To organize hypotheses about a business, founders use a set of canvases. The Business Model Canvas, created by Alexander Osterwalder, is a strategic tool with nine building blocks that describe how a company creates, delivers, and captures value. These blocks are: Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partnerships, and Cost Structure. Together, they form a one-page snapshot of the business model that can be sketched, tested, and revised as learning accumulates.
The Value Proposition Canvas zooms into two of those blocks to ensure product-market fit. On one side is the Customer Profile, broken into customer jobs (the tasks, problems, or needs the customer is trying to address, whether functional, social, or emotional), pains (the negative outcomes, risks, or obstacles the customer experiences), and gains (the positive outcomes or benefits the customer desires or would be surprised by). On the other side is the Value Map, which lists the products and services offered, the pain relievers they provide, and the gain creators they deliver. Fit is achieved when the value map matches the customer profile.
Ash Maurya's Lean Canvas adapts the Business Model Canvas specifically for startups. It replaces Partners, Activities, Resources, and Customer Relationships with Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, and Unfair Advantage. The nine blocks of the Lean Canvas are: Problem, Customer Segments, Unique Value Proposition, Solution, Channels, Revenue Streams, Cost Structure, Key Metrics, and Unfair Advantage. An Unfair Advantage is something that cannot be easily copied or bought by competitors, such as insider knowledge, proprietary technology, network effects, or team expertise. The Lean Canvas is designed to be filled in early and updated frequently, often weekly, as the team learns from experiments.