Brutally, "at the edge of crime", simplified overview of the Wardley Maps technique integrated with Lean Startup and Strategic Domain-Driven Design. Presented at A2B Accelerator, Jerusalem on April 20 2017.

1. Software Strategy for
Startups
Do you have it? Do you need one?
Asher Sterkin
asher.sterkin@gmail.com
A2B Accelerator
April 20, 2017

2. About Myself
● Close to 40 years of experience in the software technology field
● VP Technology, Chief Technology Advisor Group, NDS (2010 - 2012)
● Distinguished Engineer, Office of CTO, Cisco Engineering (2012 - 2016)
● Today CTO at IRKI
● Focusing on software product line strategy
○ Lean Startup
○ Wardley Maps
○ Strategic Domain-Driven Design
○ Cynefin
○ Promise Theory
○ ...

3. Do you have a software strategy?
Do you need one?

4. Cisco Confidential© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 4

5. Cisco Confidential© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 5

7. Lean Startup
Something to Start With

8. Lean Startup Strategy

9. Business Model Canvas
Key
Partners
Key
Activities
Value
Propositions
Customer
Relationships
Customer
Segments
Key
Resources
Channels
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
?

10. Value Proposition Canvas to Risque?

11. Complex Adaptive Systems

12. Cause-Effect are Coherent Only in Retrospect

13. Cisco Confidential© 2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 13
Unpredictable
Irreproducible How one could have
any strategy then?

14. Business Model Canvas …
the end of long road

15. The Strategy Cycle
Source: “Wardley Maps: Topographical
Intelligence in Business”
Could help with avoiding
gravest mistakes, but by no
means guarantees a
success.

16. Everything Evolves
● Definition of Stakeholders
● Understanding of their needs
● System capabilities (features)
● System components
● Data
● Knowledge
● Operational practices
Co-evolution of:

17. VM Ware
AWS Dynamo DBCassandra as a
Service
Evolution of NoSQL DB
CAP Theorem
BASE vs ACID
Google BigTable Dynamo DB
Paper
Cassandra DB
Netflix Cassandra
Ring on AWS
G C P U
AWS EC2......

18. AIaaS
Productize
(e.g. MobileEye)
Some Typical Forms of a Startup Strategic Play
Apply
(e.g. 3D scan and
print for Art)
G C P U
Innovate
(e.g. AR, VR, 3DP, …)
FaaS
PaaS
IaaS
Custom Internals
Commoditize
(e.g. Waze)
Improve (better mouse trap)
Substitute
(e.g. iPhone)
Mature
Product/Service

19. It Was Not Predictable, Yet Anticipatable
AWS - winner
Netflix - neutral +
DataSax - loser(?)

20. Future Points of War (How Soon is Soon?)

21. Know Thy Domain
“Not all parts of a large system will be equally
well-designed”
Maintaining one, “rule ‘em all”, model would be
impractical if possible at all

22. Strategic Domain-Driven Design
Vernon Vaughn, “Implementing Domain-Driven Design”
Prefer utility AIaaS
Prefer product
or utility SaaS
Major effort
Pull up useful
abstractions
Proper timing for API
Push down support and
generic stuff; control
through OSS contributions

23. AI into Context
People
Things
Interaction
Adapters
VR, AR, VA,
V2T, T2S,
NLP, Video
Application
Services
Dynamic state
machines
Domain
Services
Classifications
Complex Event
Processors
Anomaly
Detection
Customized AIGeneric AI

24. “Consensus is poisonous
for innovation”,
D. Snowden