Strategy

Official · updated Nov 4, 2026 · v1.0.1

Builds a Wardley map: user need as the anchor, the value chain by visibility, each component placed on the evolution axis with evidence, then the moves to build, buy, rent, or watch.

When to use it

• Deciding what to build, buy, rent, or outsource across a product or operation
• Finding where to differentiate and where effort goes into solved problems
• Checking a roadmap against how a market and its technologies evolve

What you give it

• The scope and the decision
• Users and their needs
• The components that meet the need
• Evidence on how evolved each component is

What you get

A component table with visibility, dependencies, evolution stage and evidence, a plain-text map sketch, what the map shows, moves with owners, and assumptions to check.

Changelog

• v1.0.1 · Nov 4, 2026 · Example: the last assumption asks what current lessons would lose without the in-house whiteboard, instead of presuming lesson recordings the input never mentions.
• v1.0.0 · Nov 4, 2026 · First release.

Sources

1. Wardley Maps, the book by Simon Wardley (CC BY-SA 4.0) - Learn Wardley Mapping (2026-11-04)
2. An introduction to Wardley (Value Chain) Mapping - Simon Wardley (2026-11-04)
3. Landscape: evolution stages - Learn Wardley Mapping (2026-11-04)
4. Climate: climatic patterns - Learn Wardley Mapping (2026-11-04)
5. Doctrine - Learn Wardley Mapping (2026-11-04)
6. Leadership: gameplay - Learn Wardley Mapping (2026-11-04)

Adapted from Simon Wardley, Wardley Maps (CC BY-SA 4.0), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The mapping method summarized in our own words as a step-by-step procedure, with our own example and checks.

Related skills

• Value chain analysis Maps a business's primary and support activities with cost share, cost drivers, and value to buyers, checks how they fit the strategy, and picks the 2 to 3 changes that matter.
• Choose a strategy approach Asks about the decision, horizon, environment, and main unknown, then recommends one or two strategy frameworks in order, with what to bring, or says none fits.
• Five forces industry analysis Runs Porter's five forces on a defined industry: rates each force with evidence, names the forces that set its profit level, and ends with where to compete and what to change.
• Scenario planning Builds four scenarios from two critical uncertainties around one decision, tests the decision in each, and ends with signposts, robust moves, and contingent moves.
• Decision memo Writes a short narrative decision memo: recommendation first, context, options with trade-offs, risks, and the ask with a decider and deadline.

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