Strategise method guide
Business Model Map
Business Model Map makes the logic of creating, delivering and capturing value visible across nine connected areas.
Beginner-friendly guide · 4 min read
What Business Model Map does
Business Model Map makes the logic of creating, delivering and capturing value visible across nine connected areas.
A business model map explains how an organisation creates value for customers, delivers that value and captures enough value to remain viable. The nine areas are connected parts of one logic, not an independent checklist.
Use the canvas to expose assumptions and relationships. If the model contains several customer groups or offers with different economics, map them separately before combining them.
The nine-block Business Model Canvas tradition provides a shared language for describing a business model. Its value comes from relationships and testable assumptions between blocks, not from filling every box.[1][2]
Changes in one area affect the others. Test important links and assumptions.
Problem, outcome and evidence
InnovationFlow adaptation of the Business Model Canvas by Strategyzer.com, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Visual design, workflow and fields have been adapted. No affiliation or endorsement implied.
InnovationFlow explanatory schematic, synthesised from the method sources[1][2].
Understand the method
The parts in plain language
When to use it
- When exploring a new offer, venture or operating model.
- When different functions hold incompatible assumptions about how value will be created or captured.
A practical workflow
- 1
Define the focal organisation, offer and customer context.
- 2
Map customers, value propositions, channels, relationships, activities, resources, partners, revenues and costs.
- 3
Identify the most important relationships and uncertainties.
- 4
Move uncertain claims into assumption tests and committed changes into the roadmap.
Fictional worked example
Example: energy optimisation as a service
This example is illustrative rather than a reported case. A supplier maps a service that combines equipment knowledge, analytics and implementation.
Observation:Sites want verified savings with limited capital and disruption.
Implication:Design around outcomes and implementation risk.
Observation:The supplier has field access but lacks cloud operations.
Implication:Use a partner while retaining customer and domain ownership.
Observation:Shared savings aligns incentives but delays revenue.
Implication:Test contract, verification and financing assumptions.
From analysis to decision
How to interpret the result
- 1Trace important relationships between blocks.
- 2Mark assumptions and confidence rather than presenting guesses as a finished model.
- 3Move uncertain claims into tests and accepted changes into the roadmap.
The interpretation guidance is an InnovationFlow synthesis of[1][2].
What a useful output looks like
Common pitfalls
- A full canvas can still contain unsupported guesses.
- Keep multiple customer or offer models separate when their economics differ.
References and method basis
- [1]Strategyzer (n.d.). What is a Business Model?. Strategyzer Library. Source ↗Originating institution
- [2]Phaal, R., Kerr, C., Oughton, D. and Probert, D.R. (2012). Towards a modular toolkit for strategic technology management. International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning, 8(2), 161-181. Source ↗Peer-reviewed research
This guide synthesises the named sources into practical questions for strategy and innovation work. It does not claim that using a tool by itself produces a successful decision.