Gogo asks:
I own a one-person management consulting business. Can you direct me how to use the Wardley Mapping process to game out a strategy to win in my niche?
As I also am a one-person operation, I must first warn you that we are not special! It may feel like we are doing something unique, but in many, many ways we are not.
Actually, that applies to most organizations I consult with, too. The vast majority of the components they use to create value are not that special. Not unique. Not particularly interesting.
Usually, there is a very small set of components that are actually unique or differentiating when compared to what the rest of the market has to offer.
In other words, any given component in your design is unlikely to be truly unique when compared to other designs in the applicable market. Uniqueness is the exception.
So what do you have, as a consultant, that is truly unique?
Your experiences are always a good bet. There are certain things you have seen or done that few others have.
In my case, I’m one of very few people available who make a living teaching others about Wardley Mapping. But I also have personal life experiences that make me who I am and inform how I go about teaching and consulting.
Everything else I have or do in my consulting work is not particularly unique or differentiating from the standpoint of the market. I answer my emails. I am polite. I do what I say I’ll do. I schedule calls, send invoices, and design workshops.
These very basic things are important but not unique. For these components, I have decided to ignore my instinct to differentiate and instead focus on seeking the best way to fulfill them.
The components themselves are not unique, but perhaps there’s quite a bit worth considering around how we compose those components together into a design — a working system that delivers value.
Different designs can produce different outcomes, even if they use the same components. It’s all in the relationships between those components. The design itself can be a source of useful differentiation. But even then, there are often sensible blueprints to follow. You have to become opinionated about when to paint by the numbers and when to go outside their lines.
So that’s a bit of what I start considering in response to the question.
Yes, you want a winning strategy, but to start you need to get yourself right in terms of what’s differentiating, what’s not so differentiating, and then how you compose everything together to create value.
So, with that out of the way…
Practically, I’d make a Wardley Map of the situation surrounding the need for your consulting services. To butcher the advice of my dear friend Jabe Bloom, “Always situate your design in the next biggest situation.”
A chair fits into a dining room situation. What situation does your consulting work fit within? Yes there’s the map of what you do. But zoom out. What map is that map inside of? What’s the bigger situation?
Sometimes it helps to study other players. You can use OSINT (e.g., reading stuff on the internet) to explore what your competitors offer and what their clients need. I’d make maps of competitor and client businesses, using whatever you can find to inform your view of how they think. The goal, again, is to understand the bigger situation of which they (and you) are already a part.
Compare these different maps. What do those players know that you don’t? What do you think is possible that they don’t? What options do you have that they won’t even consider? What options do they have that you can’t pursue?
Wardley’s Doctrine, Climate, and Leadership tables are useful here.
Doctrine for getting yourself right.
Climate for noticing what’s gonna happen with or without you (so you can go with the flow).
And Leadership gameplays for ideas about how you might change the market to create a more favorable situation for yourself (though to be honest it’s not always necessary).
Often, once you’ve studied the situation closely, the options for “winning” become clear and obvious. Yes you’ll have to weigh one thing versus another, but you’ll find that the options are abundant and not even particularly well-hidden. It’s just that by making a Wardley Map, you bothered to look where others didn’t. So, look!
Importantly, you need to decide what “winning” means. In many cases, you can win without someone else losing.
Consider this thread by Mr. Wardley:
I’d invite further conversation on this question. I don’t think I can really answer it completely here today. But the least I can do is offer a few things to think about. Thanks for asking!