An important part of the Business Model Hacking method is testing new business models. When testing business models, it is recommended to use the Lean Startup approach and to validate assumptions through experiments. The Experiment Canvas (also known as the MVP-scorecard) can help to validate faster and better.

Download the Experiment Canvas: Powerpoint (easy to fill in template), pdf.

Experiment Canvas explaination

The Experiment Canvas helps you choose the right experiments needed to validate a plan’s riskiest assumptions. The tool helps speed up, structure and eliminate waste by asking questions like: Can we test the risky assumptions faster and cheaper? This is an important question when testing new business ideas. The idea for this tool comes from the book ”The Startup Way’‘ by Eric Ries.

Advantages

• Great experiment scorecard to test risky assumptions as quickly and cheaply as possible
• Helps to validate better
• Provides structure and overview in the validation process

Steps

Before you start working with the Experiment Canvas, it is important to be clear about the riskiest assumptions of the project. It is recommended to have done the Riskiest Assumption Test beforehand.

1. Place the riskiest assumptions on the Experiment Canvas

Write the riskiest assumptions on sticky notes and stick them on the Experiment Canvas.

2. Choose the targeted MVP to validate the assumptions

Brainstorm different MVPs to validate the riskiest assumptions. Write the MVPs you think you should perform on a post-it note. Check whether you validate the most important assumptions with the MVPs.

3. Determine how much time it takes to perform each experiment

Now try to estimate how many resources are needed to execute an MVP.

• How much time is needed?
• How much hours from our team members?
• And how much budget?

4. Discussion

Once you’ve completed the Experiment Canvas, take a step back. Investigate whether validating the assumptions can be done faster, smarter or cheaper. The following questions can help you with this:

• Can alternative experiments be devised to test the assumptions more quickly?
• Can we devise alternative experiments with which the assumptions can be tested more cheaply?
• Which of the experiments are really crucial and which are possibly redundant?

Next steps

Once you have defined the experiments on the scorecard, it is time to start executing the experiments. Set up an experiment, learn from the results and use the insights from the experiments to adjust.

Ready to validate better with the Experiment Canvas?

Testing business models in the right way is an important part of the Business Model Hacking method. Get started with this great tool and validate properly. Get in contact if you need help!