Thread by @joepindar

A few days back @swardley kindly mentioned that I have been working with Wardley maps for a long time... so I thought I would answer some questions - and if you want to know anything specific - please shout. 😀👍
#WardleyMapping #AMA #thread (1/n)

When did you first discover mapping?
Xmas 2010 - bored - I accidentally applied to write a paper on cybersecurity in the cloud, and like many at that time I was struggling to work out what "cloud" meant - which lead me to Simon's @oscon presentation: (2/n)

This was the first time cloud made sense - and the influence is clear in the final paper (slideshare.net/JosephPindar/c…). After finishing the paper I read and watched everything I could find on mapping. (3/n)

Did you find mapping easy at the start?
No. In the early days I watched every video 10 times & read every blog post a dozen times. Mapping has layers of complexity that only slowly get revealed. You can only get so far by obsessively reading - doing makes all the difference (4/n)

When did you first meet Simon?
OSCON 2014. Having consumed everything I could at a distance, I needed to start engaging and asking questions. It turned out to be easier to cross 8 time zones to meet Simon for a 3 hour tutorial... even though we both live in England 🤷‍♂️ (5/n)

Did you really travel from London to Portland for a 3 hour tutorial on Wardley Mapping?
Yes. And I paid for it myself. Which is why I couldn't afford the main OSCON conference ticket and was only there for 2 days... (Simon is much more accessible these days. 😀) (6/n)

Where have you used mapping?
I've used it with large business units @ $650M revenue as well as pre-finance startups. Wardley mapping scales brilliantly, and #situationalawareness applies in every context. I've also been trying it in unconventional scenarios - more later... (7/n)

What are some of the lessons you've learnt along the way?
1) The practice of mapping is about incremental improvement of understanding... after 8 years it feels like I'm only just starting. There is so much more to learn and understand... #WardleyMapping #lessons #AMA (8/n)

2) Wardley Mapping is a great way to organise thoughts and increase communication velocity *for the initiated*. BUT it does not replace doing... And Mapping will seem like voodoo snake oil to the uninitiated. #WardleyMapping #lessons #AMA (9/n)

3) Wardley Mapping is only one tool - I find it works brilliantly with @lauraklein's work on identifying and validating assumptions. Use them together for maximum impact. Starting point: #WardleyMapping #lessons #AMA (10/n)

I think that's enough for today... if you have any specific questions - please shout. 👋