Business Model Innovation: Post-Its vs Serious Play

The CANVAS methodology provides a guide to reflect the issues about a business model, all integrated in a landscape of 9 key topics (value proposition, clients segments, customer relationship, channels, key activities, key resources, key partners, cost structures and revenue streams).

LEGO © SERIOUS PLAY TM, give us the opportunity to build models which represents metaphors about aspects of the real life in the business model.
• Combining both, we have the opportunity not only to design and describe a business model, but to literally to BUILD a 3D version of it.
• The main idea is follow CANVAS Business Model Generation logic, but building every element instead of
only writing them. Getting all the benefits of the constructivism/constructionism approach reflected with LSP.

More advantages:

– Get a leaning forward design meeting.

• Unlock hidden knowledge thanks to the building process.
  And why not?… Use some LSP techniques to play with some scenarios and get a first approach about the mindset to keep in order to act or react getting the business model to practice.

I used this mixed approach for a 40 start-ups workshop in May 2019, during the SMARTER project for developing entrepreneurial competences for new business owners.

Results (Lego Serious Play version versus standard post-its version of this approach):

• it take longer to fill out the canvas;
• the results are more customer centric and core focused (LSP versus post-its);
• group engagement was definitely higher, although everyone was working on his own business idea);
• a lot of group ideas sparked out (talking about group wisdom in LSP).