Strategic Mapping

VS.20210730.SMAPStrategic Mapping2021

VS.20210730.SMAPYear — 2021Context — Master's ThesisOutcome — Method, printable worksheet, interface conceptMade with — Paper worksheets, interface prototypeMy part — —

Download the printable worksheet (PDF) ↓Download the full thesis (PDF, 24 MB) ↓

MASTER'S THESIS · 2021

A visual method for mapping decisions onto goal and no-go areas, developed as a master's thesis and later sketched out as the video-call app howee.do.

A method for mapping a decision onto two axes: a best case and a worst case on either side, a goal area marking where the decision should end up, a no-go area marking where it should not. Master’s thesis in Strategic Innovation and Product Development at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, 2021.

Strategic Mapping chart with a goal area, a no-go area, and three strategy arrows plotted from the status quo

Status quo and strategies are plotted as points and arrows on the map, each step named and given a rough estimate of time and confidence. The full sequence runs from naming the topic to carrying out a strategy: defining the subject, setting a standpoint, marking the goal and no-go areas, locating the status quo, developing strategies, weighing them against each other, executing one.

Diagram of the method’s process steps in a loop, from defining the topic to a retrospective

The harder problem turned out not to be the mapping itself but applying it: turning the method into steps someone unfamiliar with it could actually follow, without someone else running the session for them.

The method still exists as a printable worksheet, cut-lines and all, available below as a download.

A conference room with the howee.do interface shown on the wall screen during a group video call, phones and a laptop on the table

As a further step, the method was sketched out as howee.do, an interface for running a Strategic Mapping session over video call: a shared map on screen, with a mobile view for the people joining from their phones.