Mind Mapping to Prepare for the Participatory Business Model Canvas

Overview

This is an open and exploratory activity to support your thinking before filling in the more structured Participatory Business Model Canvas. This mind map invites you to brainstorm freely, co-create ideas with your team or community, and surface relationships between concepts that might otherwise be missed.

Use this activity to draw connections, identify tensions, and allow ideas to evolve organically. It’s not about getting it “right” but about starting from a place of reflection, care, and creativity.

Use a large sheet of paper or a digital whiteboard (e.g., Miro, Figma, Excalidraw) and feel free to work collaboratively.

Implementation

• Write the project or idea name at the centre. This anchors your map—everything else branches from here.

• Create Branches Based on the Canvas Areas- these categories reflect the fields in the Participatory Business Model Canvas. You can rearrange, combine, or rename them if needed. Use each as a prompt to explore freely.

• Make time for the last 15 minutes of the session to share back with each other about observations, answer questions about each other's contributions, and what aspects are a priority and should be kept for the canvas and what could be good to keep in mind.

See below for some ideas!