Strategy Maturity Model

Wardley Mapping surfaces where to play; the maturity of your organisation determines how you can execute. This model outlines the journey from opportunistic tactics to disciplined, doctrine-backed strategy execution. Use it alongside the Strategy Self-Assessment Tool and Doctrine principles to understand when a gameplay is viable, what capabilities are missing, and how to deliberately grow them.

Progression at a Glance​

Five Levels of Maturity​

Level 1 — Initial / Ad Hoc​

This is survival mode. Strategies arise as reactions to crises or executive directives, not from explicit landscape understanding.

• Posture: Highly reactive; leaders rely on intuition and past experience.
• Implementation focus: Tactical firefighting with short-lived initiatives.
• Mapping & measurement: Maps are rare, quickly outdated, or treated as artefacts; measurement focuses on activity completion.
• Coordination: Teams optimise locally, leading to duplicated effort and conflicting priorities.
• Doctrine emphasis: Introduce foundational practices such as a shared vocabulary and clarity of purpose before deeper doctrine sticks.

Level 2 — Repeatable​

Patterns emerge and teams begin capturing what works. There is still variability, but some plays become the default response.

• Posture: Moves from purely reactive to situational awareness when familiar triggers appear.
• Implementation focus: Tactical playbooks emerge around known contexts; experimentation is still limited.
• Mapping & measurement: Simple templates help teams refresh maps; leading indicators (e.g. cycle time, adoption) appear.
• Coordination: Informal communities exchange lessons, seeding cross-team alignment.
• Doctrine emphasis: Embrace basic Use a common language patterns and promote challenging of assumptions.

Level 3 — Defined​

Strategy formulation is now intentional. Leadership frames plays around explicit user needs and competitive positioning.

• Posture: Proactive; plans consider multiple scenarios instead of a single heroic bet.
• Implementation focus: Initiatives align to a documented strategy map, with guardrails on scope and expected outcomes.
• Mapping & measurement: Mapping cadences are regular; teams connect map evolution to measurable value and flow metrics.
• Coordination: Cross-functional squads and governance forums coordinate dependencies and sequencing.
• Doctrine emphasis: Doctrine guidance on communication, situational awareness, and challenge becomes institutionalised.

Level 4 — Managed​

The organisation orchestrates multiple strategies simultaneously and deliberately reshapes parts of the ecosystem.

• Posture: Anticipatory; leaders look for leverage to influence market evolution, not just respond.
• Implementation focus: Strategies operate as managed programmes with explicit feedback loops and kill criteria.
• Mapping & measurement: Quantitative dashboards combine map maturity, risk signals, and outcome metrics to guide investment.
• Coordination: Company-wide rhythm integrates product, operations, and enabling teams; doctrine informs decision rights.
• Doctrine emphasis: Advanced doctrine such as bias towards action, optimise flow, and design for constant evolution is actively coached.

Level 5 — Optimising​

Strategy execution is a learning system. Doctrine and data create a virtuous cycle of insight, experimentation, and advantage.

• Posture: Fully proactive; the organisation constantly probes, learns, and refines its portfolio of plays.
• Implementation focus: Strategies are modular and recombined rapidly based on signals from maps and experiments.
• Mapping & measurement: Live mapping integrates telemetry, market sensing, and financials; experiments feed back automatically.
• Coordination: Coordination extends across partners, suppliers, and ecosystems with shared strategy cadences.
• Doctrine emphasis: Continuous improvement doctrine is pervasive; leaders cultivate autonomy with alignment and remove inertia deliberately.

Applying the Model​

1. Diagnose your current level. Use recent strategic initiatives to identify which row of the table resonates. Look for evidence in how decisions were made, not how you wish they were made.
2. Spot the next constraint. For each dimension—posture, implementation, mapping, coordination—note the smallest practice that would unlock the next level.
3. Pair with assessments. When exploring a specific gameplay, use the Strategy Self-Assessment Tool to test whether the required map signals and readiness practices are in place. The maturity level highlights why certain statements are difficult to satisfy.
4. Anchor in doctrine. Revisit relevant Doctrine principles to reinforce behaviours that sustain the new maturity level.
5. Review quarterly. Treat maturity as a dynamic capability; adjust as teams, leadership, and the competitive landscape evolve.

Simplified Three-Stage View​

When communicating with stakeholders who prefer fewer categories, collapse the model into:

• Awareness: Combines Levels 1–2. The organisation recognises Wardley Mapping concepts and begins to reuse practices, but discipline is inconsistent.
• Application: Corresponds to Levels 3–4. Strategy plays are deliberate, measured, and coordinated across teams.
• Mastery: Mirrors Level 5. Doctrine, mapping, and measurement form an adaptive system that continually improves strategic advantage.

Use the simplified view for executive storytelling, then return to the five-level model to plan concrete improvements.