Strategy Tips

Best practices for getting the most out of Canvas, Bets, and Metrics.

Business Canvas

Start with Lean Canvas. If you’re still validating product-market fit, use Lean Canvas. It forces you to articulate problem, solution, and unique value proposition before worrying about operations. Switch to Business Model Canvas when you’re scaling.

Be specific in each box. “Everyone” is not a customer segment. “Make money” is not a revenue stream. Vague entries defeat the purpose. If you can’t be specific, you haven’t validated that part of your model yet.

Revisit regularly. Your canvas should evolve as you learn. If it looks the same as it did six months ago, either you’re not learning or you’re not updating. Schedule monthly reviews.

Use it for alignment. When team members disagree on strategy, put the canvas on screen. Often disagreements stem from different mental models of the business. The canvas makes assumptions visible.

Strategic Bets

Start small. Begin with 1-2 week experiments before running quarter-long bets. Build confidence in the process and learn how to set realistic targets.

Set honest kill criteria. It’s tempting to set kill thresholds too low. Set them where you’d genuinely stop and reconsider — not at zero, but at the point where continuing doesn’t make sense.

Link specific metrics. Vague bets with no linked metrics become opinion debates. Every bet should be tied to numbers that will definitively answer the question.

One owner per bet. Shared ownership means no ownership. Someone needs to check progress, flag issues, and make the final call.

Document everything. When you resolve a bet, write the outcome summary. Future-you will want to know why past-you made certain decisions.

Pivot, don’t abandon. When a bet fails, ask what you learned. Often the right move is to pivot to a refined hypothesis rather than walking away entirely.

Metrics

Track what drives decisions. Revenue is an outcome — tracking it doesn’t tell you what to do differently. Track the inputs: conversion rates, activation, retention, referral rates.

Actionable over vanity. Total signups, page views, and follower counts go up and to the right but don’t inform decisions. Track active users (not signups), conversion rate (not traffic), retention (not acquisition).

Limit your Northstars. Your Northstar metrics should be 1-3 numbers, not 10. If you can’t explain why a metric is Northstar in one sentence, it probably isn’t.

Assign owners. Every metric needs a person (not a team) who checks it, understands why it moved, and takes action when it’s off track.

Review quarterly. The metrics that mattered six months ago might not matter today. Remove stale metrics — a cluttered dashboard hides what matters.

Connecting the Tools

The three strategy tools work together:

1. Canvas defines your business model and assumptions
2. Bets test those assumptions with structured experiments
3. Metrics track progress and inform decisions

When your canvas includes an untested assumption, create a bet. When a bet needs measurement, link metrics. When metrics reveal something unexpected, update your canvas.