Recently, I stumbled upon a revelation that seems to echo across organisations in various industries: in the final stages of longstanding contracts, a sudden misalignment emerges between the products or services offered and the current market demands.

This discovery wasn’t entirely unexpected, given my Wardley Mapping experiences. But how does this insight translate into action for us, both individually and as a company?

As architects, especially in the area of consulting and secondment, it is important to continually evolve. Clients don’t just seek relevant expertise, but also continually added value from external partners. What do we as consultant-architects do, to keep an eye on our ‘continuity’ over time? How do we ensure that we remain at the forefront of innovation, rather than becoming outdated relics of the past?

This blog post describes my personal journey in which I will delve into my strategic approach to remaining relevant in our industry, using Wardley’s strategy cycle as my guiding compass:

This is our first blog in a series where we interview our consultants about their projects, current challenges, and how they approach these challenges. We build up the story in three parts: first, we sketch the context in which the project takes place; next, we look at the assignment and responsibilities. Finally, we dive into the approach taken and lessons learned by the consultant. In this first episode, we interview Aino Andriessen, IT-Architect.

As every year, Gartner released their list of top technological trends in 2024. On a high-level some of these technologies will most likely serve your business and consumer needs. This blog will select a few trends, connect these to some (European) drivers of this change, and points to some of the area’s that will need attention in order to make this trend happen.