Getting Started - Creating a Lean-Case Project
We are happy that you are setting up a new Lean-Case project.
If you are new to Lean-Case, we advise you to benefit from our Product Training which combines the Lean-Case Methodology and a comprehensive Product Tour.
First things first, at any time in Lean-Case - you can re-play our Getting Started videos when you click the video icon in the upper right corner of this Menu Bar.
A 2-min example: How to create a back-of-the-envelop business plan
Let's start with a quick example to show you what you can do with Lean-Case and create a back-of-the-envelop business plan for a SaaS Business in 2-min. Let's assume that the business
You can follow the the video below to get guidance or use the step-by-step instructions below.
These are the 3 steps you have to take to create this business plan in the Lean-Case Revenue Menu. For the sake of time, we switch off the Beginner Mode.
Getting Started Example - Step-by-Step
We just created a simple - what we call - Customer Lifecycle Model. Think about it. How long would it take you to create in Excel what we just calculated in 2-min in Lean-Case?
If you like what you saw, stay on. We will give you a quick overview about Lean-Case so that you know your way around and understand the tips & tricks when
Setting up your Lean-Case project
How should you get started? Onboarding a Lean-Case project is really the hardest part. Before you create a Lean-Case Project, you should have an idea how your customer lifecycle model looks like. To get some ideas, best is to check out
The Blueprints are available within Lean-Case. You can select them when you set up a new project.
You can access the Product Training, the Blueprint Tutorials and our Help Center via the Help Icon in the upper left corner.
As already said, if you are doing your first Lean-Case project, best is to check the Product Training which provides the most detailed introduction. The Product Training will teach you five things at the same time
The training will show you step-by-step how to answer the key business questions which decision makers ask:
Browsing the Lean-Case menus
Let’s take a look at the Dashboard, Planning and Tracking menus in Lean-Case. You find
Dashboard Menu - Check results
In the Dashboard Menu, users can review a Lean-Case project. They find all combined results answering the key business questions on revenues, unit economics, profitability and cash-flow requirements.
If you share your project with another user, e.g. you invite a potential Investor as a Viewer to your project, she will directly be sent to the Dashboard Menu when opening the project. This allows her to immediately review the results. However, you - as the Project Owner - when opening the project - will first land on the Revenue Menu to continue working on your plan.
Revenue Menu - Model the Customer Lifecycle
All 4 Planning Menus work very similar to capture and review the assumptions of your business plan. However, it is most relevant to understand the Revenue Menu well to model a meaningful plan.
In the Revenue Menu you capture revenue assumptions and all the assumptions regarding revenue related cost. You set up your customer lifecycle model by creating revenue streams and connecting the revenue streams with conversion rules.
Revenue streams combine
Beginner Mode - Get guidance
Once you create a new Lean-Case project, Beginner Mode is activated by default. We recommend that you use Beginner Mode until you have become familiar with Lean-Case projects.
Beginner Mode guides you through a list of questions to set up a new revenue stream or cost item. You can deactivate/activate Beginner Mode at any time using the switch in the Top Menu Bar.
Answering the questions in Beginner Mode will create Lean-Case models - pre-filled with your data. These are the same models which you create and edit when Beginner Mode is deactivated.
How to plan, check, edit and view
Each of the Planning menus have sub-menus which provide different views to plan, check, edit and view your plan.
In the sub-menu Plan, you can plan your assumptions and look at high level results, you can browse through the data, and look at it by month, quarter and year. You also have 2 different ways how to look at the assumptions
In the sub-menu Check, you can check all calculations in detail, browse through the data, filter it along revenue streams and metric categories and export it.
In the Revenues Menu, you also find the sub-menu Key Metrics. It is exactly the same as the sub-menu Key Metrics in the Dashboard Menu. We duplicated it to make it easier for you when planning your case. If you build up a new model, we strongly advise to keep assumptions simple as long as possible and use this sub-menu to check expected results. If your model grows, it becomes difficult to understand the impact of all your assumptions at the same time.
Lean-Board Menu - Track performance
While the Planning Menus in Lean-Case enable you to build a business plan with forward-looking projections, the Tracking Menu Lean-Board allows you to measure these projections against the actual performance and set, manage and track your business objectives - even by connecting to 3rd party systems.
Lean-Board strategically combines 2 components
Using context-sensitive help
Across Lean-Case, you find context specific help.
By default, you find the Getting Started Box on the top of the screen in each menu. It provides
You can hide the Getting Started Box – and at any time, you can show it again by going to our help menu and select the option Show Getting Started
In Lean-Case Models, we provide Tooltip information for most fields. If you mouse-over those fields, Lean-Case shows a short explanation.
In addition, you also find 3 different Help Icons across Lean-Case models:
Project Menu - Save Scenarios, Export, Share, Pitch
The Project Menu in the upper right corner enables you to trigger project specific actions, in particular
Save and switch scenarios
Lean-Case allows you to save different scenarios of your project (e.g. Worst Case, Best Case, ..). The name of the scenario which is currently loaded appears in the upper right corner of the top bar menu.
Export data and models
Via the Project Menu, you can also trigger exports
In addition, you can export the data of any of the Lean-Case Charts via the context menu of the chart in its upper right corner.
Share your project
As the Owner of a Lean-Case project, you can share your Lean-Case Project at any point in time via the Project Menu.
For security reasons, the Project Owner has some special rights. At any point in time, he is the only one who can
Please be careful when transferring Owner rights. Then the project will no longer be accessible for you.
Edit your project pitch
The Project Menu in the upper right corner enables you to trigger project specific actions, in particular
When simply getting stuck
The last thing – when you get stuck – we are here to help. We can answer questions via hello@lean-case.com or you can schedule a web call with us at www.lean-case.com/talk. Besides answering your questions, we can guide you building, validating and tuning your case in workshops.
Thank you. Have fun