# Lean Canvas: {Product or Initiative Name}

> **Created**: {ISO date}
> **Author**: {name or team}
> **Mode**: {content | visual}
> **Overall confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
> **Purpose**: {new thesis | stress test | option comparison | alignment}

---

## 1. Problem

> List the top 3 problems your customer has, ranked by pain intensity and frequency. Resist the urge to list every pain point; the discipline is picking the three that matter most.

- **P1**: {problem one}
- **P2**: {problem two}
- **P3**: {problem three}

### Existing Alternatives

> How do customers solve this today? Include direct tools, workarounds, and non-consumption (ignoring the problem, accepting the pain). Non-consumption is often the largest and most overlooked competitor.

- {alternative one}
- {alternative two}
- {alternative three}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**: {one-line evidence summary or gap}

---

## 2. Customer Segments

> Who has these problems most acutely? Be specific: role, industry, size, situation.

- {segment description}

### Early Adopters

> A distinct subset you will reach first. More specific, more painful, more willing to try a new solution than the broader segment. If early adopters equal the segment, you have not narrowed enough.

- {early-adopter description}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 3. Unique Value Proposition

> A single testable promise. One sentence that makes clear what you offer and why it is different and worth buying. Avoid marketing fluff and vague superlatives.

{UVP sentence}

### High-Level Concept

> The "X for Y" analogy that accelerates understanding. Example: "Airbnb for office space." "GitHub for writers." "Flipboard for podcasts."

{X for Y analogy}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 4. Solution

> Top 3 features that address the top 3 problems. Map 1:1 to the Problem block. Keep it concrete but do not over-engineer; this is a hypothesis, not a specification.

- **For P1**: {feature one}
- **For P2**: {feature two}
- **For P3**: {feature three}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 5. Channels

> Free and paid paths to your early adopters. Favor channels that compound over time alongside channels that demonstrate near-term traction.

### Compounding (free, long-horizon)

- {channel}

### Traction-demonstrating (paid, near-term)

- {channel}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 6. Revenue Streams

> Model, price, volume, lifetime value. Show the math so the revenue thesis is inspectable.

- **Model**: {subscription | transaction | freemium | services | other}
- **Price**: {price per unit}
- **Volume (Year 1)**: {expected count}
- **LTV**: {lifetime value}
- **Math**: {price x volume = revenue}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 7. Cost Structure

> What is the unit economics shape? What drives cost growth?

- **CAC (customer acquisition cost)**: {amount}
- **Fixed costs**: {categories and rough amount}
- **Variable costs**: {per-unit cost drivers}
- **Cost driver**: {what makes total cost grow as you scale?}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 8. Key Metrics

> 3 to 5 leading indicators that tell you whether the model is working. AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral) is a useful default frame.

- {metric and target}
- {metric and target}
- {metric and target}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## 9. Unfair Advantage

> What cannot be easily copied or bought? Empty is acceptable if framed as an open question. Never fabricate a moat.

{Advantage, or: "Open question. No defensible moat yet. Currently exploring {X} as a candidate."}

**Confidence**: {High | Medium | Low}
**Rationale**:

---

## Evidence & Confidence

### Validated

> Assumptions backed by named, specific sources (customer interviews, usage data, market reports).

- {assumption}, evidence: {source}

### Assumed

> Assumptions with no data yet. These are the candidates for the next round of experiments.

- {assumption}

### Open Questions

> What you would need to learn to raise confidence on a specific block. Write these as testable questions.

- {question}

### Governance

> Who owns iteration on this canvas? When is it revisited? What triggers an unscheduled revision?

- **Owner**:
- **Review cadence**:
- **Revision triggers**:

---

## Visual Output (Visual mode only)

> Omit this entire section in content mode. In visual mode, the skill writes a self-contained `.html` file to disk separately (it does not appear inline in this markdown). Fill this section with the file path and a one-line description of what was rendered.

- **Written to**: `{./lean-canvas-{slug}.html or user-specified path}`
- **Layout**: Canonical Maurya nine-block grid with per-column color accents and confidence badges
- **Self-contained**: No external fonts, stylesheets, or scripts; opens correctly offline
- **Print-ready**: A3 landscape page size via `@media print`; fits the canvas on one page
- **Accessibility**: `role="img"` and `aria-label` set on the canvas wrapper

Open the file in a browser to review, or export to PDF via the browser's print dialog.
