Business Model Canvas
Connect customers, value, delivery and economics across nine blocks, then identify the assumptions that need evidence.
Use the canvas to examine one business model at a time. Start with the customers and their needs, then check whether the proposed value has the activities, resources and partners it requires. Revisit the other blocks whenever one part changes.
What is known about the customers, offer, channels, relationships, payments, resources, activities, partners and costs. Identify assumptions and missing evidence.
An editable nine-block draft and a short list of assumptions to investigate before expanding the business.
How to use it
- Choose the business and customer group in scope, then describe the problem and proposed value.
- Connect that value to how customers discover, receive, use and pay for the offer.
- Identify the activities, resources and partners needed to deliver it, and the costs they create.
- Check for conflicts between blocks. Mark assumptions and choose the next evidence to collect.
Keep its limits in mind
A complete canvas is not proof of demand or profitability. It does not replace a business plan, financial model or customer research. Revenue is money earned from customers; gross margin is a separate measure after product costs.
Check whether a household replenishment service can work
Fictional retail example. An existing store is considering an ongoing replenishment service, starting with 30 households paying per order. It already has a store, supplier contacts and a mini program. The canvas describes a proposed model, not proven demand or profitability.
On a small screen, scroll across the diagram to read it.
Delivery constraint: An anytime-delivery promise conflicts with the small team's schedule. Fixed delivery windows are the proposed adjustment, not a measured improvement.
Economic check: Gross margin, full fulfillment cost per order and repeat-purchase frequency are still assumptions to investigate. No prices, revenue totals or profit estimates are supplied.
Next step: Record the full fulfillment cost of each trial order and compare it with the money received before deciding whether to expand.
Three reasons to stop filling the nine blocks
Use the canvas to examine whether one proposed business model fits together. Write who uses the offer, who pays and what outcome matters to them before expanding the delivery or economics. The nine blocks make dependencies visible; the point is not to fill every space with optimistic language.
Pause if the canvas mixes several customer groups with incompatible needs and payment arrangements. Separate the models before comparing them. Pause if an essential delivery promise depends on an unconfirmed partner or capacity. Record that dependency rather than treating the partner’s name as an agreement. Pause if the discussion calls sales or gross margin “profit” while fulfillment and other costs remain unknown. More detail in another block cannot repair that missing evidence.
Use a status beside important statements: supplied record, interpretation, proposed arrangement or unknown. Keep the date and scope of any actual supporting document. An existing shop and supplier contacts are resources, but they do not prove that a new service can run at the promised frequency. A statement of customer value also needs checking with the intended customers.
Choose the next business question
The canvas connects parts of a model. It does not replace the research or operational work needed to substantiate them. Select the next method according to the uncertainty that could change the proposal.
| Method | Useful material | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Business Model Canvas | Customers, value, delivery and economic assumptions | A connected model and critical dependencies |
| SWOT | Internal records and bounded external evidence | Factors relevant to a particular decision |
| Customer journey map | A person’s task and attributed touchpoint records | Current experience and evidence gaps |
| Decision matrix | Feasible alternatives with defensible criteria | Tradeoffs and sensitivity after hard constraints |
Worked continuation: what if delivery cannot be confirmed?
Return to the fictional household replenishment model above. The store is considering an ongoing service with an intended starting scope of 30 households paying per order. Thirty households are not 30 completed orders, prepaid subscriptions or a measured renewal rate. Existing inputs are a store, supplier contacts and a mini program. Prices, revenue totals, margins and full fulfillment costs have not been supplied.
Trace the proposed value back through delivery. Repeat-shopping convenience requires suitable products, usable inventory information, picking and packing, a delivery arrangement and after-sales handling. Regular contact and reminders belong to relationships; the store and mini program help reach, sell to and serve customers through channels. A reminder proposal does not establish permission to send it or an agreement to buy.
The current anytime-delivery promise conflicts with the small team’s schedule. Fixed windows are a proposed adjustment, with partner availability and customer acceptance still to be checked. Now consider an explicitly hypothetical branch: if the partner cannot confirm a fixed window, changing only the Partners box is insufficient. The offer, channel, activities, resources and costs may all need revision. No such partner reply has actually been supplied in this case.
| Dependency | What rests on it | Next evidence / current status |
|---|---|---|
| Customer need and terms | Repeat-shopping value for the intended households | Ask about actual service and price terms; demand unproven |
| Inventory information | Suitable product selection and available stock | Check accuracy before promising availability |
| Picking and packing capacity | Whether the small team can fulfill the scope | Measure effort and competing duties; capacity unconfirmed |
| Fixed delivery window | Delivery promise, partner work and charges | Obtain actual partner terms and customer acceptance |
| Money and cost records | Any later economic comparison | Product sales and delivery charges separate from product, fulfillment and loss costs |
Conclude with a dependency test, then revise connected blocks
The conclusion is that fixed-window delivery is worth investigating as a possible way to make the proposal coherent, not that it has made the service viable. Request confirmation of the essential arrangements before expansion. If a window cannot be secured, store collection or another limited arrangement may be considered, but each is a new proposal with its own customer, capacity and permission checks. Do not keep the original promise while changing how it will be delivered.
For any approved trial, prepare an order-level ledger: product and delivery charges, actual money received, product cost, picking and packing effort, delivery expense, stock loss and exceptions. State which entries are observed, estimated or missing, and avoid counting the same task twice. Keep unpaid, cancelled and unfinished orders visible. Time spent is not automatically a cash payment; the economic interpretation must state what costs are included. The case supplies no amounts from which a result can honestly be calculated.
At review, check what was executed, what customers actually chose and which dependencies held. Record repeat purchase only after another purchase occurs; an intended 30-household scope cannot supply it. If a partner, window or service term changes, preserve the earlier canvas and revise every affected block with the reason. Continue, adjust or stop according to the actual evidence and decision authority, not because the nine boxes now look complete.
Check your work
- Each value proposition addresses a named customer group and need.
- Channels and relationships describe different roles: reaching and serving customers, and maintaining the relationship.
- Delivery promises have matching activities, resources and partner capacity.
- Revenue sources are separate from costs and margin; amounts are not invented.
- Assumptions remain visible and are tied to a practical next check.
Framework references
References explain the framework and its scope; they do not validate the fictional example's results.
Put the framework to work
Copy the outline and add your question, evidence, and open questions.
Read a practical guide →Practice with an example
Use historical teaching material from 2015, explore continued-use and refill premises in a fictional project, and prepare one assumption and test for your own business.
What Nespresso illustrates about business model dependencies →