Quickstart
Build your first canvas in about 10 minutes — a small metric map with real numbers.
This quickstart builds a small metric map for a subscription business and puts one real number on it. You'll end with a canvas you can grow into your own model. It takes about 10 minutes.
You'll need
A Canvasm account. Sign in at use.canvasm.app. No data connection is required for this quickstart — you'll type one value by hand.
The example
We'll model a simple question: what drives monthly recurring revenue (MRR)?
MRR (outcome)
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New Expansion Churn (drivers)1. Create a canvas
In the app, create a new canvas (a canvas is one metric map). Give it a name like "MRR model". You'll land on an infinite canvas where each box is a card.
A card is a node on the canvas. Cards have a category — the ones you'll use here are Core/Value (an outcome you care about) and Data/Metric (a measurable input).
2. Add the outcome
Add a Core/Value card and name it MRR. This is the number the map is about.
3. Add the drivers
Add three Data/Metric cards: New MRR, Expansion MRR, and Churned MRR. These are the inputs that move the outcome.
4. Connect them
Draw a relationship from each driver to MRR. When you create a link you choose its type — for now use Causal (the driver is understood to cause a change in the outcome). The four relationship types are covered in Concepts → Canvases.
Your canvas now reads: New, Expansion, and Churn drive MRR.
5. Put a number on it
Click the MRR card and add a value for last month — say 124000 for the period
2026-06. The card now shows a data point. Later you can connect a data source or
push values from your own pipeline so this updates automatically
(see Reference → API and
Reference → Connectors).
What you built
You now have a canvas with an outcome, three drivers, typed relationships, and a real value — the smallest complete metric map. Everything else in Canvasm builds on these pieces.