Effective Innovation Canvas v2 @jakubsimek| Pontis Foundation | Sote Hub

Important Problem

Why is it important? Your guess 1-10: [put your

estimated number for importance here between

1(least important) and 10 (most important)]

Why is it solvable? Your guess 1-10: [put your

estimated number for solvability here between 1(least

solvable) and 10 (most solvable)]

Why is it neglected? Your guess 1-10: [put your

estimated number for neglectedness here between

1(least neglected) and 10 (most neglected)]

Unique Solution

What is your Massive Transformational Purpose?

(How do you want to change the world significantly

for better?)

[state here in one bold sentence]

What 5 innovations does your product or service

have? How does it simplify work or change habits of

people?

1. Profi t Model -

2. Network

3. Structure

4. Process

5-10. Product Performance, Product System,

Service, Channel, Brand, Customer Engangement

Theory of Change

What activities do you need to perform and what

outcomes do you need to achieve to scale your solution

from 1. Direct Service (a local restaurant, brick and

mortar shop) through 2. Scaled Service (online store,

international franchise) into a 3. Systems Change (a

state or major corporations adopt your solution) and/or

4. Framework Change (introduction of human rights;

internet made info free; blockchains freed the sharing of

financial assets)?

Direct Service:

Scaled Service:

Systems change:

Framework change:

Key Metrics

What are the important indicators that show you are

on a right track and your hypothesis is correct?

Choose your own metrics like: Customer Acquisition

Cost (CAC), Retention, Churn, Life Time Value, Viral

Coefficient, Revenue, Activation, Referral.

Traction

What have you done so far?

What you have to do in 3 -6-12 months?

What are you stuck at?

How to get / which customers?

How to get the particular segments of customers you

need to attract to validate your hypothesis and test

your solution?

Team

What are your values?

What are your interests?

What are your skills?

What are you learning?

What are you unlearning?

Cost Structure

What do you need to operate per month now and

what do you plan to spend in the next 3-6-12

months?

Fixed costs (salaries, office, equipment, tech stack):

Variable costs (marketing, travel, sales, PR, testing):

Funding and Revenue

How will you get investment and what part of your

monthly or annual costs do you have covered by

monetizing your solution. How do you plan to capture

the value you create?

Risk and (Anti)Fragility

How many various customers do you plan to have?

Are you able to earn money from the beginning while

being a small startup?

Effective Innovation Canvas @jakubsimek| Pontis Foundation | Sote Hub

Explanation and Guide

1. Important Problem – This part uses the Important-Tractable-Neglected (ITN) Framework.

Why is it important? Rate it on a scale from 1 to 10. Close your eyes and try to picture a dust speck and then try to picture an approaching meteorite. A dust speck would be 1 and a large meteorite would be 10.

Why is it solvable? Some problems just need more investment, others are complex and based on relationships and context. There might not be a single “silver bullet”, nor an easy explanation, nor a set of actions that we can pursue to achieve change. Rate it on a scale from 1 to 10.

Why is it neglected? Rate it 1-10. Maybe only 100,000 euros was invested to tackle this problem so far or maybe only 5 companies and 20 scientists are working on solving it in the whole world. Or maybe there are thousands of companies already competing in an arms race and investors threw tens of billions in hope to dominate the field.

2. Team – Strong motivated and experienced team and trust among cofounders is maybe the most important asset. It might keep you going w hen your early prototypes

and solutions might struggle. What are your values? What are your interests? What are your skills? What are you (un)learning?

3. Unique Solution – Do your research about alternative solutions and write down their strengths and weaknesses. Try to think what features to eli minate, and still keep

customers happy, before adding new ones. M-Pesa eliminated the need to own credit cards; blockchains eliminated the need to transfer financial value via institutions. Tesla eliminated the need for combustion engine and reduced car parts 10x whi le still keeping the car design beautiful for a mainstream and ambitious customer.

4. Traction – What have you done so far? What you have to do in 3 -6-12 months? What are you stuck at?

5. Cost structure – What do you need to operate per month now and what do you plan to spend in the next 3-6-12 months?

6. Theory of Change – What activities do you need to perform and what outcomes do you need to achieve to scale your solution from 1. Direct Service (a local restaurant,

brick and mortar shop) through 2. Scaled Service (online store, international franchise) into a 3. Systems Change (a state or major corporations adopt your solution) and/or

4. Framework Change (introduction of human rights; internet made info free; blockchains freed the sharing of financial assets)? You need resources, change roles, rules, relationships to achieve innovative results (5R Systems Change).

7. Funding and revenue – How will you get investment and what part of your monthly or annual costs do you have covered by monetizing your solution. How do you plan

to capture the value you create?

8. Key Metrics – What are the important indicators that show you are on a right track and your hypothesis is correct?

9. How to get/which customers? How to get the particular segments of customers you need to attract to validate your hypothesis and test your solution?

10. Risk and (Anti)fragility – 90% of new businesses fail therefore the strength of the team and understanding of the problem is so important. But you can also actively

decrease your fragility by having many various customers instead of a single large one, or by starting to earn revenue early and not focus only on winning a large chunk of the market. Aim to become an Exponential Organization and provide 10x better, cheaper and more effective solution and never s top improving.