Drawing a Wardley Map is a structured process. Here is the method, applied to a concrete system.
Step 1: Identify the User and Their Need
Every map starts with a user and a specific need. Not "users in general" — a specific user with a specific goal.
Example: User: Small business owner. Need: Accept online payments.
Step 2: Build the Value Chain (Y-Axis)
Ask "what does this need?" recursively, chaining downward until you reach infrastructure primitives.
Small Business Owner (User)
└── Payment Checkout Page
└── Payment Processing Logic
└── Fraud Detection
└── Bank API Integration
└── Compute (to run the service)
└── Network Connectivity
Step 3: Place Each Component on the Evolution Axis (X-Axis)
For each component, ask: "Is this novel and undefined (Genesis), hand-crafted (Custom), standardized and purchasable (Product), or a utility (Commodity)?"
| Component | Evolution Stage | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Checkout Page | Custom Built → Product | Could use Stripe Checkout (Product) |
| Payment Processing Logic | Commodity | Stripe, Adyen, Braintree all solve this |
| Fraud Detection | Product | Stripe Radar, Sift exist; some custom tuning needed |
| Bank API Integration | Commodity | Plaid, direct bank APIs are standardized |
| Compute | Commodity | AWS, GCP, Azure |
| Network Connectivity | Commodity | ISPs, CDNs |
Step 4: Draw the Map and Read the Implications
Plot the components. The map immediately reveals: everything here is Product or Commodity. A startup should not be writing payment processing logic. They should be using Stripe end-to-end and spending zero engineering time on this entire value chain — unless their differentiation is payments (e.g., they are building a Stripe competitor, in which case the map looks completely different).
Step 5: Identify Strategic Moves
Wardley Maps support a set of named strategic moves called gameplay. The most common ones for platform engineers:
- Commoditize the complement: If your competitor's advantage depends on a component, open-source or commoditize that component to neutralize their advantage. (Example: Google open-sourcing Kubernetes to commoditize container orchestration, which was a differentiator for AWS.)
- Exploit inertia: Incumbents are slow to migrate off custom-built components even when commodity alternatives exist. Move faster than they can.
- Accelerate evolution: Invest in making a component evolve faster (e.g., contributing to open source) to shift the competitive landscape.