How to fill in the Business Model Canvas
Map how a business creates, delivers, and captures value across nine blocks. This guide walks every block in the recommended order — what belongs there, the questions that unlock it, and patterns from real canvases.
The Business Model Canvas is a one-page template describing how an organisation creates, delivers, and captures value. Its power comes from the constraint: nine blocks on one page force you to be brief, and brevity exposes contradictions a thirty-page plan can hide.
The nine blocks divide in two. The right-hand side — customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams — is about value and demand. The left-hand side — key resources, key activities, key partners, cost structure — is about efficiency and supply. Value propositions sit in the middle because they are the hinge between the two.
Created by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and published in Business Model Generation (2010). It is licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, which is why you are free to use, adapt, and print it commercially with attribution.
Customer Segments
For whom are we creating value?
Customer segments are the distinct groups of people or organisations you aim to reach and serve. Start here: every other block is an answer to a question this one asks. Define segments separately whenever their needs justify a distinct offer, they are reached through different channels, they require different relationships, or they have substantially different profitability.
Ask yourself
- Who are our most important customers?
- Whose problem are we solving first?
- Which segment would hurt most if we dropped it?
- Are we a one-sided or multi-sided market?
Patterns that work
- Mass market — one large group with broadly similar needs (consumer electronics)
- Niche market — a specialised, tightly defined segment (aerospace parts suppliers)
- Segmented — same broad market, meaningfully different needs and budgets
- Diversified — two unrelated segments served by one company
- Multi-sided platform — two interdependent segments, both required (marketplaces, card networks)
Value Propositions
What value do we deliver, and which problem do we solve?
The value proposition is the bundle of products and services that creates value for a specific segment — the reason customers pick you over the alternative, including the alternative of doing nothing. Strong value propositions are specific and measurable. 'Cuts invoice approval from 5 days to 1 hour' beats 'streamlines finance operations'.
Ask yourself
- Which customer job are we getting done?
- Which pain do we remove, and by how much?
- What do we do that the next-best alternative cannot?
- Why would someone switch today rather than next year?
Patterns that work
- Newness — satisfying a need customers did not previously perceive
- Performance — measurably faster, larger, more reliable
- Customisation — tailored, or mass-customised at scale
- Getting the job done — you absorb work the customer would rather not do
- Price — same outcome, materially lower cost (low-cost carriers, free tiers)
- Risk reduction — guarantees, insurance, service levels, compliance cover
- Accessibility — reaching customers previously priced or geographically out
Channels
Through which channels do we reach our customers?
Channels are the touchpoints through which you communicate with and deliver value to customers. Work through all five channel phases — awareness, evaluation, purchase, delivery, and after-sales — because a gap in any one of them breaks the model. Owned channels have better margins; partner channels have better reach.
Ask yourself
- How do customers discover us today?
- Which channel phase is weakest right now?
- Which channels are owned versus rented?
- What does each channel cost per acquired customer?
Patterns that work
- Owned direct — sales team, website, own stores (higher margin, higher build cost)
- Owned indirect — app stores and marketplaces you publish into
- Partner — wholesalers, resellers, integrators (wider reach, lower margin)
- Awareness → evaluation → purchase → delivery → after-sales: map each phase separately
Customer Relationships
What relationship does each segment expect?
Describe the type of relationship you establish with each segment, and be explicit about which of the three jobs it does: acquisition, retention, or expansion. The relationship model drives your cost structure more than almost anything else — dedicated human support and pure self-service produce completely different businesses.
Ask yourself
- How do we acquire, keep, and grow each customer?
- Is this relationship human, automated, or community-led?
- What does support cost per customer per month?
- What triggers a customer to leave?
Patterns that work
- Personal assistance — real human interaction at point of sale or after
- Dedicated personal assistance — one named person per account (private banking, enterprise)
- Self-service — you supply the means, the customer does the work
- Automated services — self-service plus personalisation at machine scale
- Communities — users help each other and deepen their own attachment
- Co-creation — customers contribute the value (reviews, UGC, open source)
Revenue Streams
What are customers really willing to pay for?
Revenue streams are the cash you generate per segment. Separate transaction revenue (one-off payments) from recurring revenue (ongoing delivery), and state the pricing mechanism for each — fixed list price, feature-tiered, volume-dependent, negotiated, auction, or yield managed. A model with only one stream and one mechanism is fragile.
Ask yourself
- What does each segment pay for, and how often?
- Is the price fixed or dynamic?
- Which stream is recurring versus one-off?
- What would customers happily pay more for?
Patterns that work
- Asset sale — transferring ownership of a physical product
- Usage fee — pay per call, per minute, per shipment
- Subscription — recurring fee for continuous access
- Lending / renting / leasing — temporary exclusive use for a fee
- Licensing — customers pay for permission to use protected IP
- Brokerage — a percentage cut for intermediating between two parties
- Advertising — a third party pays for access to your audience
Key Resources
Which assets does our value proposition require?
Key resources are the assets required to make the model work — the things without which the value proposition cannot be delivered. Sort them into physical, intellectual, human, and financial. Intellectual and human resources are the hardest to buy and therefore the most defensible.
Ask yourself
- What must we own or control to deliver?
- Which resource is hardest for a competitor to copy?
- What do we own versus lease versus borrow?
- Which single resource, if lost, stops the business?
Patterns that work
- Physical — factories, buildings, vehicles, machines, distribution networks
- Intellectual — brands, proprietary knowledge, patents, data, partnerships
- Human — specialist scientists, senior engineers, experienced sales staff
- Financial — cash, credit lines, stock option pools for hiring
Key Activities
What must we do exceptionally well?
Key activities are the most important things the company must do to make the model work. Keep the list short — three to five entries. If everything is a key activity, nothing is, and the block stops telling you where to concentrate scarce management attention.
Ask yourself
- Which activities create the value proposition?
- What do we do in-house because it is core?
- Where must we be best in class rather than merely adequate?
- What could be outsourced tomorrow without harm?
Patterns that work
- Production — designing, making, and delivering a product at quality and volume
- Problem solving — bespoke solutions per client (consultancies, hospitals)
- Platform / network — maintaining the platform, matching sides, growing the network
Key Partners
Who helps us, and what do they supply?
Key partners are the suppliers and allies who make the model work — usually motivated by optimisation and economies of scale, reduction of risk and uncertainty, or acquisition of resources and activities you would rather not build. For each partner, note what you get and what you give up.
Ask yourself
- Who are our key suppliers?
- Which resources do we acquire from partners?
- Which key activities do partners perform?
- What is our exposure if a partner walks away?
Patterns that work
- Strategic alliances between non-competitors
- Coopetition — strategic partnerships between competitors
- Joint ventures to develop new businesses
- Buyer-supplier relationships to assure reliable supply
Cost Structure
What does the model cost to run?
Cost structure captures the most significant costs of operating the model. Decide first whether you are cost-driven (lean structure, low pricing, automation, outsourcing) or value-driven (premium proposition, high-touch service) — the two lead to different decisions everywhere else. Then split fixed from variable so unit economics become visible.
Ask yourself
- What are the most expensive resources and activities?
- Which costs are fixed versus variable?
- Are we cost-driven or value-driven?
- What is our gross margin per unit sold?
Patterns that work
- Fixed costs — salaries, rent, facilities: unchanged by volume
- Variable costs — materials, shipping, per-transaction fees: scale with volume
- Economies of scale — unit cost falls as output rises
- Economies of scope — one investment serves several products or segments
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