Morning. Today's frame is the one your CFO wishes you'd already drawn.
Strategy.
The Wardley Map
Where, on your map, is the thing you call your edge already a commodity?
A Wardley Map plots your value chain on two axes — how visible each component is to the user, and how far it has evolved from a novel idea to a utility-grade commodity. What it reveals is brutal: the thing you thought was your moat is often already drifting right, toward commodity, while you're still pricing it like an edge. The map gives you a quarterly habit of seeing the drift before the market makes you feel it in margin.
List the value chain, top to bottom.
Start with the user need at the top. Below it, what visibly meets that need. Below that, the components beneath. Don't worry about prettiness — write it like a meeting note. The structure is what matters.
Place each component on the evolution axis.
Four stages, left to right: Genesis (novel, no one else is doing this), Custom (still bespoke, build to order), Product (off-the-shelf, repeatable), Commodity (utility, indistinguishable). Be honest. Be brutal. You're not graded for being on the left.
Mark the drift since last quarter.
Most components are quietly drifting right. Some have moved unexpectedly. Drift toward commodity is good news downstream — cheaper inputs — and bad news where it's currently your differentiator. Find both.
Decide the three moves.
Invest in what's drifting toward you (it's still scarce, won't be for long). Outsource what's drifting away (you're paying premium prices for something the market commoditised). Defend what's stuck in the middle, by deepening it — better data, better integrations, better lock-in.
Quarterly Wardley Review — Q{Q} {YEAR}
Attendees: {founder, head of product, head of finance}
Time: 60 minutes
Output: one slide, three decisions
1. Re-draw the map (15 min)
· Take last quarter's map. Re-place each component.
· Flag every component that moved.
2. The drift conversation (20 min)
· For each move: is this drift good for us or bad?
· Where is our current price-to-value ratio most exposed?
3. The three moves (15 min)
· Invest in: {one scarce-drifting-toward-us component}
· Outsource: {one commodity-drifting-away component}
· Defend: {one stuck-in-the-middle component, with how}
4. Write the slide (10 min)
· One page. The map. The three moves. Owners. Dates.
Next review: {date + 1 quarter}Try the AI tutor: "Walk me through Wardley-mapping a B2B SaaS analytics product. Where am I most exposed to commoditisation in the next 12 months?"
The map is cheap. The wrong bet is not. Re-draw it every quarter.
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