How to design platforms which are the user’s dream come true? In order to foster successful communication, you have to get to know your client, or rather explore his business model. The key to your company’s success is knowing a lot about your clients. Knowing what needs the end-users of your services have and how to fulfil them determines your business triumph.

1. Business Model
Canvas

2. Why BMC?
In order to foster successful communication,
you have to get to know your client, or rather
explore his business model.

3. Business Model Canvas

4. Customer Segments
In order to discover the company’s customer segments, find out:
• What customer segments does the company have now?
• Who are its customers and what are their characteristics (e.g. age,
sex, education, social status, etc.)?
• Who is the key customer?
• What are the customers’ characteristic behaviors and habits?
• What expectations and needs is the project to satisfy?
• In what way does the project inform the customer segments about
the offer that is addressed to them?

5. Value Propositions
Write down products and services that are valuable for this perticular
customer segment. Value is the reason why customers will choose one
company over another.
Some questions that you may ask to learn about customer values:
• What is the greatest value for the customer?
• What are the reasons why customers should choose the value of the
company and not of the competition?
• Which customer needs are being satisfied and what problems does it
solve?
• What is the company’s offer for individual segments?
Values could include: newness and uniqueness, design, brand,
customization, price, convenience, usability, accessibility.

6. Channels
Channels are the ways in which the company communicates its offer to
individual customer segments. You can match a specific value to a
particular customer segment via an appropriate channel.
Examples of questions:
• Through which channels do particular customer segments want to be
reached?
• How is the company reaching them now?
• How does the company want to reach them?
• How are the channels integrated?
• Which channels are most cost-efficient?
Types of Channels may include: sales network, wholesalers, online
retailers and own Internet sales.

7. Customer Relationships
It is a crucial element in your project. It will allow you to see customer
preferences and if and how they can be automated or improved, so that
it is possible to maintain the same good relationship.
Guiding questions:
• What type of relationship does each Customer Segment expect the
company to establish and maintain with them?
• Which ones has the company established?
• What types of relationships are the most costly?
• How are the current relationships integrated with other business
elements?
Examples of Relationships: dedicated personal assistance, personal
assistance, self-service, automated services, communities, co-creation.

8. Revenue Streams
This area will show you how the company’s business model brings profit
generated by Value Propositions.
Some questions about Revenue Streams:
• For what services or products do customers currently pay?
• For what services or products do customers pay the most money or
the most often?
• How does the sales revenue through various Channels affect the
company’s total revenue?
Revenue Streams include profit from the sales of products or services,
usage fees, periodic income, renting, leasing, brokerage fees,
advertising, etc.

9. Key Resources
Why is the knowledge of the company’s Resources so important? You
can use this information e.g. to design innovative solutions based on the
company’s knowledge and resources.
Some questions that you can ask:
• Which Resources does the company use to deliver value to its
customers?
• Which Resources does the company use in particular Channels,
Relationships and at each stage of generating Revenue?
The company’s Key Resources include physical resources, infrastructure,
sales network, intellectual resources (knowledge or patents), human
resources (team, relationships with partners, contacts), etc.

10. Key Activities
Each company has an area called Key Activities. These are activities that
the company undertakes to operate effectively.
Questions that will help you:
• What Key Activities do the company’s Value Propositions require?
• What Key Activities does the company undertake for Channels,
Customer Relationships and Revenue Streams?
Examples of Key Activities: production, problem solving services,
networking, etc.

11. Key Partners
This area will help you identify which Key Activities partners help to
perform, and what resources the company obtains from them.
Some questions:
• Who are the company’s Key Partners?
• Who are its key suppliers?
• Which Key Resources is the company acquiring from Partners?
• Which Key Activities do Partners perform?
Key Partners include external partners who collaborate with the company
or provide it with services.

12. Cost Structure
By analyzing the company’s Cost Structure, you will discover its fixed
costs (salaries, rents, utilities), variable costs, economies of scale,
economies of scope, etc.
Useful questions:
• What are the most important and the biggest costs of the company?
• Which Key Resources are most expensive?
• Which Key Activities are most expensive?

13. Where, how, when?
• The Business Model Canvas should be used during creative sessions at the
beginning of your work with the company.
• The BMC is an ideal tool to discover the ins and outs of your client’s
business, its objectives and business environment.
• By getting to know the different areas, you enter the world of your client and
his company.
• The area of Customer Segments is an excellent start to broaden your
knowledge about customers-users.
• Based on particular segments, you can develop personas and empathy maps.

14. Value, Channel, User
The biggest virtue of the BMC tool is its transparency.
It is a simple way to see you client’s business model at the initial stages
of the project. You will know what to talk about and how to do it.
What the UX/UI department cares most about is the areas showing
what values and through which channels the company delivers to its
specific users. With BMC, you will already have a general overview.
More in our article: http://divante.co/blog/value-channel-user-business-
model-canvas/

15. THANK YOU!
sales@divante.co
Divante Sp. z o.o. (LTD),
14 Kosciuszki Street, 50-038 Wroclaw, Poland, tel. +48 71 342 24 06, e-mail: sales@divante.co
Krzysztof Jagiełka
Junior UX Specialist