Here is the document we fill out to validate an idea and start looking for entrepreneurs to partner with. You can find an original Notion file here.
Quentin Nickmans
Founder & Managing Director at Hexa (eFounders)
This template was done by Quentin Nickmans & Hexa's team. Prepared for publishing by Max Pog.
DUPLICATE IN NOTION BEFORE USING
PROJECT CANVAS
The problem
The solution we aim at
Product core features
Competitors & interesting players
GTM strategy
Useful resources
Product
What is the problem?
Go-to-market
What's the go-to-market strategy?
Market
Is it a billion-dollar problem?????
What is the solution we offer?
Competition
What does the competitive landscape look like?
Team
What team do we need?
Appendix
PROJECT CANVAS
One-liner
The problem
Problem #1
Problem #2
Problem #3
The solution we aim at
Key benefit #1
Key benefit #2
Key benefit #3
Product core features
Core feature #1
Core feature #2
Core feature #3
Competitors & interesting players
Competitor 1, 2, 3
Actors in the space who are not direct competitors but interesting to watch
GTM strategy
Target segment
Acquisition channels
Pricing & Business model
Useful resources
Link #1 + main learning
Link #2 + main learning
Link #3 + main learning
Product
What is the problem?
The context
Share the context in which the pain point takes place. Basically how does the world evolve at the moment in relation to this problem.
Problem space
Make sure you are precise about the pain(s) point(s) felt by our ICPs
What is the solution we offer?
Value proposition
Articulate the value proposition and the main benefits.
Product - Core features
How do we translate the value proposition into a product and what are the main features that will deliver this value proposition
Some use cases
Illustrate the problem <> benefits relation with 3-5 precise use cases
Go-to-market
What's the go-to-market strategy?
What's your ICP?
Define the company type + the buying center people involved in the decision-making process?
What distribution channels do you anticipate?
What's your business model & pricing?
What pricing & pricing model (freemium, etc.) do you have in mind? No need for a mature/complex structure but you need to anticipate the cornerstones of your pricing strategy.
Describe positioning
Market
Is it a billion-dollar problem?
What is your target market?
No need to carry on a complex market sizing here but we want to assess the scale of the opportunity. Just make sure you can approximate how big the market is - ideally by confronting a bottom-up and top-down analysis.
What are the market dynamics?
Describe the big trends of the market and how they may evolve in the next few years.
Why now?
Why hasn't it been done before?
What has changed to make now a good / the best time to do it?
Competition
What does the competitive landscape look like?
What are the current alternatives?
List the incumbents, mature competitors as well as new entrants. You don't need to be exhaustive but it's necessary to give a complete overview of the competitive environment.
What are your strengths and weaknesses vs. competitors?
How defensible is your company?
Describe how you can build long-term competitive advantages.
Team
What team do we need?
What are the hard/soft skills we need our founders to have?
Identify objectively must-haves and nice-to-haves
What skills do we need among the founding team?
Appendix
Lexicon
Other additional resources
(documents, links, articles, user interviews)
Author: Quentin Nickmans, Founder & Managing Director at Hexa (eFounders)