On the left of a Wardley Map lies the uncharted space. Anything here is either new to the world or new to your market — which means there are few, if any, suppliers. Therefore, you can’t buy what you need. You have to build it yourself.
That’s what makes this space so valuable. If you get it right, you’re not just creating a new product — you’re unlocking a new source of value no one else has yet.
IBM learned this the hard way when it outsourced the operating system for its first personal computer to Microsoft — who kept the rights and went on to dominate the software industry.
But the price of innovation is failure. Many new ideas won’t work — as we’re seeing in today’s wave of AI experiments. Sometimes the tech isn’t ready, the timing’s off, or customers simply don’t care yet.
That’s why you don’t bet the company on a single idea. You invest like a venture capitalist — spreading your bets, limiting exposure to time and materials, and focusing on time to value. If an idea doesn’t find a paying customer fast — kill it, learn, move on.
In the new world of AI, this might mean funding a separate ‘Pioneer’ team — a kind of “ghost structure” — tasked to disrupt your business before someone else does. That may sound brutal, but in today’s fight to remain relevant, it’s adapt or perish!
That’s what makes this space so valuable. If you get it right, you’re not just creating a new product — you’re unlocking a new source of value no one else has yet.
IBM learned this the hard way when it outsourced the operating system for its first personal computer to Microsoft — who kept the rights and went on to dominate the software industry.
But the price of innovation is failure. Many new ideas won’t work — as we’re seeing in today’s wave of AI experiments. Sometimes the tech isn’t ready, the timing’s off, or customers simply don’t care yet.
That’s why you don’t bet the company on a single idea. You invest like a venture capitalist — spreading your bets, limiting exposure to time and materials, and focusing on time to value. If an idea doesn’t find a paying customer fast — kill it, learn, move on.
In the new world of AI, this might mean funding a separate ‘Pioneer’ team — a kind of “ghost structure” — tasked to disrupt your business before someone else does. That may sound brutal, but in today’s fight to remain relevant, it’s adapt or perish!
