Wardley Mapping Doctrine
Wardley's Doctrine is a set of principles and guidelines for effective strategy development and execution. It emphasises transparency, situational awareness, common language, challenging assumptions, and a focus on user needs. The doctrine also promotes pragmatism, flow optimisation, and a bias towards action and adaptation in the face of a constantly evolving landscape.
Transparency and Collaboration
Be Transparent
Have a bias towards openness within your organisation. Share your maps with others and allow them to add their wisdom and challenge the process. Building maps in secret is a surefire way of missing the obvious.
Use a Common Language
Effective collaboration requires a common language. Maps allow people with different aptitudes to work together and create a shared understanding. Collaboration without a common language is just noise before failure.
Challenge Assumptions
Maps allow assumptions to be visually exposed. Encourage challenge to any map, with a focus on creating a better map and a better understanding. There is no place for ego if you want to learn.
Understanding the Landscape
Focus on High Situational Awareness
Practical Principles
Think FIRE
Break large systems down into small components, use and re-use inexpensive components where possible, constrain budgets and time, build as simply and as elegantly as possible.
Be Pragmatic
Avoid the urge to re-invent the wheel. If a component already exists, try to use it. Challenge when you depart from using something that already exists.
Manage Inertia and Failure
Understand and anticipate inertia to change, and use maps to enable people to discover their own inertia. Mitigate risks by distributing systems, designing for failure, and constantly introducing failure.
Organisational Principles
Distribute Power and Decision-Making
Have a bias towards distributing power from the centre, including yourself. Put power in the hands of those who are closest to the choices that need to be made.
Provide Purpose, Mastery & Autonomy
Provide people with purpose, enable them to build mastery in their chosen area, and give them the freedom to act.
Seek the Best
Try to find and grow the best people with the best aptitude and attitude for their roles.
Continuous Improvement
Create an organisational system that copes with the constant ebb and flow in the landscape. Changes should flow through your organisation without the need for constant restructuring.
Strategic Mindset
Exploit the Landscape
Use the landscape to your advantage; there are often powerful force multipliers. Consciously choose whether or not to take advantage of a competitor or market change.
Think Big, Act Small
Whilst the actions you take, the way you organise, and the focus on detail requires you to think small, when it comes to inspiring others, provide direction and moral imperative, then think big.
Be Humble
Listen to others, be selfless, have fortitude and be humble. Inspire others by who you and what you do. Avoid arrogance at all costs.
Embrace Complexity
Strategy is complex, with uncertainty, emerging are patterns and surprises. Embrace this, don't fall for the temptation that you can plan the future. What matters is the preparation and your ability to adapt.
Focus on User Needs
Understand User Needs
The true value we create comes from meeting the needs of our users. This should be the anchor for everything we do, from mapping our environment to designing our products and services.
Avoid "Not Sucking"
It's tempting to simply aim to be better than the competition, but this mindset is limited. Instead, strive to be the best by truly understanding what users require.
Articulate User Needs
Many organisations struggle to clearly articulate the user needs they are trying to address. This lack of clarity can lead to ineffective and wasteful efforts.
Anchor Everything in Users
Whether it's a $100 million project or a simple product enhancement, the user need should be the guiding principle. Without this, efforts become misaligned and disconnected from what truly matters.
Key Principles
Transparency
Have a bias towards openness and sharing within the organisation.
Collaboration
Use a common language to enable effective collaboration.
Situational Awareness
Focus on understanding the landscape and user needs.
Pragmatism
Be practical and avoid reinventing the wheel unnecessarily.
Continuous Improvement
Design for constant evolution and have a bias towards action and learning.
Distributed Empowerment
Distribute power and decision-making, and provide purpose, mastery and autonomy.
Adaptability
Embrace complexity, be humble, and think big while acting small.
Exploitation
Consciously choose to exploit the strategic landscape to your advantage.