Product and strategy
Lean UX canvas
Eight questions that turn a business problem into user outcomes, testable hypotheses and the smallest experiment worth running.
- Time60 to 120 minutes
- People3 to 8 people
- Steps5
What it's for
The Lean UX canvas starts from a problem the business wants solved, not a feature someone asked for, and works through to a test. The boxes ask what the problem is, how you'd measure success, who the users are, what they'd gain, which solutions might work, which hypotheses those add up to, what you need to learn first, and the least work that would teach you.
Fill it in order. The sixth box joins the earlier ones into hypotheses you can test: we believe this outcome will happen if these users get this benefit from this solution.
How to run it
The business side15 min
The problem the business faces, and the outcomes that would show it's solved.
The user side15 min
Who the users are, and what they'd gain: what's in it for them.
Solutions10 min
Ideas that could deliver those outcomes, without judging them yet.
Write hypotheses15 min
We believe [business outcome] will be achieved if [user] gets [benefit] with [solution].
Pick what to learn first15 min
The riskiest hypothesis, and the least work that would test it.
Tips
- If the business problem box describes a solution, rewrite it. 'We need an app' is a solution.
- The least work to learn something is rarely software. It's often a conversation, a landing page or a prototype.
Where it comes from
Created by Jeff Gothelf, co-author with Josh Seiden of Lean UX (2013), to frame work as problems to solve rather than features to deliver.
Pairs well with
Hypothesis statement
Write an idea as a testable belief: what we'll build, for whom, the outcome we expect, and the signal that will show we were right.
Assumption map
Place every assumption behind a plan by how important it is and how much evidence you have, to find what to test first.
Opportunity solution tree
A tree from one outcome down to the customer opportunities that could drive it, the solutions for each, and how to test them.