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Business Model ZEN includes a feedback system if your business model has some weak points and needs more reviews. This is very powerful because it stimulates the as-is business model to be escalated to more evolved status. It can be done within the business model zen canvas and you can see the resulting signals (blue, green, red) of the as-is business model. Business coaches and trainers as well as business owners can have benefit from this structured process.

Before diagnosing your model, you are recommended to design the preliminary business model with ZEN canvas. Diagnose each block one by one following the number.

• Blue zone: upper-right corner
• Red zone: lower-left corner
• Green zone: other corners (upper-left or lower-right)

If your business falls in the red zone while assessing, it is an important signal to review and redesign your business model again. (blue is OK, green needs some review)

For example, you have to consider the question “How big is the sum of the problem?” when you diagnose the ‘Problem’ area. The X-axis is the number of customers. Y-axis is the importance of customer problems (payment inclination). The reference point should be adjusted according to target business size, reference industry, and business domain. If you are a big company like GE, then the reference point of the X-axis can be 10 million customers. If you are a startup, then the reference point of the X-axis can be 0.1 million customers.
If you fall into a green zone that requires review, there are questions to hint which direction you should consider. All the diagnosis processes can be played by group discussion or in-depth analysis with many detailed metrics and checklist with excel sheet. You can use both methods. One for a group workshop. The other for in-depth analysis of business plan after preliminary business modeling finished.

Mirroring current business model 

You can mirror each choice of designing the business model following steps.

1. Customer: Are the mission and the actual customer and values in line with it?
   • ​X-axis: Consistency of mission and customer value
   • Y-axis: Consistency of mission and target customer
2. Problem: Is the sum of customer problems large enough?
   • ​X-axis: number of customers
   • Y-axis: The importance of the customer (per capita) issue
3.  Solution: How different is the solution?
   • ​X-axis: Degree of market competition based on the customer problem
   • Y-axis: Differentiation level of the solution
4. Empathy: Is the level of customer empathy sufficient?
   • X-axis: Empathy for customer problems
   • ​Y-axis: Empathy for customer solutions
5. Cooperator: Is there a high probability of cooperation?
   • ​X-axis: ease of cooperation
   • Y-axis: Collaborator Independent BM Possibility
6. Profit Model (Revenue/Cost): Is the early return on investment possible?
   • ​X-axis: Initial investment cost
   • Y-axis: time of payback