries would go to waste even if her app never existed. "No app gives you a weekly plan" would fail, because it's the solution dressed up as a problem.

Add what these people do today. Maurya's canvas has an "Existing Alternatives" area under Problem, and our template doesn't have a separate box for it, so write it as a note. Sofia adds "Recipe apps and a paper list". He calls it "a red flag" if you can't list any alternatives. His reasoning is that customers already spending money or time on an alternative are a signal that the problem is worth solving.

2. Unique value. What do you promise, in one line? Maurya separates this from the problem: the problem is what customers face, and the unique value proposition is "the marketing promise you make to them". Sofia's line says what you get, rather than how the app works.

3. Solution. What's the least you could build to keep that promise? Maurya made this box small on purpose, because "we often fall in love with our first solution". One note is enough for now.

4. Channels. How will these customers hear about you? Instagram reels can start today. The grocer app can't, as we'll see.

5. Revenue streams and Cost structure. Write what you'd charge and what you'd pay for. Rough figures are fine, and you can write them as guesses.

6. Key metrics. Which number tells you it's working? Maurya says this box is for "the single macro metric or goal that drives what you do". "Plans cooked per week" counts what people do with the app, and that tells her more than a count of downloads would.

7. Unfair advantage. What couldn't a rival easily copy or buy? This box gets its own section.

The note that fails its own box

Maurya quotes Jason Cohen on this box: "A true unfair advantage is something that cannot be easily copied or bought." Maurya adds that "few startups have a true unfair advantage on day one, which means this box would be blank."

"Partnership with a grocer" fails that test twice. No such partnership exists yet, because Sofia hasn't spoken to a grocer. And if one signed with her, the next meal-prep app could sign with them too, unless the deal is exclusive.

Follow the note across the canvas and a second problem appears. The same unsigned deal also sits in Channels, as "the grocer app", and in Revenue streams, as "Grocer referral fee". Three boxes depend on one conversation that hasn't happened.

Sofia changes three things:

• Unfair advantage is now blank.
• Channels keeps Instagram reels, and "the grocer app" gets marked as a guess.
• Revenue streams keeps €6.99 a month, and the referral fee gets marked as a guess.

A blank box doesn't stop her. Maurya says the box "wasn't intended to discourage you", and it stays on the page as a question for later.

Find the riskiest guess

Maurya describes a canvas as a chain of beliefs in which "later links rely on earlier links". He adds that if your customer and problem assumptions are wrong, "everything else in your business model falls apart".

Sofia lists the three guesses that could end the idea and asks what each one depends on. Our template's last step is to colour the note you're least sure of, and she colours the first row.

The order matters. If parents don't see planning as a problem, the price and the grocer no longer matter, and the first test costs her only ten conversations. The thresholds are hers to set, and writing them down before the calls keeps her from arguing with the answer afterwards.

Good questions ask what happened. "How did you decide what to eat last week?" gets a story, and "Would you use an app that plans meals?" gets polite agreement. Our user interview notes template gives each conversation a row. When the people you hear from come into focus, a user persona can sharpen Customer segments.

The example stops here, because any result we gave you would be made up and wouldn't tell you anything about your idea.

Lean canvas or business model canvas

Maurya says he added four boxes, Problem, Solution, Key Metrics and Unfair Advantage. To make room, he took out Key Activities, Key Resources, Customer Relationships and Key Partners. He calls Key Partners "the hardest one to remove".

That table is our reading, and Maurya doesn't insist on it. Asked whether to start with one and move to the other, he answers "use what is most natural for you". He does say the canvas "was designed for entrepreneurs, not consultants, customers, advisors, or investors".

Where the lean canvas came from

Maurya's timeline says he met the Business Model Canvas through Osterwalder's book Business Model Generation in May 2010, and shared his adaptation in a post in August 2010. He kept the original's layout to credit Osterwalder's work, and he notes that Osterwalder had licensed the canvas under Creative Commons, which allowed it. All of that is Maurya's own account.

Frequently asked questions

What are the nine boxes of a lean canvas?

Problem, Solution, Key metrics, Unique value, Unfair advantage, Channels, Customer segments, Cost structure and Revenue streams.

What is the difference between the problem and the unique value?

The problem is what the customer faces, and the unique value is what you promise them. Maurya's example is a job board. A job seeker's problem might be "getting noticed by a prospective employer", while the promise might be "Land your dream job in 60 days or less".

Where do competitors go on a lean canvas?

Under Problem, as existing alternatives. Maurya says he's more interested in "how customers deal with their problems today" than in a list of well-known rivals, so a spreadsheet or doing nothing can count.

How long should a lean canvas take?

Maurya says he's "all for time-boxing initial canvas creation". We'd give the first version 20 to 30 minutes, and we'd spend the rest of the week on the test.

Can a small business use a lean canvas?

Yes, when the business is trying something it hasn't proved yet, such as a new service or a new kind of customer. For the parts of the business that already work, you'll have real figures, so write those in and label them as known.

Fill in your own

Open the lean canvas template to start from Sofia's first draft. Start with Problem and Customer segments, give the rest half an hour, and colour the one note you're least sure of. Then book the first conversation that could prove it wrong.