Following yesterday’s post about the Business Model Canvas workshop, a few people commented that they don’t know how to draw.

I don’t consider myself much of an artist either, but I’d like to share some more sketches anyways, because I think they might be useful for anyone trying to explain a complex concept to a new audience (especially one with a short attention span… that means just about everyone!)

Erik showed us step-by-step how to draw people, as well as revenue sources (price tags), income sources (bags of money), buildings (boxes filled with right-angle 7s) and more.

Then he offered to sketch out the business models of people in the room.

One participant said that his company offers a benchmarking service for CIOs. Here is an illustration of his service. At first, the CIO is confused and thinking about how to help his company make money. Then four kinds of benchmarks land in his computer, for a monthly subscription. This makes him happy.

It looks like I was sketching so fast that I forgot the letter e at the end of the word database.

Next we did a group exercise, in which one person described his or her business model, and everyone else sketched it, using the techniques we’d just learned.

I drew this picture to describe the work of a woman named Daniela, whose consultancy develops projects to connect citizens with government agencies and provide meaningful feedback on what citizens think of public services. I sketched Chilean flags, both on the building and in the citizen’s hand, to show that this is a national project. The 101010101010 combinations represent data. The magnifying glass represents research, and the smiles mean satisfaction. I drew the sun to represent the future, and the Santa hat and gift after she compared her work to nicely-wrapped Christmas presents for the government employees who are working on improving these services.

Soon I’ll write more about the Business Model Canvas and how to use it. Stay tuned.