Design criteria canvas
Benchmark your ideas. Every time. Form the principles and benchmarks of the change you are after, drawing on your business, vision, customer research, and context.
What it is
The Design Criteria Canvas captures the principles and benchmarks of the change you are after, distilled from your vision, your customer research, your context and your business. It states what any solution must do, should do, could do and will not do, before you start generating options.
What you use it for
Use it to judge ideas the same way every time. Most teams evaluate options by volume and enthusiasm; design criteria replace that with an agreed benchmark. They keep a hundred ideas honest, stop the loudest voice from winning, and make it explicit when the goalposts move, because changing a criterion is now a visible decision instead of a quiet drift.
How to work with it
Write the criteria as a team, straight after your discovery work while the insights are fresh. Keep the must list short and non-negotiable, and be brave with the won't list: what you refuse to do defines the design as much as what you require. Then score every idea, prototype and pivot against the same sheet. Every time, as we like to say.
Free to download, print and use. Helping people help themselves starts with the tools to do it.
Want this canvasworking for you?
Explore the possibilities with Patrick van der Pijl and the BMI team. Every big shift starts with a conversation.