Me : Mapping requires you to answer five questions 1) “Who are the users?” 2) “What are the users’ needs?” 3) “What capabilities do we need to meet those needs?” 4) “What components do those capabilities need?” 5) “How evolved are these components? Yes, asking those five basic questions is very challenging for busy people who can't afford the time to think about it whilst spending hundreds of millions on efforts in which they don't understand - 6) “Who are the users?” 7) “What are the users’ needs?” 8) “What capabilities do we need to meet those needs?” 9) “What components do those capabilities need?” 10) “How evolved are these components?” X : Sarcasm? But that's unfair. Take needs? Do you mean needs or wants? How do you identify those? Me : “What are the users’ needs” is not merely a list of desired features or expressed wants. Instead, it is a deeper exploration of the fundamental problems users are trying to solve, the goals they are striving to achieve, or the outcomes they require. The map gives you that context (it should have a clearly visible purpose). On a map - each capability, each component, ultimately traces its existence back to fulfilling one or more needs. If not, then its value and necessity must be questioned. Needs also evolve, they are not static. This is why mapping needs helps in highlighting where R&D is required but also it reminds us that what might be a novel, delightful feature today (addressing a latent need) can become a basic expectation tomorrow. This evolutionary aspect means that understanding user needs is an ongoing activity. It’s also worth separating needs into those which are expected and those which we have a hypothesis about. Expected needs are the more common, functional requirements that users have come to anticipate as standard. Hypotheses about future needs, are those core, often unproven, requirements tied to the unique value proposition. This matters as users don’t value what is expected but that which differentiates. Common pitfall is overinvesting in expected needs before core hypothesis is tested.