The whole idea is based on the notion that we have excellent visual reasoning skills in actual physical spaces where position and motion make sense. Therefore, Wardley maps use a 2D space (see Fig 1), where one dimension represents the Visibility of Value and the second one represents the Evolution of the Capability. Genius.
Visibility of Value combines the actual value with its visibility; this helps resolve the conflict that often happens between engineers and salespeople: one says something is of high value, and the other says, “Okay, but it is not visible.” Imagine this dimension as something like the time of day: night is low visibility, and noon is high visibility. This helps explain why it’s so difficult to get feedback and make things work smoothly together when they are buried deep in the value chain. At night, we have more trouble seeing the details of an object. Of course, if your eyes are used to the dark, you can be pretty efficient there, but a customer would have quite some trouble navigating it.
Evolution is even more interesting. On the left-hand side, you have the spark that starts everything, and gradually you go through iterations to reach PoC (Proof of Concept), prototype, MVP (Minimum Viable Product), evolution, and finally become a commodity. This doesn’t mean that you always travel through the entire dimension; it’s just that, in principle, things can evolve, and in fact — on a global scale — things typically evolve into a commodity over time. But this is not an isometric space; in fact, moving from a mature product to a commodity and from PoC to prototype requires quite different approaches.