CONTEXT CANVAS (tool)

Brief description

Helps you map out the external environment that surrounds the company or your product. Motivates to expand the thinking beyond the boundaries of the company or product and have deep conversations of what is happening. The idea is to understand the context as rich and as accurate as possible, so that the team can understand the environment (factors, trends and forces). Sections of the map: Political and Regulatory factors, Economic climate, Trends, Competition, Technology Factors, Customer needs, and Uncertainties.

Step

Empathize

Input

Research and Discovery Data

Output

Understanding of External Environment

Time

30 min to 1 hr.

Difficulty

2/5

People

5 – 15 (participants)

Quick Guide

Introduce the Context Canvas to the group and the goal of the session.
Split the team in small teams and assign section(s) of the canvas.
Each small team has a meaningful discussion to capture drivers for their sections (no more than 30 min).
Review and find blind sports.
Complete with the knowledge of the group.
Identify key drivers, biggest potential to impact your company in the near future.

Benefits

Encourage the group to share different perspectives of the external environment.
Helps to generate content.
Reveals what people are thinking.
Informs subsequent research and discovery activities.

Helpful Tips

Can keep the Context Canvas alive and add value to it by revisiting it a couple of time (adding evidence).
Pay attention to where the focus of the group was or generated most content.
The Canvas is designed to generate display of the external environment. If you notice that the discussions steers toward analyzing the internal context, guide back to the outside world.