How to fill in the Lean Canvas

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. They are usually a spreadsheet, an intern, or simply tolerating the problem. If the existing alternative is 'nothing, and they seem fine', you do not have a business yet.

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. They will tolerate a rough product; nobody else will.

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. Avoid category words; say the outcome.

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. Sketch the minimum that would let someone experience the value, and expect it to change.

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. Scalable channels matter later; learning matters now, and a channel that teaches you nothing is worse than no channel at all.

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. Record the model, the price, and the lifetime value you are assuming.

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. If that number is implausible, the model is wrong now — which is much cheaper than discovering it in eighteen months.

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. Retention is usually the most honest early signal, because it cannot be bought.

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. Real candidates: insider information, personal authority, an existing audience, a community, network effects, or a genuinely superior team in a domain where hiring is hard. It is entirely acceptable to write 'none yet' — that is useful information about what you must build.