Hello, this is Joaquín again.
In November I wrote about What are the concrete uses of Wardley Maps for a CIO?
At the end I asked readers for a favor: answer a poll of 3 questions.
20 of the readers took their time to do it, so thank you!
1.- Main use of Wardley Mapping
I’m not surprised with the fact that the main use is solo-mapping. It takes a lot of time to gain a good level of mapping and it’s also useful when using for it’s “own-business”, so why not?
2.- Do you think about concrete uses of Wardley Mapping in specific contexts? as in the context of the CIO for instance.
Here I love the 15% answering “maybe”
3.- What is the major challenge you find when using Wardley Maps?
This was an opened question with 20 different answers. Some of them deserves some comments.
- I will add the answer highlighted and some comments.
- There are 20, so I will add them in the same order of appearance.
- The repeated ones will be consolidated, for instance: “(3 times)”
1.- Finding people to map with
I understand the issue. It’s difficult to find people that have interest on mapping, with similar level and on the same context.
2.-Imposter syndrome
3.- find the edges to concepts/things. Then finding out that other people see the edges in a different way. But this is also a strength as it allows people to tell stories or gain understanding.
This hard work goes in the benefit of common understanding and it’s one of the most valuable things you can obtain when discussing around a map.
Is easy? no, but it’s worthy.
4.- Engaging other who are not familiar or experienced in ‘doing’ mapping
Yep, this is an issue, you are an early adopter and this means you are probably the only mapper in your circle. And this takes personal time to show how the maps work.
Sharing knowledge is always much appreciated by others and it’s a great way to learn how people read maps.
5.- Try to not use the label. be simple
That’s the “tabú game”, very useful to play that game. People will not know where this come from and they will be focused on the business topic you are discussing.
6.- Cognitive overhead
7.- Buy in from others
If you refer to buy in of Wardley Maps, then my comment is: the best way to obtain buy in from others about Wardley maps is to be success. When you are successful, people will start to ask themselves why you are successful, sooner or later they will find you work using Wardley Maps and they will gain real interest for the maps.
Do not spend time selling the maps, it’s not worthy.
8.- Everybody seems to think Wardley maps are cool, but don’t seem to know what to do with them. As you say – how to apply them to concrete use cases.
This is mainly due to the fact that Wardley Mapping is an emergent practice and we all have to find ways to use it and find it ways. There’s still not enough amount of identified use cases to enable new mappers to show how others do.
The fact that every context is different makes things harder, so individual tips or uses fits better for the majority.
9.- Getting folks to agree that the work required to do it well is worthwhile.
That’s part of the conversation, and get agreement is not easy work.
10.- Onboarding new people to share the chain of thought of why I’m thinking of X decision over Y decision
Yes, this part is tough, but imagine not having the visual support of a map 🙂
11.- Following the value chain to a tangible point that can be communicated to others as part of a strategy.
I differentiate between:
- working-maps: maps build to work on them.
- communication-maps: maps build to communicate to people that are not present in the working conversation
To turn a working-map into a communications-map take a lot of time and it’s worthy to show first to a couple of people to understand how they read the message you want to give.
Some tips about the communications-map:
- have no more than 10 components.
- have clear messages around the map: add story-telling, you are using the tool as communications tool. Build a story around the map.
- Add definitions and text references of the concepts when required
- Ask for feedback before to show to an extended audience.
12.- I can see the practical benefit using Wardley Maps has on strategy, prioritization, building and investing in systems. But I don’t hold a position of influence to advance it’s use. In cases where I have had an opportunity to use it, other folks have not been receptive to thinking strategically, only saying that they do.
You are not in a position of influence today, but you are nurturing a skill that with the rest of your background and other abilities will drive you towards other places.
There are some skills that are universal (communications, finance, strategy…).
I understand the difficulty, but I guess you are doing a long-term investment, and sooner or later it will payback.
13.- finding a tool that is easy to use and approved by my employer
In my case, I use MS-PowerPoint (typically accepted in many companies) or you can use diagrams.net (you can store in private space and it’s a standard which works with a web navigator).
This site has also a tools page: https://learnwardleymapping.com/tools/
14.- I am still learning Wardley Maps. Other challenges include trying to change how planning is done in my organization.
I have been there, just take into account that you are fighting with “the way the things are done here”, which is very close to the culture of an organization. To change these type of things is really tough.
I would take a different approach. There are 2 types of strategies:
- Deliberate strategy: planned and formal one.
- Emergent strategy: decisions that merge from unexpected situations that are not gathered in the formal strategy.
My approach it would be to combine the best of the 2 worlds, complement the formal planning with the use of Wardley Mapping. Do not fight with the stablished status-quo, but complement and make it more competent and valuable with the support of your industry/company knowledge and the use of Wardley Maps.
15.- Finding time to use and colleagues to appreciate the effort when it is not yet a SWOT analysis level of ubiquity!
As commented before, the best way to get attention from others about Wardley Maps is to be successful using it.
16.- Learning enough about it to be able to communicate it’s value to team members and stakeholders alike.
That shows where in your learning process you are. My approach is simple but difficult: practice, practice, practice.
17.- Regular people don’t understand or care about them. There seems to be a certain type of person who gets it, but these are the vast minority of people that I’m aware of. The storytelling approach is such a powerful force to overcome. I work in an industry that relies on both the storytelling plus data approach which is becoming even more of a powerful force. Perhaps WM needs to invest in branding and marketing? See, how it’s easy to drop back to the gut feel and story approach! 🙂 Even business leaders who have the capability to understand them don’t seem to be attracted to the concept. How do we convince others? There is enough material in the public domain now, organic growth has stalled, investment in the right areas is now needed.
What I see is the following situation. You are an early adopter that see the potential value of Wardley Mapping, and you are surrounded of early majority and late majority people.
These different attitudes define how each people buy-in something.
- Early adopters: have curiosity, expose themselves to the new…
- Early majority: require evidences that the thing works, make decisions on proven facts.
- Late majority: follow the trend.
Right now Wardley Mapping is an emergent practice, it’s accepted by early adopters, and the people in this business we are trying to cross the chasm towards next stage.
The fact that you are trying it, makes you part of the group of people crossing the chasm with Wardley Mapping. Just be aware of that situation and expose yourself with awareness.
So again, the best way to get attention from others about Wardley Maps is to be successful using it.
18.- Disproportionate amount of thinking needed to understand where something belongs on the map.
19.- Just doing it!
20.- building digital products to augment physical products
This is a tough use, good luck!
Takeaways
Thanks again to those who invested some time to answer, too much appreciated.
Continue practicing, continue sharing maps wherever you can, and remember there’s more than the map (climatic patterns, doctrines…), cultivating strategic thinking is not a waste of time.
