Explorers, Villagers, and Town Planners ✍🏻 Drawn to Leadership

The Three Mindsets Companies Need for Success

Back when I was working as an iOS engineer, I joined a company that developed navigation software. In my 4 years at that company, I was part of three different teams. Teams that couldn't have been more different.

I started on the team that built the company's flagship mobile app. While it was revered by its most active users, its reach was second to competing apps. We had a strong agile coaching team and were experimenting with OKRs, cross-functional teams, and outcome-based goals. All in an effort to scale the app to more people. And turn it into a profit center that would support its continued development.

The company lost patience. It merged the unprofitable team with an Israeli startup it had acquired. The startup had a colorful founder. With a grand vision that required millions of euros. Chaos reigned. No one knew exactly how to make it work. But the team was excited about the mission to create the next hockey-stick growth startup.

This time, I was the one who lost patience. After a while, it became clear that the vague path to a successful product and arbitrary decision making wasn't working for me. The Kool-Aid had run out. So I joined an established team working on a location tracking product. Little did I know what that would mean in terms of bureaucracy and politics. Oversized teams demanded on one day. And harsh cost-cutting for the sake of efficiency on another. Depending on how the company saw its bottom line.

A team experimenting with agile ways of working. One that had a crazy idea. And one that maximized profits.

How could three teams in the same company feel so different?

Without knowing it, I discovered Simon Wardley's concept of Explorers, Villagers, Town Planners.

Aptitude and Attitude

A startup operates differently than a corporation. Therefore, people who work in these environments need different skills (aptitude) and mindsets (attitude). While we may first define ourselves as software engineers and engineering managers, the way we think about the challenges we face needs to match as well.

Simon Wardley recognized that there are three essential mindsets. First, he called them Pioneers, Settlers, and Town Planners. Because of the colonialist overtones, the concept was renamed Explorers, Villagers, and Town Planners.

Each mindset represents a way of doing things. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Most companies need all three:

• Explorers (previously called pioneers): Innovators who thrive on uncertainty and focus on discovering new ideas and markets. They are creative risk-takers who are comfortable with ambiguity and failure.
• Villagers (settlers): Practical people who develop and refine innovations and bring them to market. They build sustainable and scalable solutions from early prototypes.
• Town Planners: Systematic optimizers who establish efficient, standardized processes for mature products. They ensure the reliability, stability, and cost-effectiveness of established solutions.

A Brief History of Computing

To make the concept more tangible, the sketchnote in this article lists some milestones in the history of the digital computer:

The genesis of programmable computers is attributed to Charles Babbage, who was the first to conceive of such a concept. Using mechanical components, he envisioned the Analytical Engine in 1833. None of his designs were successfully realized until modern times.

It took until 1941 and Konrad Zuse to build the first electromechanical programmable digital computer. This custom-built system was similar in many ways to modern computers. Both Babbage and Zuse were true Explorers, introducing many advances to the field in their designs.

IBM turned the computer into a product in 1956. The world's first mass-produced computer, the IBM 650, sold nearly 2000 units in the 1950s. As a Villager, IBM was able to produce a relatively inexpensive system that was adaptable to a variety of applications through programs on punched cards.

Today, the virtualization of computing resources in the cloud turns computing into a commodity. AWS introduced this concept in 2002 and is still a major player in the space. Scaling cloud computing to billions of dollars requires the mindset of a Town Planner.

How to Apply the Concept of Explores, Villagers, and Town Planners at Work

Add a Powerful Tagline to Your Resume

To make their resumes stand out, many people include a personal statement. A strong opening paragraph can set the stage for the rest of your application. Ideally, it should demonstrate how you are uniquely qualified for the position.

As a hiring manager, I've read hundreds of resumes in my career. And 99% of the opening statements I've seen couldn't be more bland and generic.

What about adding a personal statement that actually helps you find the right company?

I pride myself on being good at turning ideas into pragmatic collaborations to get initiatives off the ground. So I'm looking for companies that have found a product-market fit. But are not yet mired in bureaucracy.

Among other things, my resume describes my working style as follows:

In the Explores-Villagers-Town-Planner framework, I relate best to the Villagers group.

Link to this sketchnote to describe the concept. And you'll have something interesting to talk about when the company invites you for an interview.

Divide and Conquer Your Business

In his book Zone to Win, Geoffrey A. Moore suggests that you divide your business into four zones: Performance, Productivity, Incubation, and Transformation. Each zone addresses different aspects of business strategy: disruptive innovation, sustainable innovation, revenue performance, and enabling investments.

The concept of dividing your business into different zones can also be done with Simon Wardley's Explores-Villagers-Town-Planner framework. Most likely with a so-called Wardley Map.

But just categorizing your teams as Explorers, Villagers, and Town Planners can already give you tremendous insight into how to best support your teams. And help you find the people with the right attitudes for those teams.