/helm

Wardley Mapping Reference

Purpose: Apply Simon Wardley's value-chain and evolution mapping to visualize the strategic landscape. A Wardley Map plots components on two axes — anchored at user needs (value) and charted across evolution (genesis → custom → product → commodity) — to expose strategic choices, inertia, and climatic patterns.

Scope Boundary

• helm wardley: Simon Wardley value-chain + evolution mapping (this document).
• helm porter (elsewhere): Industry structure analysis. Porter is static; Wardley is evolutionary.
• helm jtbd (elsewhere): Customer-job reframing. Wardley starts with user needs and traces the chain backwards.
• helm blue-ocean (elsewhere): New market creation. Wardley reveals where on the map to create new space.
• Atlas (elsewhere): Software architecture. Wardley is strategic; Atlas is structural.
• Magi (elsewhere): Go/No-Go decision. Wardley provides the terrain for Magi's deliberation.

Core Concepts

Map vs Graph

A map has position and direction. A typical "architecture diagram" is a graph — nodes and edges without meaningful position. Wardley Maps add two axes:

• Y-axis (value chain): visible to user at top; supporting components at bottom. Anchored at user need.
• X-axis (evolution): Genesis → Custom → Product (+ rental) → Commodity (+ utility). Direction of evolution is left-to-right.

   Value      User Need
   (visible)  ┼─────────────── A  (visible component)
              │               ╱│
              │              ╱ │
              │             B  │  (custom-built)
              │            ╱│  │
              │           C │ D│  (products / rental)
   Invisible  │          ╱  │  │
              ┼──────────E──F──G── (commodity / utility)
                        │   │  │
                        ▼   ▼  ▼
         Genesis    Custom  Product  Commodity
              ←──── Evolution ────→

Each component's position encodes its evolutionary stage; each dependency encodes the value chain.

Four Evolution Stages

Direction of evolution is one-way: components move right, not left. Attempting to "reinvent" a commodity as custom is usually strategic suicide.

Characteristics by Stage

Wardley's Pioneer / Settler / Town Planner (PST) organizational model maps which teams own which stage.

Climatic Patterns

The map reveals universal patterns. Use these to interrogate any position.

Core patterns

• Everything evolves: all components drift rightward over time.
• Efficiency enables innovation: commoditizing one layer liberates investment higher up.
• Inertia grows with ubiquity: users and organizations resist commoditization of familiar products.
• Higher-order systems create new sources of worth: once X commoditizes, Y built on top of X becomes a new genesis.
• Past success breeds inertia: the winning custom-build position becomes the chain to break.
• Red Queen effect: standing still = losing ground (competitors evolve).
• No component is static: if you don't migrate, someone will eat your position.

Doctrine (Universal Principles)

Irrespective of context, good strategy applies these:

1. Focus on user needs.
2. Use a common language (maps).
3. Be transparent — share the map.
4. Challenge assumptions — is the component really at that stage?
5. Remove duplication — multiple teams building the same custom thing.
6. Use appropriate methodology per stage.
7. Think small (teams, contracts, services).
8. Use standards where appropriate — especially for commodities.
9. Design for constant evolution — every commodity was once a genesis.

Gameplay / Strategic Moves

Wardley catalogs dozens of "gameplays." Key families:

ILC loop (classic Wardley pattern)

Innovate internally → Leverage the ecosystem that forms around you → Commoditize the successful piece, freeing the next layer.

AWS did this: launched S3/EC2 → ecosystem built products on top → AWS folded successful abstractions (Lambda, Aurora) back down to commodity.

Workflow

ANCHOR      →  identify the user need (who + what job)
            →  not "customer" (internal user, admin, ops are users too)

CHAIN       →  list components required to deliver that need
            →  include tech + data + people + processes

POSITION    →  place each component at the right evolutionary stage
            →  consider: ubiquity, certainty, comparable-market evidence

DRAW        →  plot value chain vertically (user at top)
            →  plot evolution horizontally
            →  draw dependencies (chain edges)

SCAN-CLIMATE→  identify inertia, duplication, stage mismatches
            →  spot higher-order-system opportunities
            →  note competitor positions on same map

APPLY       →  apply doctrine (focus, remove duplication, right methodology per stage)
            →  select gameplays (accelerator/decelerator/ecosystem/attack)

DECIDE      →  make strategic choices with the map as evidence
            →  assign Pioneer/Settler/Town Planner ownership
            →  hand off to Magi for arbitration if trade-offs exist

Common Strategic Mistakes (the map makes visible)

Output Template

## Wardley Map: [Anchor user need]

### Anchor
- **User**: [who]
- **Need**: [what job — not a feature]

### Value Chain (top → bottom = visible → invisible)
1. [Component A] — visible to user
2. [Component B] — supports A
3. [Component C] — supports B
4. ...

### Evolution Positions
| Component | Stage | Evidence |
|-----------|-------|----------|
| A | Custom | [market signal, competitor analysis] |
| B | Product | [multiple vendors exist] |
| C | Commodity | [utility / price competition] |
| ... | ... | ... |

### Map Builder (ASCII or image)

[user need]──[A: Custom]──[B: Product]──[C: Commodity] [D: Custom]─────┘

### Climate & Inertia Findings
- [ ] Component X has inertia — [why]
- [ ] Component Y is positioned wrong (we custom-build but industry-commoditized)
- [ ] Duplication: team α and β both build [Z] — consolidate
- [ ] Higher-order opportunity: commoditized [C] enables new genesis [N]

### Strategic Moves
| Move | Component | Rationale |
|------|-----------|-----------|
| Accelerator: open-source | [X] | force [Y] to commodity |
| Ecosystem: ILC | [platform] | leverage third-parties, fold back |
| Defensive: sunset | [Z] | indefensible position |

### Pioneer / Settler / Town Planner
- **Pioneer team** owns: [genesis components]
- **Settler team** owns: [custom → product transition]
- **Town Planner team** owns: [product → commodity, ops]

### Doctrine Check
- [ ] Anchored at user need
- [ ] Map shared with stakeholders
- [ ] Appropriate methodology per stage
- [ ] Duplication removed
- [ ] Standards applied where appropriate

### Handoffs
- Atlas: architecture follow-through on commoditized / standardized layers
- Shift (`detect`/`modernize`/`radar`): modernization plan for components that must evolve (absorbed from horizon)
- Magi: Go/No-Go on strategic moves
- Spark: genesis opportunities for new features
- Ledger: cost implications of commodity vs custom
- Scribe: written strategy document

Anti-Patterns

Deliverable Contract

When wardley completes, emit:

• Anchor with user and need.
• Value chain from visible (user-facing) to invisible (supporting).
• Evolution positions for every component with evidence.
• Map builder (ASCII or image).
• Climate & inertia findings.
• Strategic moves chosen with rationale.
• Pioneer / Settler / Town Planner ownership assignments.
• Doctrine checklist.
• Handoffs: Atlas, Shift (detect/modernize/radar), Magi, Spark, Ledger, Scribe.

References

• Simon Wardley — Wardley Maps (CC-licensed book, Medium series)
• Learn Wardley Mapping — learnwardleymapping.com (tutorial)
• Ben Mosior — Hired Thought blog and YouTube
• onlinewardleymaps.com — free browser-based mapping tool. The June 2025 modernisation release (docs.onlinewardleymaps.com 2025-06-15) ships a TypeScript rewrite, a resizable split-pane editor, and a simplified DSL with new decorator syntax (legacy maps still parse).
• Topographical Intelligence for Your Business — HBR write-up of the framework
• LEF (Leading Edge Forum) — Wardley's original research
• "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones" — Wardley's essay on the doctrine
• Mark Craddock — Learn Wardley Mapping (Medium, Apr 2026) — Claude Code skill benchmarked blind against 25 of Wardley's own published maps; documents the OWM-DSL-as-LLM-target pattern.
• Mermaid Wardley Map support — community PR landed 2025; LLMs can now emit Wardley diagrams directly into Mermaid blocks for inline rendering.
• Simon Wardley — Craft Conference 2025 (Budapest, May 2025) keynote on mapping the AI value chain; also Agile Meets Architecture 2025 speaker billing.

2025-2026 AI Tooling for Wardley Maps

Three classes of AI tooling now coexist; treat them as Tier 4 defaults, never as truth:

Always require the AI to attach an Evidence column per component (per the Output Template) and to name the inertia it sees — otherwise the map is graph, not map.