Plenty of people consider talking about their image to be against moral rules. They believe it is a domain of sociopaths or show business, and there is little merit in thinking about your boss image. More than that, some people believe that wanting to make your boss 'look good' is a sign of servility and that it stops progress towards a better society. Yet, at the same time, they complain their boss (or, in general, the company) is not behaving rationally and is not doing wha

One of the first observations I made when I started my adventure with #wardleymapping was that maps were not appealing to everybody they should be. Most notably, successful executives were curious to hear about maps but reluctant to use them. It was not that surprising, anyway. If you happen to be successful, why should you even consider learning a new strategy framework if what you do is sufficient enough? That lead me to develop my first hypothesis about who could be potent

As I have written before, I found myself using Wardley Mapping increasingly to help with the sales process. It took me a while to even recognise that maps in sales are very different from regular mapping activities. I have even attempted to share my secrets. The interest I observed inspired me to run an exploratory session last week. I had no plan for the meeting. Sales based on Wardley Mapping is an emergent practice, and we were trying to identify and verbalise key steps an

People use #WardleyMapping in two different ways - to orient around a particular challenge or to tell a story. Orienting is messy. It requires collaboration and frequent map updates when collaborators identify new observations, hypotheses and patterns. Shared situational awareness is the output of this process, and we get a map as a byproduct. It can look like in the Figure 1 below - very messy and completely unreadable. It is the process of mapping that matters, not the map

"Not possible" should never be verbalised by a #wardleymapping consultant. It makes people defensive and shuts down communication. Instead of using it, ask a question: "What needs to happen for this to succeed?" Then work hard to identify knowledge gaps. Let customers decide how much they want to risk in the light of all the unknowns. #communication

My workshops are most difficult when the group thinks they are one step away from a golden solution. If they were so close, they would not need #wardleymapping. The reality often is that something beyond their control sets the scene and limits their options. And the stronger is the refusal to look into this external space, the bigger the disappointment usually is. Build a discipline to face the external world before you try to change it. #situationalawareness #leadership

I was asked to prepare an engagement narrative for a particular customer (X) who wanted to engage its supercustomer A. The challenge was that the supercustomer A did not seem to be interested in services delivered by X. Representatives of A picked up the phones, were polite, provided a lot of positive feedback, but orders were not flowing. This is not new work for me. I think that, by now, the provocative function of #wardleymapping is widely recognised. When people see a ma

In the interview, Steve shares his approach to implementing #wardleymapping doctrine @ Glasswall. Doctrine is the set of best practices for any company to use, and it seems to be an excellent way to start your adventure with maps. Just look at the Figure 1 below - chances are you will not disagree with a single principle laid out there, they seem to be obvious yet many organisations do not adopt them to the level they should. If you would like to help your organisations adapt

The interview is at the end. The text below covers personal tones Rachel hit and which deeply resonated with me. Initially, I noted them only for me, but then decided it would not be ok to share those, so here they are: #WardleyMapping can be helpful in understanding how your emotions get in the way of your decision making process. When you do a map, with all the associated conversations and dialogues, you will inevitably expose your assumptions and reveal what is really driv

Very often, people ask me what are Wardley Maps useful for. That is always a very difficult question to me, because when I answer it with they are communication and analysis framework. people loose interest. So I chose a goal - to make mapping more relatable through showing how community members are using it. Please meet Andra Sonea, Head of Solutions Architecture at FintechOS and PHD Researched at the University of Warwick, who genereously agreed to talk about how she uses #

Today, I had an excellent discussion about the weaknesses of Wardley Mapping and illusions it may be selling to its adepts. The most significant accusation I have heard is that mapping does not take into the account complexity, and therefore it is unsuitable for building strategies in a highly unpredictable environment. And I have to admit - such accusation is not without merit. I am guilty of thinking that mapping is a crystal ball. When I started my adventure with mapping,