The words we use, explained
The terms from The Founder’s Trap and the Snapshot Review, in one place. Definitions are the book’s own; the short notes in blue are plain-language reminders of how each term shows up in your review.
The nine blocks—and what strong and weak mean
Every business can be described with the nine blocks of the Business Model Canvas. A Snapshot Review reads each one as strong or weak on your evidence, using the fixed descriptions below. “Weak” describes how a part is operating, not how well it is evidenced; where the evidence can’t support either, it’s marked “can’t tell yet”.
| Block | In plain words | Reads as strong when… | Reads as weak when… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer segments | Who the business serves. | A sufficiently specific customer group is evidenced. | The customer group is diffuse or poorly defined. |
| Value propositions | What the business promises those customers. | A specific customer-relevant value promise is evidenced. | The value promise is broad or undifferentiated. |
| Channels | How customers find, buy and receive it. | A workable route for awareness, purchase or delivery is evidenced. | The route to the customer is fragmented or unreliable. |
| Customer relationships | How the business keeps and serves customers. | The intended interaction and retention pattern is evidenced. | The interaction or retention pattern is weak or inconsistent. |
| Revenue streams | How the business gets paid. | A credible willingness-to-pay and collection logic is evidenced. | Payment logic or willingness to pay is unreliable or poorly captured. |
| Key resources | What the business must have—people, assets, know-how. | The critical assets and capacity are evidenced as available. | Critical assets or capacity are constrained or insufficient. |
| Key activities | The work the business must do well. | The essential operating work is evidenced as executable. | Essential work is undefined or inconsistent. |
| Key partnerships | Who the business relies on outside itself. | Necessary external dependencies are evidenced and governed. | External dependencies are fragile or poorly governed. |
| Cost structure | What it costs to run the business. | The material cost and capacity burden is evidenced and bounded. | The material cost or capacity burden is high or poorly controlled. |
Blocks are listed in BusinessBuilder’s fixed order, which also sets the order of the letters in a pair state. Strong and weak descriptions are from BusinessBuilder’s governed index of relationship states.
Reading a Snapshot Review
The words you’ll meet in your own review.
- Snapshot Review
A dated, evidence-bound account of the business model’s assessed conditions and material limitations
- Business Model Canvas
The nine-block description of how a business creates, delivers and captures value
- Business foundation
A metaphor for the relationships supporting the business’s promises, economics and continuity
- Pair
One unique combination of two different BMC blocks; there are 36 within the nine-block model
- HH, HL, LH, LL
Four logical pair states whose meaning depends on the fixed pair order and governed criteria
In plain words: both strong (HH), strong–weak or weak–strong (HL or LH), both weak (LL). The first letter refers to the block that comes first in the fixed order shown in the table above.
- Indeterminate
Evidence does not justify the relevant assessment; it is not a fifth structural state
In a Snapshot Review this appears as “can’t tell yet”.
- 144 interpretations
The library of 36 pairs × four possible states, not simultaneous states or a score out of 144
Each state has a fixed name, such as “Weak Value Capture”, so the same situation is always described the same way.
- Material observation
A supported condition important enough in context to warrant explicit attention
- Evidence confidence
The strength of support for an assessment, separate from the assessed condition
- Radar chart
A visual summary across axes; the nine-block profile does not display all 36 relationships
- As-is
The current condition, distinguished from an intended future design
- To-be
A proposed future design that remains distinct from present operating evidence
The three traps
Patterns that can quietly undermine a strong offer. A Snapshot Review notes which, if any, the evidence resembles.
- Price trap
Difficulty retaining sufficient economic value in the relationship between buyer choice, terms and delivery burden
- Holdup trap
Dependence that constrains practical choices after resources have been committed
- Fragility trap
A material exposure to disproportionate interruption through inadequately supported dependencies or recovery arrangements
Finding a different offer
Tools from Part I of the book, drawn from Blue Ocean Strategy. They’re for reading the book; a Snapshot Review doesn’t apply them to your business.
- Blue ocean
New market space and demand pursued through value innovation
- Red ocean
An established market with familiar boundaries and bases of competition
- Value innovation
The simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost to create a leap in buyer value
- Strategy Canvas
A comparison of offering levels across factors relevant to a defined market
- ERRC
Eliminate, Reduce, Raise and Create; a grid for recording choices arising from the Four Actions Framework
- Noncustomer
A person or organisation outside, or on the edge of, a defined market; the tier depends on its relationship with that market
- PMS Map
A view of current and planned offers through Pioneer, Migrator and Settler categories
- Pioneer
An offer with unprecedented buyer value within the PMS framework; a proposed classification may remain unproven
- Migrator
An offer that improves prevailing buyer value within the PMS framework
- Settler
An offer broadly following existing market value in the PMS framework
- Adoption
Acceptance and implementation of a proposed offer by the parties whose participation it requires
See the terms at work
The example Snapshot Review shows every one of these ideas applied to a single business, with each reading traced to the owner’s answers.