How to Use the #MASSIVE Canvas
For building game-changing new businesses that can be in the market today
For building game-changing new businesses that can be in the market today
Quick Guide
Founders running a disciplined lean process can get stuck inside a validated but small business model.
At the other extreme, founders trying to go large directly can over-extend and fail to get traction.
This tool is to prevent these problems. Do it early and review frequently.
Grab the #MASSIVE Canvas and other open source tools at startupscience.com. See page 10 of The Complete Startup Science Toolkit.
Contemplate your idea. Now make it bigger in terms of impact. How big can you make it? As a rule of thumb, if you don’t quite know how you will pull it off yet, it is probably big enough for a #MASSIVE. We find that if you begin each sentence with “What if…” it helps frame it well. Add this to box number 4 on the far right.
Now, while still delivering on the value, what is the smallest version of the same thing? As a rule of thumb, if you describe something that can be delivered in days or weeks you are framing it well. Add this to box number 1 on the far left.
Now join up the two by completing boxes 2 and 3 with a narrative that logically builds from something we can quickly test to something that is #MASSIVE.
Tips
Use “What if…” to start each sentence
The art is in articulating how one stage flows to the next
Detailed Walkthrough
I have found that the best entrepreneurs have two anchor points which guide them in their work. They have a #MASSIVE vision that compels them forward… but they are also in market with real customers from the earliest moment. These two versions of the same value proposition inform each other and often change as lessons are learned.
Elon Musk is a master at this. Here is the first plan for Tesla:
The first master plan that I wrote 10 years ago is now in the final stages of completion. It wasn’t all that complicated and basically consisted of:
Create a low volume car, which would necessarily be expensive
Use that money to develop a medium volume car at a lower price
Use that money to create an affordable, high volume car
And…
Provide solar power. No kidding, this has literally been on our website for 10 years.
Notice how one step leads to the next… one step funds the next.
With this first path to #massive almost achieved, he has revised the plan.
The final stage is powerful if it is someway off.
Always.
Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it
Look how he thinks the same way about colonising Mars.
The plan is not “There is much to learn a visit to Mars. We need $60B to get there”. The SpaceX business plan works backwards from a hypothesis that if one person could get to Mars for $250K, then there are at least 1M people on earth who would be able and keen to colonise Mars. Everything about SpaceX, including the stage they are in right now to re-use rockets, is anchored in this key part of the business model.
Let’s have a look at another business you will know.
Uber’s #MASSIVE is clear. Just as Google is “Indexing the world’s information”, Uber is increasingly moving anything, anywhere with one click. People, doctors, ice creams, meals…
The smallest version of Uber was to exploit unused limo capacity in one city. If they had pitched that idea to Sydney angel investors, they wouldn’t have received $1. Whilst it is very small, it is something that can be tested very quickly.
Here’s how to think about that first version.
The following is not an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for a value proposition that moves a person from A to B faster and more comfortably.
Stages 1–3 have no value. Value is only realised at stage 4. This is the plan from a founder that tries to skip straight to #MASSIVE and will likely fail. In a simplistic way, the following is a better path.
During each stage, the business is improving on the value proposition to move people from A to B faster and more comfortably.
I find the next illustration an even stronger way of thinking about it.
Whilst an MVP may be simple, it still needs to offer a slice up the side of the triangle. Not be barely functional.
As an example, the very first version of Uber could have been a web form that sent an email to Travis Kalanick who then showed up in a limo personally.
Give it a shot and let me know how it goes in the comments :)