How To Write A Business Model Template – Can you list on a single sheet of paper all the key building blocks you need to develop, manage, maintain, market and sell a product? With the Business Model Canvas, you can! Using the business model canvas approach is a great way to force yourself to focus on the most strategically important elements of your product. As the name suggests, the typical use case for this tool is to outline the basic building blocks of a business, but it can also work really well for a product.
Today we’re going to show you how the business model canvas works and how you can use it to come up with a high-level product strategy.
How To Write A Business Model Template
As you can see from the example below (thanks, Strategizer.com), a business model canvas is a one-page summary that describes the high-level strategic details needed to bring a business (or product) to market successfully.
Business Model Canvas
The categories or bins contained in the canvas can be customized. But most will look similar to this – covering key areas such as:
If you think about it, that’s a pretty comprehensive set of building blocks that you’ll need to think about for your product before you start developing it. There will certainly be additional factors that will affect your strategy, but if you can fill in these high-level details—which, as you can see, should fit comfortably on one page—you’ll have a useful strategic guide for developing your product roadmap.
Okay, but why? What is the benefit of creating a business model canvas (or, more to the point, a reduced variation, a lean canvas) to guide my product roadmap?
There are many reasons. But simply put, you can think of a business model canvas as a mission statement for your product plan. It’s a handy reference to refer to, to make sure your roadmap always reflects all the strategic elements needed for your product’s success.
Business Model Canvas Template [free Download}
Our co-founder Jim Semick has some great short videos explaining the concept of the Business Model Canvas, which you can watch in the player below.
As Jim explains, here are some benefits of using the business model canvas to think about product strategies:
You can use this canvas approach in just a few hours (and as Jim says, you can even do it with sticky notes).
This way, instead of trying to write every detail of your product plan in advance, you can just document the most important things – and then you can start translating the canvas into a product plan.
Free Startup Business Plan Templates
One of the problems with the old structure of documenting a business model—the traditional business plan—was that it was almost always inaccurate as soon as the author finished drafting it.
These monthly plans included detailed cost estimates, revenue projections for years into the future, and long-term plans for increasing the number of employees. How could any of that remain true for long?
In product terms, you can think of a business plan as an MRD (Market Requirements Document). It’s long, detailed, and probably mostly untrue by the time it’s over.
But because you can put together a canvas so quickly, it will much more accurately reflect your strategic thinking and your company’s current reality. And if things change, it will be easier than a long and detailed plan to adjust. This brings us to Jim’s third benefit…
Business Model Canvas [+ Template]: How To & Examples
If you create a business model canvas to guide your business roadmap, and something happens that forces you to reprioritize or pivot your product, it will be much easier to update this brief high-level document than it would be to have some monster MRD or business plan to be torn apart and arranged.
With a one-page business model canvas serving as a strategic foundation for your roadmap, you’ll always be able to quickly spot any items or plans that need updating whenever priorities change or new realities require you to adjust your approach.
Imagine that Amazon’s Echo team came up with three revenue streams to start with, as they discussed what belongs in the “Revenue Streams” bucket on the business model canvas:
2) Using the device to sell other things while customers ask it to connect to the Amazon marketplace. (“Alexa, please add laundry detergent pods to my shopping cart.”)
Business Plan Template
Now, if the Echo product team were to put this on the canvas of their business model, they would know that they needed to make room for budget, time, and resources in their product plan for all of these revenue streams.
Or consider a channel segment on the business model canvas. If your team was building a canvas, you might have a few ideas for reaching customers:
It’s easy to write. But how do you translate that word-of-mouth strategy into an actual plan?
You may need to dedicate time and resources to developing things directly into your product that make it easy for users to share their experiences with friends, such as a handy tool to help them tweet about it. You may even want to include an “Invite a Friend” feature that allows users to more easily send a trial license to friends, or a coupon feature that offers some kind of reward to a user who brings two more users.
Understand Context & Business Model Template
The point is that your business model canvas can serve as a great strategic reminder of the things you’ve determined are important enough to make it into your product plan.
So you can always look back and immediately see – after all, it’s only one page – whether you’re still working on all the essential elements of your product, or if you’ve inadvertently deviated from them and gotten lost in the wrong details.
Do you have thoughts on using a business model canvas approach to develop and document your product strategy? Feel free to share them in the comments section.
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IT Product Managers Example Product Strategy Product Metrics & Analytics Remote Product Management Trends Templates & Workbooks Company News & Updates Product Leadership Customer Focused Tools & Resources Priorities & Backlog Product Management Roadmap & Roadmap Management Product Strategy Agile & Product Development Careers & Interviews A business model canvas is a strategic planning tool used by managers to illustrate and develop their business model. A business model canvas template clearly identifies the key elements that make up a business. In addition, it simplifies the business plan into a concise form. In this way, the business model canvas template acts as an executive summary of the business plan.
The Corporate Finance Institute® Corporate and Business Strategy Course has multiple tools you can use to manage and improve your business!
Overview Of The Business Model Canvas With Templates And Examples — Helping Companies Deliver More Value Through Better Process Management
The business model canvas template was originally introduced by Alexander Osterwalder in his 2004 thesis “Business Model Ontology – A Proposal in a Design Science Approach”. Since then, the business model canvas template has been taught in business schools and iterated to fit more niche businesses.
The following is an overview of each of these nine elements. All these elements are connected and work with each other to ensure the success of the business.
Key partners are companies or people with whom your business works to create a strategic relationship. A few examples of key partners are suppliers or distribution partners in the supply chain.
Key activities are specific activities or tasks that are essential to the functioning of your business. An example of a key activity would be sourcing fresh produce in bulk for a restaurant.
Free Download Business Model Canvas
Key resources are the assets necessary to operate and deliver your value proposition. For example, a diamond mining company cannot operate without mining equipment. Alternatively, a car company cannot operate without the human capital and expertise used in designing cars.
Value propositions are probably the most important element of the business model canvas template. The value proposition determines the core offering that the company tries to provide to its customers. It is the primary driver of business. For example, Spotify’s value proposition, “Music for Everyone,” eloquently states its mission and offering. Spotify wants to be the music streaming platform that has music choices for everyone.
Customer relationships are the different types of interactions a company has with its customers. For example, a designer suit company will provide significant assistance to the customer, adapting to their needs and working directly with them to create the suit they want. In contrast, telecommunications companies often have a bad reputation and poor customer relations because many practice aggressive and predatory sales practices through their call centers. Compared to telecommunications companies, a designer suit company has significantly richer and more fulfilling relationships with customers.
Channels are the different structures and methods used to deliver your company’s products and value to customers. Channels include all supply, distribution and marketing channels of the company. It is important to consider all of the company’s channels and ensure that they function cohesively. For example, a company like Amazon should
How To Fill Out The Business Model Canvas
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