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Writer's pictureNabeel Ansar

Understanding Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is divided into nine areas. A group of stakeholders walks through each area while brainstorming both existing and future items.

The Business Model Canvas is shown below, each area is described in the same order you should work through them with your stakeholders. The first five are linked to revenue (producer benefit). The last four are more about identifying costs.



  1. Customer Segments Start here. Who will get value from your product? Individual users, groups, personas, or any relevant stakeholders. Who is your buyer? Who is your consumer?

  2. Value Propositions First understanding who your customers are makes it easier to identify the value propositions for each. What are their needs, and how does your product address them?

  3. Channels You can have the greatest value propositions in the world, but if nobody knows about them, there is no value. Channels are how you intend to get your value propositions to your customers. Advertising? Word of mouth? Search engine? Training? For software products, identifying these is important as they may result in Product Backlog items that are often forgotten.

  4. Customer Relationships This is about retaining your customers and possibly introducing them to additional value propositions. How do you keep them coming back for more? Should you put a loyalty program in place? Maybe a newsletter? Much like with channels, identifying these may introduce commonly forgotten Product Backlog items.

  5. Revenue Streams How do your value propositions generate revenue? What and how much are your customers willing to pay for? Licensing? Membership fees? Advertising? Not every value proposition needs to generate revenue; however, everyone involved with the creation of the product must understand how it eventually makes money.

  6. Key Activities Now that you have identified all the elements for generating revenue, you need to uncover the activities you will have to make an investment in. What will you need to do to make these value propositions a reality? This involves due diligence activities such as market research, legal feasibility, and possibly even patent registration.

  7. Key Resources After identifying what you need to do (key activities), turn your attention to what you need to have. This includes people with the right skills, equipment, offices, tools, and many more.

  8. Key Partners To better focus on your customers and value propositions, there are some things you simply should not do yourself even if you have the ability and money to do them. This is where partnerships come in handy. List them here. Think of hardware providers, service providers, distributors, and similar partners.

  9. Cost Structure Now that you have a better idea of key activities, resources, and partners, you should have an easier time identifying the major investments needed to make this product a reality. Take this opportunity to make these costs explicit.


Uber Business Model Canvas Example

That is it for this article. I hope you found this article useful, if you need any help please email me at info@nabeelansar.com


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