Wardley Mapping - The Evolution Axis
After reading up on Wardley Maps: Topographical Intelligence in Business by Simon Wardley for some time now, in this post I explore the theoretical underpinnings of a key aspect: the Evolution Axis
The Evolutionary axis concerns the last step of Wardley Mapping (WM), so if you are completely new to Wardley Mapping this article might not be right for you yet. In that case, I suggest you start with one of these resources:
Wardley Mapping in 90 Seconds video
An Introduction to Wardley (Value Chain) Mapping https://blog.gardeviance.org/2015/02/an-introduction-to-wardley-value-chain.html
Learn Wardley Mapping - Introduction https://learnwardleymapping.com/introduction/
Wardley Mapping: Topographical Intelligence in Business - On being lost - Chapter 1 https://medium.com/wardleymaps/on-being-lost-2ef5f05eb1ec
Why care about Evolution in WM?
The fifth and final step of Wardley Mapping (WM) is when “...you determine how evolved everything is and position it accordingly (left-to-right) on the evolutionary axis.” (source). A Wardley Map can only be as robust as its Evolutionary axis (EA). Therefore, in this series of posts I will explore the theoretical underpinnings of the EA:
What is Evolution in Wardley Mapping?
What can be mapped on the Evolutionary axis?
What is driving Evolution?
How do you determine how Evolved something is?
What is Evolution in Wardley Mapping?
The user is the 'anchor' of a Wardley Map, and components are what is required to meet the needs of the user. Simon Wardley (SW), the originator of WM, argues that the focus should always be on the needs of the user, because by meeting the needs of others you have an opportunity to create value. Value that in turn can be captured by your business.
As a product manager, I really appreciate how the user and their needs are literally on top of the map, as you can see in this example of a Wardley Map:
The needs and components required to fulfill them can be chained together, in what SW calls a 'value chain'. SW doesn’t hide his British-ness when he uses a cup of tea as an example: "If I had a need for a cup of tea, then by mixing the components of a kettle, cold water, cup, electricity and tea then you can meet my needs." (source)
Components evolve from an uncharted domain into a more industrialized stage, and as they do their characteristics change. The genesis of a component is associated with the uncertain, rare and constantly changing. An industrialized commodity/utility is associated with the known, the common and the stable.
The evolution axis is comprised of four stages:
Stage I (Genesis)
Stage II (Custom)
Stage III (Product)
Stage IV (Commodity)
SW mentions power supply as something that is commonplace and well understood; "we all know how to use a plug and switch on a socket.". Artificial intelligence (AI) is less common and currently less well understood, it is more a source of wonder. SW reminds us that "power supply was itself a source of wonder and amazement back in the 1890s." (source)
On his blog Bits or Pieces?, SW argues that the EA is needed because value chains on their own are "practically useless for understanding an environment" (source) as they lack context on how the environment is changing. To understand an environment, you have to capture this aspect of change and map the value chain onto it.
What complicates this matter according to SW, is that the process of change and how things evolve can't be measured over time. However, while evolution can’t be measured over time*, it can be measured over certainty (source). The EA measures evolution using certainty of each component.
*The statement "evolution can't be measured over time" needs context that is beyond the scope of this post. I will go into this in a future post, as well as into the theoretical underpinnings of measuring evolution over certainty.
According to SW, Activities, Practices, Data and Knowledge can all be mapped on the Evolutionary axis.
What drives component Evolution are the forces of supply and demand competition:
“Everything evolves from left to right under the forces of supply and demand competition. This effect occurs in aggregate in capitalism, because as long as there is a benefit to be gotten by making something better, it’s a decent bet that someone out there will do the work to make it happen.” (source)
How do you determine how Evolved something is?
You determine where to place an Activity, Practices, Data or Knowledge on the EA by looking at the Characteristics that belong to each of the four stages of Evolution:
Now we know how to evaluate a component to determine its stage, however, what is it based on? The EA measures change, but how is change measured? Again, for Wardley Mapping to be robust, Evolution needs to be robust.
In a future article, I will continue my critical inquiry into WM and its Evolutionary axis by means of these questions:
What evidence supports Evolution as defined by SW?
How new is Evolution as a concept? What is it related to?
How is Evolution different from concepts such as diffusion curves?