── ── Startups
Business Model Canvas
A business creates, delivers, and captures value through nine interlocking blocks (Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partners, Cost Structure). The canvas maps each block and exposes which claims are specific enough to be tested vs. still wishful thinking. Introduced by Osterwalder (HEC Lausanne, 2004); popularized in Business Model Generation (Wiley, 2010).
How it works
Run the Business Model Canvas Audit — map all nine blocks, tag each claim, surface the riskiest assumptions, name next-week experiments.
· Step · Block · Key question · · --- · --- · --- · · 1 · Customer Segments · Specific who (not "consumers") — multi-sided businesses list each side · · 2 · Value Propositions · What the customer gets in their own units (time/money/anxiety/status) — not features · · 3 · Channels · Five phases: awareness, evaluation, purchase, delivery, after-sales · · 4 · Customer Relationships · What relationship does each segment expect? (self-service / personal / community) · · 5 · Revenue Streams · Model + price + why they pay — willingness-to-pay must be testable · · 6 · Key Resources · Only the small distinctive set that enables the value prop · · 7 · Key Activities · Only what must be done distinctively well to deliver the value prop · · 8 · Key Partners · Named, with role and replacement risk · · 9 · Cost Structure · Named drivers, fixed vs. variable; value-driven or cost-driven? ·
After mapping: tag every claim VALIDATED/ASSUMED/DEPENDENT · name the 1–2 ASSUMED claims that would kill the business · design the smallest next-week experiment for each.
When to use it
- user says "business model canvas," "BMC," "Osterwalder canvas," "what's our business model," "map this business," or asks to evaluate/design/pivot/compare a business model before raising capital
When not to use it
no customer segment exists yet (redirect to first-principles first); or the question is purely operational (which CRM, which feature to ship).
Worked example
Southwest Airlines (1971 → ongoing)
A worked example. Not a CEO-icon parable — primary-source documented, SEC-disclosed, and the textbook case of business-model innovation.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skills