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How to jump-start mapping?

First, you need an idea obviously, but we already have that. The idea is to go on holiday without your cat. A terrible idea if you ask your cat, but the world is not a perfect place, not even for our feline companions.

Another thing you should decide is the opportunity. What do you expect to happen because of our process? It’s easy to confuse opportunity, outcome, and output, not just because they all start with “o”, but because some people use the terms interchangeably.

The outputs are products of the map’s usage. In other words, whatever happens because of the map is an output of the map.

In our example, opening a can of cat food is the output, but so is the cat biting our cat-sitter. We want to minimize outputs. Your resources are always limited. Even if you somehow got virtually countless people and money for this project, time will never be unlimited. Throwing more money at a project is probably the worst thing you can do, so it makes sense to do as few things as possible.

The outcomes are the results of the map’s usage; in other words, how running the whole process impacts the outside world.

For example, the cat will not be hungry after the feeding process. While opening a can of cat food or putting food in front of the cat are outputs, the outcome can be a well-fed cat or a starving cat. We will not know the outcome until the map is put in production. This means that we will only know how our map changed our cat’s life when we come home from the holiday, but not before we board the plane.

The opportunity is the desired outcome we plan to achieve with the aid of the map. This is how we want to change the world.

We want our cat to be well-fed and healthy and, most importantly, happy while we are away. This is our opportunity, the outcome we would love to happen. We will know the results of our map after it's put into practice. For now, let’s aim for a happy cat. It goes without saying that we want to have the biggest possible opportunity. It's human nature to be greedy, but cats also share this character trait with us.

Mapping will help you to achieve the most, with as little as possible. In other words, maximize the opportunity, while minimizing the outputs.

Most of the time you should start mapping with the opportunity. It’s important to initiate the discussion and the map with something positive and impactful. It also helps you focus on the goal, and grabs the attention of your conversation partners from the first minute. This is also why the first sentence of this chapter is, “In this book, I will change your life”.

If you have an idea and opportunity, grab a piece of paper and a pen, and you can start drawing the solution.