Some of you know that we are working on an iPad app to help entrepreneurs and intra-preneurs develop innovative business models. We decided to do this as transparently as we have for the book. Please join us on our journey and give us your feedback!
In the slides below we outlined the specs for a minimal viable (app) product (MVP). It is the “heart” of the app we are developing and it will obviously evolve into something more sophisticated over time. But we want to test the MVP with (potential) buyers first…
We have a couple of questions to you:
- What kind of future functionality would you like to see in the app?
- What kind of usage scenarios could you imagine for the app and yourself?
- What do you think of our price of $29.99 – including free updates for some of the early features beyond the MVP?
As you know we really love and value your feedback! Tell us what you think!
Look how one of the early, early software prototypes looks:
There are also some videos of our earlier thinking on the app:
scenario: adding an activity with a cost
scenario: for adding a revenue stream
scenario: for opening a financial report
I think this is one of the best ideas for an Ipad app,
okey what i will suggest?
1)Many people will use this app for generate the BZ plan for :
-Present to contests
-Present to Angel investors /VC
So i will recommend to have templates and to give the opportunity for the public to publish their own templates.
This im meaning publication templates, i mean the process is the one you developed but certain questions should be finished and printed in order to fit for the BZ plan contest and Investors.
2)The price is right!
3)A section of tips for writing the Bz plan is essential (with a community forum, wiky style to answer questions)
4)Forecasting function will be essential!
Have a great day!
Thanks for sharing your ideas, Francisco! I do agree that the link with business plans is an interesting one…
Hi Alex:
I think the prototyping you’ve done here is excellent and I’m very excited about the direction of the app. Just a couple of suggestions:
1. I think it would be great if you can integrate this app with a service like Evernote. Would make it a nice way to save and share canvases as well as attach narrative notes.
2. I would envision using the app in presentation mode during a workshop, so having an integrated whiteboard function to do some “back of the napkin” drawings or calculations would be useful, including the ability to save those whiteboards when switching to other screens. Perhaps this could be achieved with an existing app such as Whiteboard Pro by GreenGar Studios
3. I think it would also be nice to be able to link to some of the most important business model patterns from BM Designer, especially in presentation mode.
4. A small thing I didn’t see mentioned in the SlideShare show would be the ability to change the colors of the post-its.
Your price point sounds fine to me, although I’d be willing to pay more for the functionality I’ve described as well as what Francisco has suggested, in addition to lifetime upgrades to new capabilities. You may want to consider two apps, a lite app with just the core canvas capabilities ($15-$20) and a pro version with the deeper functionality ($50-$75).
Really looking forward to having this app and I’m volunteering to be a beta tester! Thanks so much for seeking our input. Have a great one!
Looks very interesting and the price seems fair.
I have one suggestion though: why not make this a web application?
You can use HTML5 so it will also work on the iPad.
This way you get a much larger market!
Not to mention that you can access your business models from any computer (not only your iPad).
Jeff, presentation mode is indeed on the program – probably for the version immediately after the MVP-version. Over time we will also integrate more content, e.g. patterns, examples, etc.
I particularly liked your idea of “lifetime upgrades”. Maybe we’ll sell that to beta-testers. Join and pay… and get life-time upgrades… Nice business model twist! Thanks!
No doubt, Alin. That is where we are going to carry our app and consequently our business model
App looks great! Looking forward to using it (hopefully online, have not got Ipad (yet)). Have been using the canvas as framework for my thesis on designing open innovation business models. Hence, I’ve been describing quite some models. I have got two suggestions:
- Make a ‘parking space’ to ‘park’ post-its. When describing BMs, I usually first ad to many elements. It would be great to be able to par them somewhere untill you have got it right. Then you can empty the parking space (otherwise you keep having to type the same elements).
- Make it possible to choose different colours of post-its, to make make it possible to ‘link’ some elements (mainly for clarification purposes).
Thanks for sharing this, hope to use it someday!
Parking lot was planned… maybe we’ll take it out for the MVP, but it will definitely be in the app one day. Colors were a similar issue, but given the multiple requests we might put them back in…
Hi Alex
This is a great development for BM design. Jeff has a good point in deciding at what level you pitch the app i.e. an idea creation tool or at a more advanced app that adds significant credibility to any BM pitch. Some functionality I would like to see would be;
1 allow different scenarios of the same BM concept to be stored and compared eg different distribution channels for the same value proposition
2 the link between a value proposition (consumer / concept insight) to a credible revenue stream (sale builder / opportunity quant.) is often under developed (certainly in my area, consumer foods). My sense is that the functionality around this area needs to be greatly enhanced. I’m thinking of sensitivity analysis and minimum benchmarks for return
3 allow for visualisation. This I found this was a major element of your canvas which frees-up teams and allows for greater creativity
In terms of where I would use it. It can easily be applied to any stage of BM design. I found that if you use the same tool / template / process at every stage of a new BM, key stakeholders are with you from the beginning. So when asking for investment / capex, they understood your approach.
As with the price. Great value. But significant revenues can be had with greater functionality especially when you consider the amount of cash spent with workshop facilitators / agencies etc.
Great development overall and best of luck with it.
Hi Alex!
This prototype looks exciting and I look fw to testing it on my iPad.
I´m not sure I understood the report mode. Would this be limited to the cost & revenue section? I´m sure it would be very effective to be able to print out the canvas work in progress also, or at least send it as pdf to say those who have participated in discussion / WS or the like…
As for scenarios – I could imagine using this in work shops of meetings discussing specific cases, but also as a way of introducing the model itself (thus for this purpose the examples would be great) For me, i´m not sure if the calculations are important within the app, as this would typically be done somewhere else. Desktop integration would be good though.
Re: Pricing; if only one version, pricing should be be right, but I believe you could consider the two apps, as suggested above.
Thanks for sharing – Look fw to next phase!
hi, i think hand-written notes would be more useful. without drawings or scribbles it’s only using the canvas structure for planning.
Yes, Jannecke, examples are part of the game plane. Thanks for sharing your views!
Paul, thanks for sharing your ideas. I think particularly the versioning of business models (your point 1) will be very, very important – in order to be able to explore different possible business models with the same base idea…
Ahmet, hand-written notes and drawings would definitely contribute to more creative business models. Let’s see how easy it is for our software developers to implement that.
Great Prototype. I would like to see an option in the final version to use the VGA adapter with the program to beam it on a screen and maybe use the tool together with a group to develop models and scenarios in a meeting.
Oliver, we’re thinking of going a step further to make a special presenter mode… selling a business model story is a very important task that can be supported by software!
+1 for the Evernote-integration. Also, would love to have the possibility to have different coloured post-its; after initial brainstorming, we’ve been organising different value prop – channel – user segment – revenue -flows with different colours.
It seems to be a perfectly viable app, but I do wonder about the wisdom of restricting sales – even initially – to those who have purchased a device that operates entirely within Apple’s walled garden. Development for iPad/iPhone is totally different to development for any other platform, and it seems likely that the application would need to be completely rewritten to run on non-Apple devices.
Apple has a tiny share of the market for devices with a screen size capable of running this application, so it seems a bit odd to be starting with the iPad rather than starting with the notebook PC running Windows, Linux or MacOS (there are plenty of cross-platform UI toolkits available for these).
1) What kind of future functionality would you like to see in the app?
Personally when I use the canvas for Business Analysis, I do a current state and then a future state diagram with the client. Then we take the delta and develop strategy maps based on what needs to change. These maps are SIMPLE project plans that visually represent what we need to do, to get to a future state model. They’re BaseCamp simple. I’d love to be able to create them from this App. but I realize that what I’m describing might require more explanation.
2) What kind of usage scenarios could you imagine for the app and yourself? Virtually every initial consultation with any client.
3) What do you think of our price of $29.99 – including free updates for some of the early features beyond the MVP? Let me put it this way, I am planning on buying the iPad to use this application. The value for me is directly there… in the ease of use, portability and visual representation. This is the PERFECT kind of app for the iPad. Before I heard about this, I couldn’t have pictured myself contemplating a purchase fo the iPad. It would be great to have a desktop version (either platform) that can receive the iPad files too.
Kenneth, thanks for the input! A way to visualize the delta between existing and future business model would definitely be interesting for many users. Let’s see if Alan – art director of the app and bmgen – can come up with a compelling solution to that!
Let’s hope we can live up to the high expectations you are putting into our app
Peter, that is a very legitimate question, indeed. Conventional marketing wisdom would definitely lead us to start with the larger platform. However, I always believed in being progressive and I believe we need to create the app there were it fits best: on an innovative platform that can be manipulated intuitively and with a touchscreen interface…
Of course we will follow-up with a web platform that will support the app. However, in terms of intuitive manipulation the iPad stays my favorite.
I was just introduced to the Business Model Canvas from the Business Model Generation Book. Of course, I loved it. As an iPad developer I immediately envisioned an app… within a few minute of that epiphany I found this post. Awesome. I only wish I already had it so I could use it in a business model session I’m attending tonight.
BTW, I respectfully disagree with Peter above. No other device delivers the responsiveness of the iPad touch interface which, for an app like this, will create an immersive and addictive user experience.
Rock on.
-M.
Matt, thanks for the kind comment! I’ll inform everybody on this blog when the app is ready
The two app (or two levels) is what came to my mind too.
The basic canvas should have zero barrier to purchase (priced somewhere between free and $9.99) And then the deeper revenue modeling would be an add-on for $.
That is, if you want the app to have a life separate from the book. I doubt anyone will pay $30 for the app if they haven’t already read the book.
I think this app will be very useful – and the price is reasonable and well matched. I’m just curious to see if there are any updates as to the availability of the this app? Any rough ideas as to a release date?
Zachary, we are working on it. A first basic version should be out this summer. Alpha/Beta-testers can sign-up for 150.- USD and a lifetime upgrade starting next week.
1. What kind of future functionality would you like to see in the app?
I would like to see a functionality where people can work at the same time on the canvas on different iPads. Together with a kind of Skype functionality, people can work together whereever they are. ALso some revision history would be nice.
What kind of usage scenarios could you imagine for the app and yourself?
I will use it in my dialogue workshops to build a common understanding on how the business works. Until now it works very well! But with iPads, I can greatkly improve the experience.
What do you think of our price of $29.99 – including free updates for some of the early features beyond the MVP?
Great price. But like mentioned before, try a caferia model:
- free canvas
- Pay per bundle of extra functionalities
- Pay extra for a service on the internet were people can work together on the same canvas wherever they are (including secure backup)
Enjoy the development. If I could help out somewhere, please let me know.
[...] « Developing Business Models on the iPad Jun 7, [...]
Thanks for that, can’t wait for my iPad to arrive now haha.
Alexander,
I really like how you used a paper prototype on top of your iPad. Very cool. I mentioned this in a blog post.
http://www.jamieshiller.com/2010/06/15/paper-prototyping-an-ipad-app-business-model-generation/
Best,
Jamie
You need to look at having Visio/VDX export, or even a scalable PowerPoint graphic format so it can be beautified to be included on decks in “marketing” presentations easily.
Great idea, and would load up on my ipad when available. A agree with others on tiered pricing, and exporting to email or other apps for reading. The ability to network with others for a brainstorming session and then bringing together in a ‘master canvas’ would be awesome. Beyond the canvas it would be neat to have some other tools, resources or news from your site. Let me know when available in app store..
Cheers,
Dan
I think you are developing for the wrong platform. The Ipad is a wonderful personal tool or even a one-to-one tool, but it isn’t a good solution for a group unless you plan to support the use of multiple networked iPads, which is a great idea.
Your app should readily port to a MacBook, which opens up the world of cinema displays, which are suitable for groups. The iPad can attach to a cinema display but only in VGA mode which reduces the resolution.
The more I think about it, the more the networked solution is appealing. That would open up distance usage. You’d have to address the question of whether to allow people to post directly to the worksheet or to require permission. Or maybe create the entry and then send it to the moderator for posting permission.
It’s funny that people seem to think little of spending $495 for a iPad yet they don’t consider double that for a MacBook.
$29 is too much for the general market. At that price, you will attract competitors who will develop a version at $4.95 and you will lose control of the market.
You will get consultants at the $29 price but then you must keep development flowing. Based on your progress, I suspect you don’t have experienced Mac developers. If you don’t keep development flowing, the app will either die or become a stagnant cute tool. It could become a very mainstream planning tool not only for Business Models but lots of other environments.
The project roadmap definitely includes an expansion to the web. However, I think it was absolutely the right choice to start with the iPad, given its formidable touchscreen abilities and sales success…
Alex, great work. Would definitely buy it (after getting myself an iPad first…). Main suggestions:
1. space to put post-its around the canvas (not just in the 9 boxes)
2. in the cost area, option for not just variable but also fixed cost components (bit obvious, but video suggested all variable, which may not be the case)
3. some form of what-if possibilities in the calcs (like, what if this segment turns out a lot bigger, what if the conversion from free to premium turns out lower, etc.)
4. zoom-in or drill-down by canvas item and/or individual post-its, to show the detail & thinking behind them
5. visualisation of relationships in the financial part (to show the links between activities and costs, for instance, while not showing this when you want a “clean” view)
Again, exciting stuff, keep us posted! (no doubt you will)
[...] that I’ve been involved in (as a member of its alpha-test team) is Alex Osterwalder’s iPad app for his Business Model Canvas framework – perhaps take a look at the videos on Alex’s [...]
- Perhaps a sensitivity analysis tool in the financial part.
- For consultants it would be interesting to be allowed to use the app at several ipads.
In my company, we are organizing a social media business model workshop for our clients, and would like to use the app on several iPads simultaneously.. we are very willing to help in the development of the app and could support in multi-user functionality.
Do you see possibilities to collaborate?