Wardley map

A Wardley map puts every component of a value chain on two honest axes: how visible it is to the user, and how evolved it is — genesis to commodity. The point isn't the picture, it's the argument the picture forces: why are we hand-building something the market sells as a utility? What are we treating as settled that is still genuinely novel? Position is a claim, and claims should be inspectable. It is not a forecast, a delivery schedule, or a decision plan.

Here the map is a projection of a text file. Vertical position is derived from the dependency chain — anchors at the top, each component below the things that need it — so the text fully determines the picture and there is no pixel-fiddling to lose. Dragging a pill along the evolution axis writes its position back into the text as an ordinary undoable edit; the file stays the single source of truth.

The snapshot compare is the reason this earns a slot next to the drawing tools that already exist: snapshot at each review, and the next map renders ghosts, drift arrows and a counted headline — components sliding toward commodity, new bets appearing at genesis. Strategy drift becomes a slide you export, not a memory you argue about. Use Roadmap for delivery commitments, and Paths when different outcomes could stop, pivot, or expand the work. Source: Simon Wardley's mapping work, CC BY-SA.