HoPE Canvas is a tool to express on a sheet of paper how to translate your purpose into a tangible project.

HoPE Canvas: A Tool to Express our Purpose

Claudio Dipolitto
6 min readSep 2, 2020

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If it has always been important to base our initiatives on a good purpose, today this is urgent. If human society was already experiencing the so-called digital transformation, today it has been accelerated by the pandemic and social isolation. If innovation has long been a success factor for business, today it is a requirement for experimenting with new models for creating and sharing value.

“… when you have reached the hill top and you are deciding on next jobs, next steps, careers, further education, you would rather find purpose than a job or career. Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember, the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.” Chadwick Boseman speech at Howard University.

My Purpose

The HoPE Canvas is intended to help entrepreneurs and mentors to draft the essence of a purpose-driven project or business. The title HoPE, an abbreviation of House of Purpose Expression, was chosen to reflect the hope one has when designing something to make a better world. The idea of a house arose because the shape of the diagram resembles the houses that children draw (Figure 1).

Figure 1 — HoPE Canvas — House of Purpose Expression

The Components of HoPE Canvas

The Purpose: Keep the Head in the Clouds

The roof of the house is based on Ikigai, used by the inhabitants of the island of Okinawa, in Japan, to express the reason why it is worth jumping out of bed in the morning. We start by developing empathy with “WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS” and then brainstorming how can we address that need employing “WHAT WE LOVE” and “WHAT WE CAN DO”(Figure 2). Later we will think about “WHAT CAN SUSTAIN OUR PURPOSE” of our project, inspired by the fourth element of Ikigai (Figure 3).

Figure 2 — Roof of the HoPE Canvas, based on Ikigai.

The questions in the 3rd person (WE) highlight the collaborative nature of HoPE Canvas.

The Project: Keep the Feet on the Ground

The body of the house is based on the Business Model Canvas, created by Osterwalder and Pigneur, and widely adopted to represent the business model of startups (Figure 3).

Figure 3 — Bottom of the HoPE Canvas, based on Osterwalder and Pigneur Business Model Canvas.

We changed the names of some Business Model Canvas blocks a little to make it clear that the project or business being designed aims to create value for all actors involved or affected by its existence. Thus, BENEFICIARIES can include customers and users of a service or product, citizens who receive the benefits (or problems) of the project, as well as other participating institutions.

Likewise, SHARED GAINS encompass both the revenues of a business and the gains, qualitative or quantitative, generated for the community, the environment, and the world as a whole. In the same mood, HoPE Canvas should be used to involve all STAKEHOLDERS in creating a SHARED VALUE PROPOSITION, including investors and sponsors aligned to the purpose at hand.

The Challenge: Make the Dream Come True

The connection between the roof and the body of the house help us translating a BROAD OR AMBITIOUS PURPOSE into a FOCUSED AND ATTAINABLE PROJECT (Figure 4).

Figure 4 — The connection between the purpose and a project that can express it.

The Genesis of HoPE Canvas

The advantages of using a visual model over a textual description are multiple. A diagram or table can (1) capture and synthesize the essential elements of our thoughts and speeches; (2) help participants to create a common language and be on the same page; (3) can represent something that already exists - the AS IS - or that is still being imagined - the TO BE; and (4) the various versions of the visual model makes it easier to see how the model has evolved over time and compare the decisions and choices made at each step.

Since 2017, I’ve been using Ikigai when teaching and mentoring entrepreneurs to design a purpose-driven business. I started applying the Ikigai model combined with the Business Model Canvas in the Mindful Business workshop, created to help holistic therapists to rethink their business models. This process is described in the article “13 Questions to Design a Holistic Business: Creating a ‘Business for Good’”. Since then, my intention has been to help people overcome inertia and that is why I ask both kidding and seriously: “Are you living by accident or … ‘on purpose’?

A similar approach was applied in my Inovemus workshop, aimed at business mentors and entrepreneurs creating a purpose-driven business model. And it was during a class at Inovemos, that I tested a previous version of HoPE Canvas and realized that participants found it useful both for analyzing the case study and for designing a new business model.

Using the HoPE Canvas

Although there is no “right sequence” for using HoPE Canvas when creating a purpose-driven project or business, we can follow the script illustrated in figure 5 to explore and evaluate the various possibilities envisioned during the design process.

Figure 5 — A possible sequence when developing a HoPE Canvas

Inspiration and “the Purpose”

When we are touched by something the WORLD NEEDS and WE LOVE, then we can pay attention to WHO IN THE WORLD NEEDS IT and evaluate WHAT WE CAN DO about it. Thus we discovered a PURPOSE that is worth accomplishing.

Conspiration and “the Project”

However, to make it a reality we need to choose how to translate this BROAD or AMBITIOUS PURPOSE into a FOCUSED and ATTAINABLE PROJECT. At this point, we can analyze the NEEDS AND EXPECTED GAINS vis-à-vis the OPPORTUNITIES AND EXPECTED CHALLENGES. Here, it is essential to develop empathy and closeness with potential BENEFICIARIES and prospect potential STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS, who can fund or support the means to bring the project or business to life.

Transpiration and “the Blueprint”

Finally, it is time to devise a COLLECTIVE VALUE PROPOSITION, which meets the needs of the beneficiaries and generates the expected gains for them; decide what ACTIVITIES and RESOURCES are needed to produce the proposed value; and choose the appropriate means of RELATIONSHIP and the better CHANNELS for delivering the proposed collective value to the key beneficiaries, the other stakeholders and partners, the community, the environment and the world as a whole.

Throughout the process, we must weigh the SHARED GAINS — qualitative and quantitative — generated vis-à-vis the SHARED COSTS and efforts demanded by the project, to ensure that we take into account WHAT CAN SUSTAIN OUR PURPOSE, in the long run.

Hopes and Next Steps

We heartfully hope that the HoPE Canvas can be useful for those that are designing purpose-driven projects and business, like the ones in line with Zebras Unite movement, Shared-Value initiatives, Yunus social business, B-Corps, and the many forms being explored para create value that improves the living of all forms of life in this only planet Earth we have.

As a way to turn this hope into reality, we are looking for partnerships to apply HoPE Canvas in pilot projects, aiming to evaluate possible improvements, as well as its integration with other tools and frameworks aimed at the design of purpose-driven projects and business.

Let’s do it together.

Every day the sun rises again, opening up a new possibility for us to make the world a better place. ⠀
The photo was taken by the author in 2020.08.24, in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Claudio Dipolitto
Claudio Dipolitto

Written by Claudio Dipolitto

As a purpose-driven mentor I mix mindfulness and startup methods to help people create their purpose-based projects or creative journeys. #myMindfulBusiness