How A Business Model Canvas Helps Agile Teams
Agile Development • Lean Startup • Software Business
If you've ever thought "who came up with these ideas?", you probably need a business model canvas on your agile development team.
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If you’ve ever thought “who came up with these ideas?”, you probably need a business model canvas on your agile development team.
Even if you don’t consider yourself able to steer the direction of a software product (you’re a programmer, in UX, operations, QA etc.) it’s critical that sound decisions are made about the business.
Without a comprehensive plan forward, ego can easily take over your agile backlog.
In this episode I share what a business model canvas is, examples of common software products and how the canvas (also known as a lean canvas) can help you as a software developer or any other discipline on your team.
The business model canvas, business canvas, or “lean canvas” has been popularized by Eric Ries, Alex Osterwalder, and Ash Maurya.
It divides up the aspects of a business into 9 sections that a software company should experiment with to increase profit.
When your team is deciding “what features should we build in our software?” the business model canvas should be the first lens through which decisions are looked at.
Any user stories your team adds to their backlog should tie back to these sections of the business model canvas, otherwise they can easily be “gut decisions” with no sound business backing.
The canvas can provide your software development team with an array of potential opportunities to explore, other than just “cranking out features”.
The 9 Sections of a Business Model Canvas
- Value Propositions
- Customer Segments
- Channels
- Customer Relationships
- Revenue Streams
- Key Resources
- Key Partners
- Key Activities
- Cost Structure
If you’re a product manager (or have one on your team) it’s essential to understand this information.
The business model canvas is not a fixed asset, it will constantly change as your company learns more about your software product and what customers want, how best to offer it to them, and what the competitive landscape is like.
Resources
- The Secret of Scrum Nobody Talks About
- How Software Products Change With Market Fit
- An Agile Budget Keeps You From Being A Code Monkey
- Minimum Viable Product – Letting Software Customers Help You Profit
About the THRIVING TECHNOLOGIST show
On YouTube and all major podcast networks, Jayme shares teamwork and leadership strategies, guidelines for healthy company culture, and stories about real projects so you can have a sustainable career in the software industry.
Jayme Edwards
A family man and veteran of nearly 40 software projects, Jayme experienced many wins and losses over his career as an architect and consultant.
Now he's coaching software developers, managers, and business owners to overcome challenges in the IT industry - so they keep growing.