What’s Special About the Feminist Business Model Canvas™?
(Or: Comparing the FBMC to Conventional Business Models and Canvases)
To put the FBMC in context, it helps to know how the FBMC and the process and questions that go with it are different from what you’d find with conventional business models and canvases.
The Feminist Business Model Canvas diverges from conventional business models and from the popular, conventional Business Model Canvas of Osterwalder, Pigneur, et al., in three key ways:
The first is by the choice of sections and subsections that should be part of a business model canvas.
Several sections (and their related questions) are unique to the FBMC: Collective Values, Foundational Strengths, Values Streams, Simple Theory of Change, and the Vision-Mission-Purpose.
In addition, several of the subsections that give these concepts important texture, such as noting Human Costs, recognizing Social Stakeholders, highlighting functional as well as expressive needs & product features, and tracking social change outcomes, are all unique to the Feminist Business Model Canvas ™.
Second, the FBMC diverges from conventional models and canvases through the sets of questions that accompany each segment of the canvas. These specific, explicit questions guide users towards richer, more clarified business model elements and invites them to be more innovative in how they understand what they’re looking for.
Conventional business model canvases use just one or two questions because it’s assumed that everyone shares the same business-as-usual expectations of what needs to be understood about products, or customers, or costs, etc.
Third, the FBMC diverges from conventional business models and canvases by bringing into focus some specific feminist values and deliberately asking how the business itself can demonstrate and respond to these values through its business model design.
When you’re sketching out your first FBMC, and when you’re taking your first deep dive into each of the questions, the Feminist Business Values ™ stay in the background. They show up explicitly only in the conversation about Customer Needs. However, once you’ve got your first full picture of your business model, you’re ready to take the next step and address how to bring these feminist values into the foreground.