Lean Canvas - Capture your idea in 20 minutes versus 20 weeks

It's my go-to tool for exploring new ideas, I've used it with friends starting a new e-bike business, startups looking to scale and mature companies looking to reinvent themselves.

Pros:

Promotes clarity of thought, drives thorough consideration of key elements and enables a single shareable view of outcomes

Cons:

Can't think of any

Lean Canvas (along with an addional invaluable suite of other models & tools in LEANSTACK) is best used ASAP if you have a business idea...Invaluable method /tools for entrepreneurs, mentors & accelerators.

Pros:

Simple, easy to use invaluable model to quickly present & assess your business model

Cons:

No better alternative in my opinion.

As a startup coach, I can help multiple entrepreneurs using a single smart, effective, common platform. Ash is a great thinker, and an effective teacher.

Pros:

Excellent tool for structuring the critical hypotheses and actions required to figure out if you've got a business idea worth pursuing.

Cons:

I can't think of any cons right now. Lean Canvas simply works. It does what entrepreneurs need it to do.

Have saved countless hours and HR costs in our startrup

Pros:

Best tool ever for Biz Development Planning

Cons:

Looking for a flaw

You only acquire the knowledges by practicing and this is what Ash Maurya provide to the community. This is definitely my master tool to defragment and test problem solving ideas since years and I recommend it to friends and entrepreneur around me.

Pros:

A must-to-have tool box for anyone looking to test/launch very fast new ideas without falling into the traps of bias. Learning by doing !

Cons:

- Provide digital marketing & visual programming min skills to start - give access to free/discounted web service to the community ;-)

I teach Lean Canvas (and the Leaner Canvas version) to high school students. Agree with others that more domain specific examples, but it's not a Con, just a way to grow it. Could use more guidance on how to formulate a solid value proposition and how to iterate the canvas using experimentation. That content is in the blogs, but you have to search for it.

Pros:

Handy tool that compels entrepreneurs to think about their customers/users first, rather than their idea. Very easy to teach and to learn.

Cons:

If filled out poorly, can instill false confidence in entrepreneurs. Would like to see a way to grade/rate the canvas.

I use the Lean Canvas two ways regularly: 1) To evaluate startup companies I'm looking into for investment of time or money; and 2) to help companies I'm mentoring stop thinking obsessively about their product, and think about the *rest* of their business.

Pros:

Focuses one on the business, not the product

Cons:

Is just the first step of things to do; but Ash covers more in his later books / utilities.

Lean Canvas has helped me a lot to map out the business models of my startup tabtag – glowing and reusable Macbook stickers. Thank you @ashmaurya for the great work you are doing for the startup community.

The canvas can appear so simple. If you don't put in the work to understand it and really do the research, you're results won't be great. It's a great communication tool.

Pros:

Simple layout and helps you focus on the critical questions.

Cons:

Garbage in / Garbage out.