Lean Canvas — free online maker
Pressure-test a new startup idea on one page, starting from the problem. Guided prompts on every block, autosave in your browser, and one-click PDF export.
20-40 minutes to a first draft9 blocks How to fill it in
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What is the Lean Canvas?
The Lean Canvas is Ash Maurya's adaptation of the Business Model Canvas for brand-new ideas. It keeps the one-page, nine-block format but replaces four blocks with the ones that matter when nothing has been validated yet: Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, and Unfair Advantage.
The reordering is the argument. Problem comes first because the most expensive startup failure is building something well that nobody needed. Everything else on the page is a hypothesis about how you might profitably solve a problem that you have first established actually exists.
Created by Ash Maurya in 2010 and popularised in Running Lean. It adapts Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas, which is licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, for the specific conditions of early-stage startups.
Use it when…
- A brand-new idea where you do not yet know whether the problem is real
- Comparing several ideas quickly on the same page format
- Writing down the assumptions you are about to go and test with customers
- Any point where the biggest risk is demand, not execution
The 9 blocks, in the order to fill them
- 1
Problem
What are the top three problems worth solving?
List the one to three problems your customer actually has, in their words rather than yours. Then list how they cope today — the existing alternatives, which are almost never a competing product.
How to fill this block - 2
Customer Segments
Who has this problem, and who feels it first?
Name the target customers, then name your early adopters separately. Early adopters are not a smaller version of the mass market — they are the people who feel the problem so acutely that they are already trying to solve it badly.
How to fill this block - 3
Unique Value Proposition
Why are you different and worth attention?
A single, clear sentence that states the finished-story benefit — what the customer's world looks like after using you — aimed squarely at your early adopters. Maurya's advice is to write it as though it were the headline on your landing page, because that is exactly where it will end up.
How to fill this block - 4
Solution
What is the smallest thing that would solve it?
One line per problem — no more. The block is deliberately small because at this stage the solution is your least reliable guess, and a detailed solution written before customer contact is simply a longer guess.
How to fill this block - 5
Channels
How will you reach your customers?
Your path to customers. Early on, prefer channels that do not scale but do produce conversations — direct outreach, communities you already belong to, one-to-one demos.
How to fill this block - 6
Revenue Streams
How will this make money?
Price is part of the product, not a decision to postpone. Naming a number early tests the problem far more sharply than any survey: people who say the problem is severe and then refuse to pay anything have told you something important.
How to fill this block - 7
Cost Structure
What will it cost to get to market?
The realistic cost of reaching launch and of running for a year: people, hosting, tools, customer acquisition, and your own time at a real rate. Put this next to revenue and calculate how many customers make the business break even.
How to fill this block - 8
Key Metrics
Which single number tells you it is working?
Pick the few numbers that show whether the model is working — ideally one that you would act on this month. Maurya recommends thinking in terms of the customer lifecycle: acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, referral.
How to fill this block - 9
Unfair Advantage
What cannot be easily copied or bought?
The hardest block, and the one most people fill with things that are neither unfair nor advantages. Passion, a good team, and first-mover status can all be bought or beaten.
How to fill this block
Worked Lean Canvas examples
Complete, realistic canvases with an analysis of what each one reveals. Open one on its own page, or load it straight into the editor above.
Lean Canvas FAQs
What is the difference between the Lean Canvas and the Business Model Canvas?
The Lean Canvas keeps five blocks from the Business Model Canvas — customer segments, value proposition, channels, revenue streams, and cost structure — and replaces four. Key partners becomes Problem, key activities becomes Solution, key resources becomes Key Metrics, and customer relationships becomes Unfair Advantage. The Business Model Canvas is better for describing how a business runs; the Lean Canvas is better for testing whether an idea should exist.
In what order should I fill in a Lean Canvas?
Problem and customer segments first, together, since a problem only exists for somebody. Then unique value proposition, then solution. Channels, revenue, and costs next. Key metrics and unfair advantage last — they are the hardest and they depend on the rest. The blocks in this tool are numbered in that order.
What counts as an unfair advantage?
Something that cannot be easily copied or bought. Insider information, personal authority in a niche, an existing audience or community, network effects, and data that accumulates with use all qualify. Passion, a strong team, first-mover advantage, and hard work do not — every serious competitor has those. Writing 'none yet' is honest and tells you what to build toward.
Should I fill in one Lean Canvas per idea?
Yes — one per idea, and often one per customer segment, because a different segment usually means a different problem, a different value proposition, and different channels. Duplicating a canvas and changing a single block is the fastest way to see which variant is strongest.