Looking for a strategy framework template? Here's a free one — a one-page canvas that helps you define a new product or new business as a testable strategy hypothesis, not a static plan you write once and file away. It lays out the six dimensions that make up a strategy, the assumptions each one rests on, and a quick way to spot which assumptions to test first. Download it below in PDF or editable PowerPoint, fill it in, and — when one page stops being enough — see what picks up where a template leaves off.
The Strategy Hypothesis Canvas is two pages: a one-page guide that explains each part with a worked example, and a one-page blank canvas you fill in for your own strategy. It's free, with no sign-up wall, in two formats — a print-ready PDF and an editable PowerPoint you can type straight into. It's built on BRI Associates' decades of practitioner experience in corporate innovation and new business development, and draws on the work of Hambrick, Christensen, Moore, Tushman, Osterwalder, and others.
The canvas organizes a strategy into the six dimensions that together capture the consequential choices and assumptions a strategy contains. Under each, it treats every box as an assumption until it's proven — sorted into the choices you control, the assertions you're making about customers and competitors, and the uncertainties you can only state as ranges. A simple Impact × Evidence ranking surfaces your critical assumptions — the few that are high-impact and low-evidence, worth testing first — and a quick desirability / feasibility / viability gut-check keeps you honest about whether the idea is wanted, buildable, and worth it. The six dimensions:
Tools like SWOT, the Business Model Canvas, and Lean Canvas are useful for describing a business, and this canvas sits in the same family. Two things set it apart. First, it covers more of what actually decides whether a new business works — including Staging, how the strategy changes as evidence comes in, which the others don't really address. Second, it's built for evaluation, not just definition: every element carries an explicit expectation of evidence, so the canvas is something you pressure-test and sharpen over time rather than a one-time snapshot. If you already use the Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas, you can translate your existing work straight onto this one and add that extra rigor.
A canvas is a snapshot. A strategy is a moving target. The moment you start changing assumptions, modeling the financials, comparing one bet against another, or running this across more than one project, a static one-pager — or the fragmented patchwork of PowerPoint templates and Excel models most teams graduate to — starts working against you. Growth Forge® Software is the same six dimensions turned into a living model: assumptions tracked as ranges and pressure-tested, evaluation criteria tuned to each stage, financials modeled under uncertainty, and a whole portfolio of strategies managed together.
And you don't have to wait until the page fails you: Growth Forge starts at low fidelity — an entry point about as quick to fill in as the canvas itself — and turns the same inputs into real analysis and an actionable plan, adding depth as the strategy, and the portfolio of them, grows.
The canvas is for anyone shaping a new product or new business who wants more structure than a blank doc: founders and intrapreneurs pressure-testing an idea before committing real money, product and strategy leads framing a new bet, and teams who want one shared page to talk about a strategy and the assumptions under it. Download it, fill it in, and pressure-test your thinking — then, when you're ready for the living version, take a look at Growth Forge.
Grab the canvas above, work a real opportunity through all six dimensions, and rank your assumptions to find the one or two worth testing this week. If you'd rather work it as an interactive, AI-assisted model — with the financials and the evidence tracked as you go, and a whole portfolio in one place — request a Growth Forge walkthrough.
Yes — it's a free download, with no sign-up wall, in both a print-ready PDF and an editable PowerPoint. Use it, share it, and adapt it for your own strategy work.
It's a one-page strategy framework template for defining a new product or new business as a testable strategy hypothesis — a set of explicit choices and assumptions you can pressure-test, rather than a static plan. It covers six dimensions of a strategy, sorts the assumptions underneath into choices, assertions, and uncertainties, and helps you rank which assumptions to test first.
It's in the same family but covers more of what determines whether a new business works — including Staging, how the strategy evolves as evidence comes in — and it's built for evaluation, not just definition: every element carries an explicit expectation of evidence. If you already use the Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas, you can translate your work straight onto it.
No — the canvas works on its own; print it or fill in the PowerPoint. That said, you don't need a reason to wait: Growth Forge's low-fidelity starting point takes about the same effort as the canvas, and from those same inputs it gives you modeled financials, tracked assumptions, an actionable plan, and a strategy you can share and evaluate across a team. The canvas is the fastest way to frame an idea on paper; Growth Forge is the fastest way to put it to work.
BRI Associates — a boutique consulting and software firm built on decades of practitioner experience in corporate innovation and new business development, drawing on the work of Hambrick, Christensen, Moore, Tushman, Osterwalder, and others.
Honestly, as soon as you want more than a static snapshot — which can be right away. Growth Forge's low-fidelity starting point takes about as much effort to fill in as the canvas itself, but it turns those same inputs into real analysis and an actionable plan, then adds depth as your thinking sharpens. So the canvas isn't a stepping stone you outgrow before software makes sense — it's the one-page view, and Growth Forge is the same thinking made to work for you from the start.
