What is a Lean Canvas?

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

It is adapted from Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and optimized for the Lean Startup methodology with a big emphasis on finding customer problems worth solving.

Why Lean Canvas vs Business Model Canvas?

Capture your idea in 20 minutes versus 20 weeks

Compared to writing a business plan which can take several weeks or months, you can outline multiple possible business models on a Lean Canvas in one afternoon.

More important, a single page business model is much easier to share with others which means it will be read by more people and also more frequently updated.

Brainstorm multiple variants

When you don't know what you don't know, you cannot afford to blindly execute on a single idea which may lead you to a local maxima.

LEANSTACK instead shows you how to pit multiple variants of your idea next to each other, so you search for the optimal realization of your vision.

"I use Lean Canvas to replace traditional business plans in my MBA Marketing Strategies Course." Jim Shankle, Professor at Northwestern University