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Spark Canvas: Problems Worth Solving
Patrick Ng introduces the Spark Canvas, a customer-problem discovery tool he built after finding the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas left too many startup teams with poor customer-problem fit.
Patrick Ng, Venture Creation Instructor & Deep-Tech Mentor
After working with more than 80 startup teams in a year, Patrick Ng found that teams treated the Value Proposition Canvas as a solution tool and gave too little weight to the customer's jobs to be done. The Spark Canvas puts the customer and their problem first: who the customer is, how the problem is solved today and what is wrong with it, the consequence of leaving it unsolved, and whether a broader underlying job exists.
It then tests whether the problem is worth solving: whether it is the most impactful problem for that customer, whether the segment is large enough or has adjacent segments with similar needs, and whether the pain is real enough that customers will pay. Its output feeds the Value Proposition Canvas as customer jobs and pains, and investors can use it to assess a business idea.
Source
Catalogued by Spark Launchpad blog ›
More by Patrick Ng
- APAC Regionalisation with a "Legal-first" Approach
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- Can Trust Be Explained Simply? The Equation That Changed How I Pitch
How the trust equation from The Trusted Advisor changed the way Patrick Ng pitches, and why self-orientation is the variable that decides whether an audience believes you.
- The IP Paradox: Why Exclusivity is the Secret Weapon for Scaling Social Impact
An argument that intellectual property protects social enterprises rather than working against them, first presented at KPMG's Gen2050 session on IP for sustainability solutions.
- From Liability to Uptime: The Business Case for AI in Cybersecurity
A business case for AI-driven cyber defence written for executives rather than security teams, mapping AI's value to uptime, compliance and data trust.
- Discover Unarticulated Needs With This Tool
How a jobs-to-be-done analysis and a four-quadrant marketplace map help founders find customer needs that customers have not yet put into words.
- The Foundation of Innovation
Patrick Ng's account of moving from inventor to technology commercialisation, and why he concluded that ventures succeed on a deep understanding of the customer's problem rather than on the invention.
- In Innovation, Go Slow to Go Long
A marathon runner's case for treating innovation as a systematic, repeatable process built on preparation, user empathy and hypothesis testing rather than inspiration.
- Digital Transformation Transform People, Processes and Systems
Why digital transformation projects that stop at technology adoption rarely improve the business, and a five-step sequence that starts from the intended outcome.
- Brainstorming Approach: Uncover Great Ideas from Diverse Individuals, Inclusively and Respectfully
How a structured brainstorming session brought a divided startup-challenge team back to a single direction, and the facilitation choices that made it work.
- Venture Storytelling
How to build a startup pitch as a story using the design thinking cycle, from vision and purpose through the problem, the solution and the plan to scale, first delivered at the UOB FinLab GreenTech Accelerator 2022.