INSPIRED, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 37Startup Canvas Technique

So far, we've explored techniques for typical‐sized, smaller efforts like adding a new feature, or medium to large‐sized efforts like a redesign. Those cover most of what product teams actually work on.

However, another especially difficult situation requires a more comprehensive framing technique. This is an early stage startup, where you are trying to figure out a new product that can power a new business, or, for those that work at an enterprise size company, when you're asked to tackle an all‐new business opportunity for the company.

In other words, you're not being asked to improve an existing product, you're being asked to invent an entirely new product.

In this situation, you have a much broader set of risks, including validating your value proposition, figuring out how you intend to make money, how you plan to get this product out to your customers and sell to them, how much it will cost to produce and sell this product, and what you will measure to track your progress—not to mention determining whether the market is large enough to sustain a business.

You're not being asked to improve an existing product, you're being asked to invent an entirely new product.

For decades, people would create thick business plans to try to highlight these topics and how they intended to tackle them. But many people, including me, have written about the many reasons those old business plans were often more harmful than helpful.

A startup canvas, its ...