Scoping Canvas
The Scoping Canvas is a one-page template from Board of Innovation with eight boxes that a team fills in at the start of an innovation project to agree what the project is about. Seven boxes cover the reasons for the challenge, the customer segment, the current situation, assumptions, open questions, the goal and related initiatives; the first box holds a challenge statement in How Might We form, which the team writes last. The session ends with one agreed challenge that frames the problem without prescribing a solution.
Facilitation script
- 1
Introduce the canvas and the eight boxes. Explain that box 1, the challenge statement, comes last.
5 min - 2
Individual work. Everyone writes notes for all eight boxes in silence.
15 min - 3
Walk through boxes 2 to 4: why this challenge, customer segment, current situation. Post, merge, discuss differences. A little over 9 minutes per box, 10 at most.
28 min - 4
Walk through boxes 5 to 8: assumptions, questions, goal and success, related initiatives and resources. Same procedure, same pace per box.
37 min - 5
Return to the parked items and settle what can be settled. Mark the rest as open questions.
10 min - 6
Each person writes a How Might We challenge statement for box 1.
10 min - 7
Compare the statements, combine the strongest elements and agree one final version. Write it into box 1 and photograph the canvas.
15 min
Tips
The order matters: discussing boxes 2 to 8 before the challenge statement stops the group from fixing on wording before it has shared what it knows.
Use a visible timer for the 10 minutes per box and park anything that needs longer for the open-items slot.
Bring the project sponsor into the session or at least into the last 25 minutes, because a challenge statement the sponsor has not agreed will be reopened later.
Common pitfalls
Starting with the challenge statement, so the group argues about wording before it has compared what each person knows
Skipping the individual round and filling the canvas in open discussion, which lets the most senior voice define scope and hides the differences the tool is meant to expose
Writing a solution into the challenge statement, which closes off the options the project is supposed to explore
Letting one box, usually customer segment, take half an hour, so assumptions and questions get rushed at the end
Agreeing the canvas without the sponsor, who then changes the scope in the first steering meeting
Variations
For a short version of about 100 minutes, cap each box at 8 minutes and merge the open-items discussion into the final round. Remote teams can rebuild the eight boxes on a shared whiteboard and do the individual filling as pre-work. If the team is larger than eight, split into two groups for the individual and box-by-box steps and bring both groups together to write the challenge statement. After the session, show the canvas to colleagues or customers outside the team and revise it with their feedback.
Where it fits
When to use it
An innovation or discovery project is starting and team members were briefed separately
The brief names a solution, such as build an app, and the team needs to get back to the problem behind it
Sponsor and team seem to have different pictures of the target customer or of what success means
You want assumptions and open questions on the table before planning research
A project has drifted and needs to be re-scoped with the people now involved
When not to use it
The project is a delivery project with fixed requirements, budget and deadline; a 1-Page Project Charter covers scope, constraints and sign-off better
Only one person knows the context; the canvas depends on comparing individual views, so brief the team or gather information first
The team already has an agreed challenge and needs to start generating ideas; go straight to ideation
You have less than 90 minutes; run a How Might We session on its own and schedule the full scoping later
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Scoping Canvas?▾
The Scoping Canvas is a one-page template from Board of Innovation for defining an innovation project at its start. A team fills in eight boxes about the challenge, its customers, the current situation, assumptions, questions, goals and related work. The result is a shared challenge statement and a common view of what is known and unknown.
What are the eight boxes of the Scoping Canvas?▾
Box 1 is the challenge, phrased as a How Might We question. Boxes 2 to 8 are: why this challenge, customer segment, current situation, assumptions, questions, goal and success, and related initiatives and resources.
How long does a Scoping Canvas session take?▾
The timings Board of Innovation gives add up to 120 minutes: 15 for individual filling, 70 for discussing boxes 2 to 8, 10 for open items, 10 for individual challenge statements and 15 for agreeing the final one. A disciplined team can finish in about 100 minutes.
Why is the challenge statement written last?▾
The statement should reflect what the team has learned from comparing its views on customers, context, assumptions and goals. Written first, it tends to repeat the original brief or one person's opinion. Written last, it summarises the discussion.
How does the Scoping Canvas differ from a project charter?▾
A project charter fixes objectives, scope, constraints, stakeholders and timeline for a project whose outcome is largely known. The Scoping Canvas is for projects geared towards discovery: it frames a problem, lists assumptions and questions, and deliberately leaves the solution open.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Board of Innovation.