It’s been 9 years since I started to learn Wardley Mapping.
If you’ve followed me since the beginning, then you know I love to share about changes in the practice. (And plenty has changed!)
But every once in a while I like to share what’s happening with the tools, too.
My first ever post about Wardley Mapping tools was in 2017, and at the beginning I mused about a paradox:
- On the one hand, the tools matter! They can make things easier, shorten the learning curve, and make you more effective.
- On the other hand, the tools don’t matter at all! After all, you just need pencil and paper, right?
As you read this post, I hope you can keep in mind the spirit of that paradox as I propose these top 5 Wardley Mapping tools for 2024.
What’s out there?
First, a disclaimer: This post is based entirely on my opinion. There is no data to back it up, other than experiences I’ve accumulated over the years. Disagreement is welcome and encouraged — competing analyses, doubly so!
A lot has happened since that 2017 tools post, which I wrote very shortly after the first Map Camp. Now I keep a running list of all the Wardley Mapping tools I’ve heard of here.
The purpose of today’s post is less about expanding that list and more about offering some clear (opinionated) guidance about which tools to use, if any.
But first, some casual analysis!
Here’s a quick, disposable 2×2 I made to make a little bit of sense of the current options for Wardley Mapping tools that are out there.
From top to bottom, we’ve got ubiquity, from rare to commonly available. (Basically, how likely is it that this tool would be available to you in any given setting?)
On another dimension, we’ve got fit-for-Wardley, from low to high. (I’m being silly here, but it’s roughly how useful the tool is for Wardley Mapping, specifically.)
You or Gartner could do a better job than me here, but I found it interesting enough to get me thinking. (Remember Wardley doctrine: Use appropriate tools! Sometimes a 2×2 is useful!)
I’ve circled some clusters (or single tools) that I can recommend, and I will go into greater detail below.
My Personal, Opinionated Recommendations for 2024
As of June 2024, there are five tools that I will strongly recommend.
They each fit different needs and have different pros and cons, but I’ve narrowed it to these five based on what I’ve seen and heard others using, what I personally use, and what seems useful to others (even if I don’t use it myself).
#5 Old Faithful: Slide Presentation Software
We begin with your standard PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, etc.
These are all half-decent for Wardley Mapping, if a bit high-friction.
What really makes them a strong option, however, is their ubiquity in the workplace. Regardless of corporate firewalls, policies, or limitations on vendors, one of these options will probably be available. As a bonus, most people seem to understand how they work.
To Wardley Map in this software, you add text boxes or other shapes and then connect them with lines. You can use templates like those linked above, or you can create your own Wardley Mapping backdrop in a matter of minutes (bonus if you edit the slide master / themes to do it).
Sometimes (with Office365 and Google Slides), you can collaborate in real-time, and that’s great!
But if real-time collaboration features are not available, you can still make group collaboration work in-person or over a video call. All you need to do is have one person share their screen and make changes, while everyone else in the room discusses. This is called Mob Mapping, based loosely on Woody Zuill’s Mob Programming.
We put our own spin on Mob Mapping in The Game of Wardley. Want to bring Wardley Mapping to your team? Learn more here!
By the way, don’t underestimate Google Slides for collaborative online workshops! I’ve designed successful experiences that had hundreds of participants (yes, it’s possible). These old school solutions are actually quite powerful.
#4 A Modern Obsession: Real-time, Virtual Collaboration
My usual for client workshops these days is Miro, but I think of it as being in relatively equal standing with similar options like Mural, Figma, and Figjam.
These are all collaborative, virtual, whiteboard-style tools designed for broad appeal, but not quite as ubiquitous as PowerPoint.
To Wardley Map in these tools, you simply start place sticky notes or text boxes on the workspace and then connect them together with the line tool. You might drop in a Wardley Map template image (like this one), or even construct your own.
The drawback of these tools is that they do still have some friction that gets in the way when Wardley Mapping. They’re built to be general tools, so they do have defaults and options that can get in the way.
Miro, for example, has a default line style that I find noisy and hard to look at when creating a value chain or Wardley Map, so step one for me is always fixing that line style to be straight rather than curved. Miro also has the issue of trying to do too many things for too many people; it’s got so many bells and whistles that sometimes it’s hard to just find the pieces of it that you want to use. Additionally, in recent past I’ve had frustrating run-ins with basic things breaking out of the blue (like selecting items or even zooming).
The fast-moving, thing-breakyness of these younger software tools have at times shaken my confidence. (If you’re following along on the evolution axis, we are here: “Failure not tolerated!”)
Real-time collaboration tools are a relatively new thing, after all. That market looked very different when I first surveyed it in 2018. (Fun fact: Miro was called RealtimeBoard back then. That’s why the backup files still have that .rtb extension. 🌈 The more you know! 🌈)
While I’ve had fewer experiences with Mural, Figma, Figjam, etc. than Miro, I do know they all work well enough for Wardley Mapping, using a similar approach as you might with Miro.
They are all pretty reasonable tools, with great collaboration features, if they are available to you.
#3 Maps-as-Code: OnlineWardleyMaps
Created by Damon Skelhorn, OnlineWardleyMaps is a fabulous, code-centered tool, purpose-built for Wardley Mapping.
It’s great for software developers, data scientists, or anyone who prefers Maps-as-Code.
In this way of mapping, you write a text file to define the map and then that code renders to an image.
Since your Wardley Maps are code in a file (with a `.owm` or `.wm` extension), you can check your maps into version control. That’s great for collaborating on a map over time in technical domains, as well as storing Wardley Maps side-by-side with the source code of the software projects they might describe.
Especially important is the fact that this method of making Wardley Maps is available as an extension for VSCode, a popular development tool.
Plus it’s all free, which makes it extremely accessible.
I highly recommend this option for those working in technical domains who are comfortable with writing code, and Damon has done an excellent job making this readily-available to us all.
#2 Most Accessible: Pen and Paper
Any list of tools would be incomplete without this tried-and-true method of Wardley Mapping.
Pencil, pen, paper, dry-erase board, whatever. It’s a classic, and it’s here to stay.
Simon Wardley initially described mapping as something you can do on the back of a napkin, and that’s still true. A quick sketch is sometimes all you need (and it needn’t be pretty).
I sometimes recommend pencil and paper to beginners, so they don’t get distracted by the tools. It also forces them to dig into the theory with a bit of rote practice (“How do I draw that thing again?”). Of course, that’s not always appropriate, but it keeps the tools from being the barrier to practice.
Pencil and paper is also great if you’re in-person with a colleague, or if you just need to do some quiet thinking on your own. Just you and your sketchbook (or whiteboard).
By the way, if you like using a whiteboard, I recommend picking up some dry-erase magnets. (You can thank me later.)
When in doubt, pencil and paper it out! Tools can get in the way of mapping, so stick to the basics if you can. (And if you don’t like having to draw and redraw your wardley map axes and labels over and over, we have a printable template here you might find useful.)
#1 My Personal Favorite: Mapkeep
Created by Tristan Slominski, Mapkeep is a real-time collaborative tool like Miro, but focused just on Wardley Mapping.
Although I was slow to adopt, I’m finding that I’m reaching for Mapkeep more and more, especially when the other tools have too much friction or get in the way of my thinking.
Speaking of friction, Mapkeep is near-frictionless for Wardley Mapping. It just works! The tool really gets out of your way, and just lets you map.
To say the least, my initial caution about adopting Mapkeep for personal use has been overcome by how good it feels to map with it. When I’m using Mapkeep, I spend all my time thinking, rather than fiddling with the tool.
Of course you may find the occasional rough edge or two, but Tristan keeps pushing feature after feature that only makes it easier to use and more powerful.
Most recently, Tristan introduced a list view (no axes, just a blank page) and a value chain view (no evolution axis). As a result, you don’t have to start with a Wardley Map right away. You can instead work up to it incrementally from lists of users, needs, and capabilities; then connect it all into a value chain; and then turn it into a Wardley Map when you’re ready. (This is how I teach people to start mapping, so I’m a big fan.)
Other recent features include things like map layers (brilliant for doing variations of the same map), and map resizing (which solves the “ah shoot, I ran out of room” problem).
Every time Tristan announces something new, I find myself having a reaction of, “Ohhh that’s exactly what I needed!”
In short, I am officially a happy Mapkeep customer (on the “Villager” plan at $20/mo), and I encourage you to give it a try! (No, Tristan didn’t pay me to say that. He has earned my hearty endorsement through the quality of his product vision and all his hard work over the last three years.)
A final note
As always, I welcome your feedback on posts like this. I’m opinionated and often wrong, however I’m sharing my opinion with you to sharpen my thinking against the whetstone of your experiences. Please always feel welcome to leave a comment below or send me a note.
Wardley Mapping Q&A this Tuesday!
If you’ve got questions about tools or techniques for Wardley Mapping, there’s a Q&A coming up this Tuesday (June 25, 2024), where you can get all your burning questions answered. Sign up here. Perhaps I’ll see you there!