If Mapping is the solution, what is the problem?
I’ve been wanting to understand what makes Wardley Mapping so incredibly useful to some and so completely inaccessible to others. After a conversation with Chris Donnelly, I offered the following prompt on Twitter:
I share my initial thoughts in the video, but I really wanted to hear from the rest of you. Here are some of the interesting responses…
Business Architecture
I have been using mapping to create a common understanding of business architecture, in order to create a more valuable business.
— Peter Cladingbowl (@cladingbowl) July 22, 2019
Any BusArch folks out there want to affirm/refute Peter’s and my thinking here? I’m really curious to learn more about it.
Common Language
If we focus on the “book”, it’s portrayed as adoption of common language so the problem would be lack of common language ? Ultimately to achieve alignment
— Mario Platt (@madplatt) July 22, 2019
No doubt in my mind that mapping together forces at least some convergence on the words we use. Extremely useful, but underrated.
Focus / Anti-Focus
Where should I focus?
— SomeCallMeKen (@kenhorn) July 22, 2019
Anticipating and Introducing Change
one of the questions is 'What is the current landscape and how it might evolve?'
— Dinis Cruz (@DinisCruz) July 22, 2019
Is it worth the risk and effort to change <element>?
— Chris Donnelly (@distractable) July 22, 2019
1. To start mapping...One small step towards the canvas, a giant leap for the organization.
— Manish Andankar (@andankar_manish) July 22, 2019
2. To understand the value chain that is relevant to the organization.
3. To make the move(s) that makes sense for the future of the organization.
Well.. #1 is the #1 problem!
I think mapping is only an answer to the question "what tool can I use to get insights into the evolution of the market so I can understand the impact of our moves in that market?"
— Cory Foy (@cory_foy) July 21, 2019
If you can anticipate the effects of change at large, you can evaluate whether the changes you introduce on purpose will be beneficial.
Erotetics
If mapping is the proposal, what’s the question?
— Jabe Bloom (@cyetain) July 21, 2019
This is getting meta. Or is it?
Vision
Without a direction and true north, no one knows where they are, or what direction to travel in #lostinIT. C Levels down need to be able to position themselves and set course appropriately. AWS vs Boutique will have a different position on the map.
— Carl Kinson (@ckinson) July 23, 2019
Co-orientation
In the OODA Loop, how do we Orient? And how do we co-orient?
— Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) July 22, 2019
Co-orientation is my new favorite word. How can we orient to the world together? Love it!
Situational Awareness
My understanding is that OODA "loop" *is* the situational awareness. Like H2O molecules are the wetness. Wetness is emergent and meta from H2O, much like situational awareness is emergent and meta from individual OODA steps.
— Tristan Slominski (@tristanls) July 22, 2019
Good-natured discussion is always welcome on topics like this one.
Situational awareness describes what mapping provides really well (I imagine that’s why Simon uses it). How could we describe situational awareness as it applies to business/organization in plain language?
Alignment
BTW, if we think mapping helps w/ alignment, probably we should show maps during alignment (really raw & unclean) more often than the result (clean, hindsight) for didactically purposes?
— 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝘂𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘇𝗮k (@markusandrezak) July 22, 2019
This is such an interesting thought! What does the creation of alignment with mapping look like? Probably lots of discarded, messy maps. Could we share more of those?
Revenge
If mapping is in the top right quadrant, what's in the other 3?
— piether (@piether) July 22, 2019
Someone better call @vgr to make a 2×2 for us! Oh wait, what’s this? Oh no!
Parting Thoughts
As we’ve seen in this post, Wardley Mapping solves many wonderful problems for many wonderful people. But what’s not listed here? And what’s not included in the book?
Back when I made the “100 reasons” thread, I wasn’t thinking as critically as I needed to. I covered old, easy ground, when the value was in the new and difficult.
Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and dig into the problems and assumptions behind contexts where Wardley Mapping is a valid solution. This is something I will continue to pursue, and I look forward to hearing more from everyone in the community.