Transitioning from ‘Lean Canvas’(LC) to ‘Business Model Canvas’(BMC)

In my previous articles on ‘Lean Canvas (LC)’ where I mentioned that, it is very essential for new product developments focussing more on solving a problem of either internal or external customers. On the other side, ‘Business Model Canvas (BMC)’ is more focused on the DFV framework (Desirability, Feasibility & Viability).

From the above two canvases, we can see there are primarily 5 differences between BMC & LC:-

1. ‘Key Partners’ is replaced with a ‘Problem’ statement.
2. ‘Key Activities’ is replaced with a/few ‘Solution’(s).
3. ‘Key Resources’ is replaced with ‘Key Metrics’.
4. ‘Customer Relationships’ is replaced with ‘Unfair Advantage’.
5. ‘Value Propositions’ is replaced with ‘Unique Value Propositions’, which is a minor change in the text but is very powerful.

The Transition Phase: -

I feel, there must be a phase where from LC to BMC handshake is needed. As LC fits better for new products in the conceive, plan, and development stages before market introduction. But once it is introduced and meets the ‘Product Market Fit’ (PMF) in the ‘Growth’ journey, I strongly feel we should move to BMC smoothly for the same product lifecycle journey. Because to achieve the PMF, we have already focused on the Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, etc. as per the LC and probably already achieved it as part of PMF.

Ideally, the transition should happen in the ‘Growth’ stage where the product adoption started increasing organically. And once the adoption increases in a linear way, it gives a signal that probably the product met the ‘Product Market Fit’. The inorganic growth might not give you the correct KPI due to a sudden spike and will give wrong signals unless the organization decides to change the product goal completely with a different strategy and brand.

As LC is focused mostly on problem-solving and BMC focuses on growth and sustainability of the business hence transition from LC to BMC is advisable once the organization feels the product goal has been achieved.

Transitioning from ‘Lean Canvas’(LC) to ‘Business Model Canvas’(BMC) was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.