pm-product-canvas

name	pm-product-canvas
description	Build a Pragmatic Institute Product Canvas / business case to justify investing in an opportunity — the market-driven way. Use when the PM asks to "make the business case", "justify this to leadership", "size the market", "should we buy, build or partner", "what's the ROI", "build a product canvas", or "get buy-in for this idea". Frames the opportunity as Value Proposition, Value Creation and Value Capture, sizes the market, runs the Buy/Build/Partner decision, and ends in a go/no-go recommendation with quantified risk. Produces a Product Canvas / Business Case as a Markdown or Word .docx artifact.
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep

Product Canvas / Business Case (Pragmatic Framework: Business → Business Plan)

Rule: the Business Plan is an objective analysis of a market opportunity that provides the basis for investment. Articulate what you learned in the market, quantify the risk with a financial model, and end with a go/no-go recommendation. Opinion is irrelevant; the case is built on validated market evidence. See ../pm-copilot/references/framework.md for the market-problem test and primitives.

Check the feature dossier first (see ../pm-copilot/references/artifact-output.md) and reuse the market problem, personas, positioning, competitive picture, and distinctive competencies already established there. Where they're missing, gather them (run pm-market-problems, pm-personas, pm-positioning, pm-competitive-landscape, pm-distinctive-competence) — the canvas synthesizes them.

The Product Canvas — three parts

1. Value Proposition — why this, why us, why now

• Market opportunity — the urgent, pervasive, willing-to-pay problem.
• Buyer / user persona — who has the problem and who pays.
• Positioning statement — the ≤25-word "For [persona], [product] [verb] [problem] by [verb] [benefit]."
• Strategic alignment — how it supports company strategy (tie to the Strategy Matrix).

2. Value Creation — can we win, and at what cost

• Distinctive competencies — the valued + different + provable strengths this leverages.
• Competitive landscape — alternatives, their strengths/weaknesses, our winning strategy.
• Impact to buyers/users — the positive/negative consequences; the ROI to the buyer.
• Investment level — resources (people, material, facility) required.

3. Value Capture — what the business gets back

• Market size — see sizing below.
• Revenue generation — projected units × price over the horizon.
• Costs / profits — see cost models below.
• Distribution strategy — the channels aligned to how the market buys.
• Success metrics — how you'll know it worked (Value / Quality / Progress / Satisfaction).

Market sizing & financials

• Revenue = projected number of units × unit price (build a simple multi-period model).
• Cost — pick one model:
  • Percentage-of-Revenue model — estimated revenue × historical contribution margin.
  • Estimation model — sum the loaded costs of dedicated headcount across Engineering, Services, Support, Sales, Marketing, Data Science, etc.
• Quantify risk: state the key assumptions and what would break the model.

Buy, Build or Partner decision tree

Work top to bottom:

1. Does the solution leverage our distinctive competencies? → Build.
2. If no — can we create it at low cost? → Build.
3. If no — do we have the time to reach a solution? If no → Buy.
4. If yes — are the required skill sets available internally? Yes → Build; No → Partner.

Interview the user (batch questions)

1. The opportunity in one line, the persona, and the market problem + evidence.
2. Strategic fit — which company goal / Strategy-Matrix cell does it serve?
3. Distinctive competencies it leverages; main competitors/alternatives.
4. Rough units, price, time horizon; do you have contribution-margin history or headcount estimates?
5. Any gaps in the solution you'd need to fill (feeds Buy/Build/Partner)?
6. Success metrics leadership cares about.

Artifact template

# Product Canvas / Business Case — <Opportunity>

**Company:** <company>  ·  **Feature / Product:** <feature / product name>
**Author:** <author>  ·  **Date created:** <date>  ·  **Version:** 1.0
**Recommendation:** <GO / NO-GO / GO WITH CONDITIONS> — <one-line rationale>

## 1. Value Proposition
- **Market opportunity (problem):** <urgent, pervasive, willing-to-pay problem + evidence>
- **Buyer persona:** <who pays>  •  **User persona:** <who uses>
- **Positioning statement:** For <persona>, <product> <verb> <> by  .
  


| Dimension | Assessment |
| :--- | :--- |
| Distinctive competencies leveraged |  |
| Competitive landscape |  |
| Impact to buyers/users |  |
| Investment level |  |


  
 

| Period | Units | Unit Price | Revenue |
| :--- | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Y1 | <#> | <$> | <$> |
| Y2 | <#> | <$> | <$> |

  
  <$>
  
  





  — 
 > TODO: 

Deliver the artifact

Follow ../pm-copilot/references/artifact-output.md: confirm inputs, ask Markdown or .docx, write the .md, and convert to .docx on request via your environment's native document-creation capability. Then offer the next stage: turning the approved opportunity into a pm-product-roadmap.