Examples

The volcano lair canteen serves one thing: minestrone. It is surprisingly good. The recipe is classified (see NDA section 7). This map is a direct value chain from stakeholder need to deep infrastructure: the Mandatory Fun Committee mandates morale, henchmen consume minestrone, and the minestrone depends on broth, bowls, and a volcanic cauldron heated by lava vents.

Even the simplest value chain reveals evolution. The cauldron is Custom-Built - bespoke volcanic plumbing. Evolving it to a geothermal tap commoditises the heat source and frees the kitchen to focus on what actually differentiates: the recipe.

A shipping line needs traction. This is provided by Very Large Kites (VLK Units), autonomous dirigible kites. That's the entire value proposition in three nodes: a user, a need, and the capability that fulfils it.

If you can't name who needs it, you don't have a strategy; you have a technology looking for a problem.

A VLK is not one thing - it's an envelope, an autopilot, a tether, a fuel system, and a satellite link, each at a different stage of maturity. Breaking a capability into positioned components is how you turn a vague "we need kites" into a map you can act on.

Standing order from Engineering: "platform" is not a component - it's a label hiding six things that evolve at different speeds. Decompose or be surprised.

Three stakeholders pulling on the same value chain: shipping lines want cheap traction, the Supreme Leader wants a flying sailboat, and maritime regulators want safety compliance. Each anchor distorts priorities differently.

A map with one user is a map with one opinion. Multiple anchors reveal the political forces that shape every technical decision.

This map was presented at the Q2 volcano-side offsite. Comments should capture WHY things are where they are, not describe the DSL syntax. Future readers of this map need to know what the team believed, not what the parser does.

At the Monday all-hands, the Supreme Leader rattled off half a dozen agenda items. Nobody bothered to position them on the map. The parser defaults unpositioned elements to [0.9, 0.1] - watch them clump in the upper left, a visual symptom of unstrategy.

When everything clumps at the same coordinates, nobody has thought about where things actually sit. Clustering is the smell of a planning meeting that skipped the hard questions.

Wardley's evolution axis maps how activities mature: from Genesis (novel, uncertain) through Custom and Product to Commodity (stable, industrialised). Each stage changes how you compete, how you source, and how you organise the team that owns it.

The value chain spans the full spectrum. VLK Units are Genesis - nobody else builds autonomous traction kites. Seawater electrolysis is approaching Commodity - the chemistry is well understood. If every component sits in one stage, someone is either lying about positioning or we have a portfolio problem.

Activities aren't the only things that evolve - practices do too. A Novel practice differentiates you; a Best practice commoditises. Explosive tired-kite decommissioning is still Novel (nobody else does it). Hydrogen replenishment is approaching Best - the procedures are documented and repeatable across the fleet.

When a practice becomes Best, it stops being a competitive weapon. Invest in Novel practices, and let Best practices run on process discipline. Fund accordingly.

Data evolves from Unmodelled (raw, inconsistent) through Divergent and Convergent to Modelled (structured, standardised, API-accessible). Traction demand signals are Divergent - collected but not yet standardised. Atmospheric pressure data is Modelled - it comes from commodity weather APIs.

Unmodelled data is a strategic liability. Modelled data is an operational utility. The transition from Divergent to Convergent is where we decide whether data becomes a weapon or just another line item on the maintenance budget.

Knowledge evolves from Concept through Hypothesis and Theory to Accepted. R&D risk follows this curve: autonomous kite control is still at the Concept - unproven and expensive. Kite aerodynamics is Accepted science, low risk.

R&D spend concentrates at the Concept end. If the lab is spending research budget on Accepted knowledge, they're doing engineering, not research - reorganise accordingly.

The original pitch, sketched on a napkin at a harbour bar. Now framed in breakout room B. Every strategy starts messy, visionary, and incomplete. The handwritten style is honest about that - it says "this is a hypothesis, not a plan"

The first map of any new initiative should look exactly this rough. If the first draft is polished, someone drew what they wanted to see rather than what they actually know.

The canonical Wardley map style: positioned circles, dependency lines, evolution axis. This is the format Simon Wardley uses, and what most practitioners expect to see.

Core value chain in the standard presentation. Read it top-to-bottom (user need to deep infrastructure) and left-to-right (novel to commodity). The standard view is what gets shown at the volcano-side board meeting. It's the common language of the practice.

The henchman onboarding process, rendered in plain style. Process maps serve a purpose - they document sequence and dependency. But they are not strategy. Nothing on this map has an evolution axis or a competitive position. It's a checklist, not a landscape.

If the "strategy map" looks like a process diagram, someone mapped the how without asking where each capability sits in its evolution. Plain style is fine for HR Form HR-7734; for actual strategy, you need positioning.

VLK end-of-life. When structural fatigue makes a kite unviable, controlled ignition of the hydrogen envelope provides efficient atmospheric disposal. Safe, spectacular, and fully documented. The dark style is for this sort of thing - decommissioning, risk, end-of-life.

Every component eventually reaches end of life. Dark-themed maps frame the conversation around what's being retired, not what's being built. Useful for sunset planning, budget reviews, and controlled explosions.

The VLK-service ship hydrogen cycle is a closed loop: the kite provides traction, the service ship converts that traction into hydrogen via submerged turbines, and the hydrogen feeds back up to the kite. The kite pays for its own upkeep with wind energy. Colour style highlights the circular dependency structure.

Circular value chains are rare and powerful. The Rival Villain Consortium can't replicate this loop by buying components - it's a structural advantage baked into the physics of the operation. Protect it.

Components move rightward over time. The VLK Prototype is Genesis today, but the plan is to evolve it to a Production VLK (Custom-Built, manufactured at scale). Evolution changes everything: sourcing model, team structure, competitive dynamics.

Standing order from the Q2 offsite: if nothing on the map is evolving, either the market is truly static (unlikely) or the map is out of date. Update it or face Questions.

Project Thunderkite: R&D evolution targets, approved at the Q2 offsite (volcano-side breakout room B). Each evolve line is a strategic decision. Kite Prototype outsources at scale because we can't manufacture fast enough. Control Software buys an AI Autopilot from a disreputable vendor because building in-house would take three more years.

A technology roadmap without evolution targets is just a shopping list. Each arrow must answer: who will supply this at the next stage, and what capability do we lose or gain?

The shipping industry runs on bunker fuel. Bunker fuel propulsion, fuel supply chains, port bunkering infrastructure - decades of investment create structural resistance to change. This is inertia: the tendency of existing systems to resist evolution even when better alternatives exist. The opportunity exists precisely because of this inertia.

Inertia is not always the enemy. Our own inertia protects the lair's infrastructure investments in stable operations. But when the landscape shifts, the same inertia becomes a trap.

Evolution doesn't happen in a vacuum. External forces accelerate or decelerate the pace of change. Rising fuel costs and carbon shipping levies push shipping lines toward wind traction faster. Maritime regulation inertia and port infrastructure lock-in slow the transition down.

The leader reads the climate daily. Accelerators create urgency; decelerators create breathing room. Strategy is partly about choosing which forces to amplify and which to resist.

Not all lines on a map mean the same thing. A dependency link (A->B) says "A needs B to function." A flow (A+>B) says "value moves from A to B." The VLK-service ship relationship has both: structural dependency and bidirectional exchange of traction, hydrogen, and maintenance.

If every line on the map is a simple arrow, the economic structure is hidden. Flows reveal where value actually moves - which is often not the same direction as the dependency chain.

All flows must be approved by Finance. Labelled flows reveal the economic structure: traction fees flow from shipping lines to Commercial, laundered funds circulate through offshore accounts and shell corporations, and the Stolen Art Vault serves as collateral for kite parts.

Data, money, requests, and laundered funds move differently through a value chain. Unlabelled arrows hide the question: what exactly is flowing here?

Sourcing strategy maps directly to evolution. The Hydrogen Envelope is Genesis - nobody sells dirigible-grade envelopes, so we build it in-house. Avionics are a mature Product - buy off the shelf. Cloud Hosting is Commodity - outsource to a provider. The Tether System shows a sourcing pivot: built in-house today but evolving toward a buy decision as the market matures.

The rule is simple: Genesis means build (no alternative exists), Product means buy (a competitive market exists), Commodity means outsource (it's a utility). If sourcing doesn't match evolution, someone is either overspending or underinvesting.

Not one kite but a portfolio. Prototype Kite (Genesis, R&D), Production Kite (Custom, fleet workhorse), and Mega Kite (Product, primary revenue). A pipeline shows components at different evolution stages within a single capability.

Each variant needs different management, funding, and team culture. Do not run R&D and fleet ops with the same playbook.

Markets emerge around commoditising components. As fuel alternatives mature, a market forms - multiple suppliers compete, prices fall, and regulation accelerates the transition. Traction-on-demand service is positioned to capture this emerging market.

Watch for components moving from Custom to Product. That transition is where markets form and where we must decide: supplier, consumer, or platform.

Markets, ecosystems, and sourcing decorators position us within the broader competitive landscape. Maritime Traction is a market we are creating. The Shipping Industry is an ecosystem we participate in but don't control. Combined decorators (market + buy) show both the market context and our sourcing posture.

Distinguish between markets we are creating, markets we are buying from, and ecosystems we are embedded in. Each requires a different strategic posture - and a different memo template.

We don't operate in a vacuum. Black Market Arms Dealers naturally provide components unavailable through legitimate channels. The Corrupt Officials Network smooths regulatory friction. The Rival Villain Consortium competes for the same orbital mirror technology. These are external actors we influence but don't control.

A map showing only internal components is planning in a bubble. We map suppliers, regulators, competitors, and the Rival Villain Consortium. The bubble always pops. Best to know what's outside it beforehand.

Wardley's PST model matches team culture to component evolution. Pioneers explore Genesis - they thrive on uncertainty and build things nobody has built before (Flying Sailboat Research). Settlers take prototypes and turn them into products (VLK Fleet Deployment). Town Planners industrialise mature components into utilities (Hydrogen Commodity Supply).

Put Town Planners on Flying Sailboat Research and they'll want requirements that don't exist yet. Put Pioneers on hydrogen commodity supply and they'll re-architect things that work fine. Match the team to the evolution stage.

The leader sees three boxes: VLK Programme, Fleet Operations, and Commercial Division. Each box links to a detailed sub-map where the relevant team works at a finer grain. Different stakeholders need different zoom levels - the board sees the overview, the engineering lead sees component-level evolution targets.

If the map has more than 15-20 components, decompose. Sub-maps let teams own their section of the landscape while the leader maintains the strategic overview.

Notes are lightweight annotations - observations, assumptions, and forward-looking bets that don't belong in the value chain structure but need to be visible on the map. The + prefix makes a note visually prominent (highlighted). Use it for the most important strategic observation on the map.

Notes capture what the team believes but hasn't proven - the hypotheses that should be tested next. A map without notes is a map without questions.

A map is not self-explanatory. Annotations turn a diagram into a narrative: numbered callouts that walk the reader through the strategic argument. The annotation box collects them into a legend. Multi-coordinate annotations can highlight relationships between components.

When presenting to the board, add 3-5 annotations that tell the strategic story. Without them, the audience sees structure but misses the argument - and the Q&A will not go well.

The traction-on-demand billing system in one map: pipeline of pricing models (dynamic, fixed contract, spot market), inertia on legacy payment rails, an evolution target to modernise, and an annotation calling out the friction.

A deep map of one value chain reveals more than a shallow map of the entire organisation. This is what a focused strategic analysis looks like - not the whole empire, but one domain mapped thoroughly.

The capstone: every concept combined in one map. Value chain anchors, evolution labels, pipeline, sourcing decorators, flows, annotations, PST overlays, accelerators, and a strategic note. This is what a mature Wardley map looks like - dense but readable, with every element earning its place.

Nobody builds a map this complete on day one. Start with a user and a need, then add layers as the strategic picture sharpens.

This map describes the test suite that verifies the tool that renders this map. The recursion is intentional. Quality infrastructure is a value chain. The developer needs confidence; confidence depends on tests; tests depend on components at different stages of maturity.

The components that give the most confidence are often the ones least understood. What in the quality infrastructure is genesis and what is commodity? This map answers that question about itself.

The same canteen map with a custom canvas size. Useful for embedding in presentations or documents where the default dimensions don't fit.