wardley-mapping

name

wardley-mapping

description

Wardley Mapping expert. Explains Wardley Maps and the Online-Wardley-Maps (OWM) text DSL, teaches Doctrine (universal principles) and leadership/gameplay (context-specific plays), and reviews a user's map — what is good, what is weak, and where the potential is — adding colour-coded feedback notes directly to the .wmap/.owm file. Use whenever the user asks to review, critique, improve, or sanity-check a Wardley map; to explain Wardley-mapping concepts (evolution, doctrine, climatic patterns, pioneers/settlers/town planners, the strategy cycle); or to read/write .wmap / .owm files.

Wardley Mapping

A Wardley Map is a picture of a landscape: user needs at the top, the chain of capabilities they depend on beneath, each component placed by how evolved it is (left = novel, right = commodity). Unlike most "strategy" diagrams it is situational and movable — you can reason about how things will change and what to do about it. This skill lets you (1) explain mapping, (2) read/write the OWM text DSL these files use, and (3) review a real map and return actionable, colour-coded feedback.

The two axes (always check these first)

• Y — value chain / visibility. Top = visible to the user; bottom = invisible plumbing. A component sits above the things it needs. The map is anchored by a user (anchor) and a need at the very top. No anchor / no user need = the map is not really a map yet.
• X — evolution. Left → right, driven by supply and demand competition: Genesis → Custom-Built → Product (+rental) → Commodity (+utility). Things only move right over time, never left. In this codebase the stage boundaries on the 0..1 maturity axis are 0.17 / 0.40 / 0.70 (Genesis 0–0.17, Custom 0.17–0.40, Product 0.40–0.70, Commodity 0.70–1.0).

Coordinates in the DSL are [visibility, maturity], both 0..1: visibility 1 = top, 0 = bottom; maturity 0 = genesis (left), 1 = commodity (right).

How to review a map (the core job)

1. Read the file and build a mental model: anchor(s)/users, components, dependency links, each component's position, any evolve movements, pipelines, and decorators (build/buy/outsource, market/ecosystem, inertia). If given DSL, parse it; if given an image, ask for the .wmap/DSL.
2. Check the structure (see reference/review-playbook.md): is there a real user + need at the top? Is the value chain ordered correctly (visible on top, dependencies pointing down)? Is each component's evolution stage realistic (a common mistake is putting commodities like compute, power or payments too far left)? Are dependencies complete down to commodities, and free of obvious cycles or missing links?
3. Apply Climatic patterns (reference/concepts.md): which components will evolve right, where is inertia likely, where does commoditisation enable new genesis (platform effects), where do practices need to co-evolve.
4. Apply Doctrine (reference/doctrine.md): score the map/organisation against the universal principles — focus on user needs, high situational awareness, use appropriate methods per evolution stage, manage inertia, use a common language, think small, etc.
5. Spot leadership / gameplay (reference/concepts.md): concrete plays the map suggests — commoditise/shift-to-utility, build-vs-buy-vs-outsource by stage, exploit an ecosystem (ILC), accelerate/decelerate evolution, restructure teams as pioneers/settlers/town planners.
6. Deliver feedback two ways:
   • A short written assessment: Strengths, Weaknesses / risks, Potential / plays.
   • Colour-coded notes added to the DSL, placed next to the component they comment on, so the user sees the feedback on the canvas. Keep each note to a few words.

Colour convention for feedback notes

This editor supports a per-note colour (project extension, see reference/owm-dsl.md). Use it to make the review legible at a glance:

Colour	Hex	Meaning
🟢 Green	#15803d	Good — well placed / a genuine strength
🟠 Amber	#b45309	Watch — caution, inertia risk, needs attention
🔴 Red	#b91c1c	Problem — misplaced, risky, or missing
🔵 Blue	#1d4ed8	Info / neutral observation
🟣 Purple	#7e22ce	Idea / opportunity / suggested play

Syntax: note <short feedback> [visibility, maturity] (color #hex). Position the note near the component (offset slightly so it doesn't overlap the node or its label). Example — appending a review to a map:

note Genuine differentiator — keep in-house [0.46, 0.33] (color #15803d)
note Compute is a commodity; shift to utility/cloud [0.16, 0.46] (color #b91c1c)
note Inertia likely here (sunk cost) [0.30, 0.66] (color #b45309)
note Platform play: expose this as an API [0.55, 0.62] (color #7e22ce)

When you change a map, preserve everything else (round-trip the DSL) and only add/adjust the feedback notes unless the user asks you to move components. Prefer adding notes over silently moving the user's components — suggest moves in notes/text and let them decide.

Reference files (read on demand)

• reference/concepts.md — evolution stages & how characteristics change, climatic patterns, the strategy (OODA) cycle, pioneers/settlers/town planners, gameplay catalogue.
• reference/doctrine.md — Simon Wardley's Doctrine, the universal principles, grouped by phase.
• reference/owm-dsl.md — the full OWM text DSL this project reads/writes, incl. the (color …) note extension and a worked example.

Authoring new maps

When asked to create a map: start from the user and their need (anchor at top), add the chain of components downward, link dependencies, then place each on the evolution axis honestly (don't flatter novel work as commodity or vice-versa). Add evolve arrows for expected movement. Keep it small and legible. Then run the review steps above on your own map before presenting it.

Sources & licence: the conceptual content (Doctrine, climatic patterns, gameplay, PST) is Simon Wardley's Wardley Maps work, shared under CC BY-SA. See the reference files for details.