I found the work of Simon Wardley several years ago, and I was hooked from the very beginning of his message on visualizing strategy. I’ve never been satisfied with annual strategic planning exercises. The work seems forced if not a bit contrived at times. In this discussion, we talk about Sun Tzu’s five factors, the OODA Loop, mapping, doctrine, and other key concepts of Wardley Mapping.
Who Is Simon Wardley?
- former CEO of a software firm that was sold to Cannon
- a self-professed recovering management consultant
- researcher/advisor for Leading Edge Forum
- work on Wardley Mapping started after his reading of two translations of Sun Tzu’s, The Art of War
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Questions and Ideas Discussed During the Interview
- The origin of Wardley Mapping
- Why landscapes are so critical on maps
- What is the strategy circle?
- Why is the OODA Loop integrated with the strategy circle?
- The ‘why’ of purpose and the ‘why’ of movement
- Differences between the Business Model Canvas and Wardley Mapping
- Doctrine vs. core values
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Lessons Learned with Blockbuster Video
- Predictable vs. unpredictable disruption
- Product substitution is unpredictable
- Product utility is predictable
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Wardley Mapping – First Steps
- Start with the map first.
- Move to a pre-mortem with the team.
- Do the project.
- Conduct a post-mortem with the team with the map at hand.
- Update the map during the post-mortem.
- Challenge all assumptions.
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Best Ways to Learn Wardley Mapping
- Ben Mosior at Hired Thought
- Learn Wardley Mapping (LWM)
- Series of articles by Simon Wardley on Medium
- Ben Mosior’s YouTube videos
- Map camps – you can also find map camps on Ben’s video channel listed above
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Books Mentioned by Simon Wardley
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Title Photo by UX Brighton and licensed via Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
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