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How can I introduce #WardleyMapping to my team?
This is my recipe, based on dozens of #wardleymapping workshops and introductory sessions, and there is only one point:
1. Don't.
Wardley Mapping is a big, scary beast that takes ages to learn, and I sincerely believe that you can understand its benefits after putting some initial work in.
If you don't believe me, do a small test: with your coworkers, discuss the importance of situation awareness and how to improve it.
This is what you will get:
This is a chicken & egg problem: you have to have enough situational awareness to understand why situational awareness is important. And while professional salespeople can take teams through the entire need discovery process, we, the mere mortals, have to rely on means which are more suitable to our context.
But... I know Wardley Mapping and I want my team to benefit from it, too. What should I do?
Don't worry, there is a solution.
Limit the scope.
Start with a bit of knowledge that is actually handy, and for me, it is the Evolution concept.
It takes 5 minutes and one slide to explain it.
The next step is equally important - you need to make your team use that knowledge if practice, so I recommend throwing in a provocative question, like this one:
Where, on the Evolution axis, our services are? And where do our customers expect them to be?
Typically, you get a diagram like this:
At this point, start a discussion about sources of misalignment and its impact on the team.
Do not forget to mention what enabled the discussion, and that there is more good things to learn.
That's it. Mission accomplished. Congrats!
You have sparked their curiosity and they should be hungry to learn more.
I am going to write at least two more parts covering the actual discussion with the team in greater detail. Hit the subscribe button if you do not want to miss that.