DSD Fundamentals

Use the prompts on your worksheet to generate a high-level context statement:

1. Broad Ecosystem: Identify the general domain or sector this ecosystem is serving.
2. High-Level Challenges: List key obstacles or issues within this domain that we need to address. These could be, for example, existing pain points for consumers, or new legislation that requires challenging changes.
3. High-Level Opportunities: Highlight promising possibilities or advantages that could help us move forward. Consider what new technologies or initiatives are on the horizon.
4. Workshop Scope: Define any key conditions, constraints, or rules that will guide your discussions. Clarify what is explicitly excluded from this workshop. These could be geographic, such as "UK only", or sector specific such as "public transport only".

Example Context Statement:

"This workshop will explore the future of mobility within the UK, with a focus on all forms of land transport, excluding flights. As the country faces increasing demands for sustainable and efficient transport solutions, understanding and developing the mobility landscape is crucial."

Steps to Complete:

1. Brainstorm Actors: List all human and non-human entities that participate in your ecosystem. Include organisations, individuals, software agents, autonomous devices, and any other relevant stakeholders.
2. Categorise Actors: Group related actors into categories e.g., services providers, infrastructure providers and end users.
3. Identify Factors: “things” that might restrict, facilitate, or otherwise influence the actors or supply chain. Think PESTLE: political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental factors. For example, include regulatory requirements, market conditions, competing services, technological dependencies, and social/cultural considerations.
4. Map Dependencies: Note which actors and factors depend on or influence each other. Use arrows or connecting lines to show relationships.
5. Prioritise: Rank actors and factors by their importance to the service's success. Focus your design efforts on the highest-priority items.

To do this, you will create detailed “portraits” of key actors:

1. Select Key Actors: Choose 3-6 of the most important actors from your previous activity (use an additional worksheet if necessary). Focus on those that are significant in relation to your context statement.
2. Assets: What are their strengths, resources, or capabilities an actor brings (e.g., expertise, infrastructure, technology).
3. Pressures: What challenges, constraints, frictions or risks do they face (e.g., regulations, costs, competition).
4. Goals: What outcomes do they want to achieve (e.g., growth, efficiency, sustainability) What values drive their decisions? What are they aiming for, beyond what they currently do?

Steps to Complete:

1. List All Interactions: For each actor pair, identify how they interact. Think of both explicit and implicit exchanges, services, and interactions between actors.
2. Identify Value Flows: Value can be goods and services, as well as intangible value such as governance, regulation, and influence.
3. Define Relationship Type: Categorize relationships as transactional (exchanging value), informational (sharing data), hierarchical (authority/dependency), or collaborative (working together).
4. Prioritise relationships: Decide and note which relationships are the most valuable or interesting.

Relationship Mapping Tips:

• This is an exploratory activity. You're looking for both well-known and perhaps under-appreciated relationships and transactions across the ecosystem.
• Consider which direct value is flowing it, if it's flowing both ways place it on the horizonatal dotted line

Steps to Complete:

1. Select Priority Actor: Choose an actor and asset that seem high-value or interesting.
2. Describe Capability: Describe what the actor, through use of the asset, offers others in the ecosystem — this is the asset’s capabilities.
3. Select Primary Capability: Identify the capability with the greatest potential value in relation to your objectives — this will be your primary capability.
4. Expand Capability Details: Define this primary capability in more detail, clarifying how it creates value and for whom.

Steps to Complete:

1. Identify Values: List the values and impacts that may be created by the capability for each actor. These could be tangible values such as a new revenue stream of data or intangible, such as trust or reputation.
2. Rate Impact: Rate the value of the primary capability to different ecosystem actors, from negative to positive.

Steps to Complete:

1. Select a Primary Scenario: Using your primary capability, identify a possible use case.
2. Note: The actor providing the capability might not be directly involved in the use case transactions.
3. Complete Use Case Statement: The use case definition steps will help you to complete the following statement:

Example Use Case Statement:

As a: [Actor], I own a: [Asset], Which can provide: [Primary Capability], This can benefit: [Actor], By giving them: [Opportunity], This may also involve: [Other Actor in the Relationship].

Steps to Complete:

1. Prioritise capability: Choose a primary capability to focus on.
2. Select Key Actors: Select five actors and position them around the edge of your diagram. Feel free to include secondary actors identified in your use cases.
3. Indicate Connections: Draw connections between actors as you consider how your chosen capability affects them. Use the key to indicate the nature of each relationship (positive, neutral, or negative).

Assess the Decentralised Capability:

• A higher number of positive connections suggests that the capability may have a broadly beneficial impact and be sustainable within the wider ecosystem.