Clarity Maps
Making sense of markets when the old story no longer fits
When the market stops making sense
Most organisations don’t struggle because they lack data, insight, or intelligence.
They struggle because the story they’re using to explain performance no longer fits reality.
Signals multiply.
Markets fragment.
Competitors behave differently.
Customers change faster than internal thinking.
What once felt clear becomes noisy.
What once worked starts to stall.
And decisions that used to be straightforward suddenly feel loaded.
In these moments, doing more analysis rarely helps.
What’s missing isn’t information - it’s a shared, grounded view of what’s actually going on.
Why clarity has become harder to achieve
Today’s market environment creates three persistent problems:
Fragmentation
Data, insight, and opinion are spread across teams, tools, and disciplines - with no single, trusted view of reality.
False precision
Metrics increase, confidence decreases. Numbers offer certainty, but not necessarily understanding.
Misalignment
Leadership teams often hold subtly different interpretations of the market - making decisive action harder than it should be.
The result isn’t inaction.
It’s motion without conviction.
What a Clarity Map is
A Clarity Map is a structured way of helping leadership teams see the full system they’re operating within - clearly, coherently, and honestly.
It brings together:
market and competitive signals
audience and customer behaviour
cultural and category shifts
internal realities and constraints
strategic judgement and experience
Not to generate another report - but to create a shared view of reality that leaders can actually use.
The Map doesn’t predict the future.
It clarifies the present.
And that’s what allows better decisions to follow.
What changes when a shared map exists
When leadership teams have a clear, shared view of reality:
debates become more productive
assumptions are surfaced and tested
trade-offs become explicit
decisions carry less friction
strategy starts to travel through the organisation
Most importantly, people stop arguing about what’s happening
and can focus on what to do next.
What the map is not
A Clarity Map is deliberately not:
a diagnostic framework
a fixed methodology
a templated consultancy product
a substitute for leadership judgement
It’s a tool for sense-making, not certainty.
Its value comes from interpretation - not automation.
When a Clarity Map is most useful
This work is particularly valuable:
when results are changing but explanations don’t hold
when the market feels different, not just tougher
when data is abundant but conviction is missing
when teams are busy but momentum has stalled
when the next decision actually matters
In short: when clarity is more valuable than speed.
In most cases, a Clarity Map is the starting point - not as an abstract exercise, but as a practical way of bringing clarity to situations where the picture has become blurred or contested.
It creates the foundation for:
strategic advisory and leadership conversations
alignment at board or exec level
focused decision-making moments
or deeper involvement where direction needs translating into action
The Map gives everyone a common reference point - a shared view of the system the business is operating within - so discussions move beyond opinion and assumption, and towards informed judgement.
My role is not to “own” the Map, dictate answers, or defend a framework.
It’s to help leaders see through it, challenge it where necessary, and use it confidently as they make decisions that carry real weight.
How I work with the map
A note on judgement and AI
AI and advanced analytics can surface patterns faster than ever before.
But faster signals don’t automatically lead to better decisions.
A Clarity Map treats AI, data, and tooling as inputs - not answers - ensuring that human judgement, context, and accountability remain central.
Clarity doesn’t come from more signal.
It comes from better interpretation.
If this resonates…
If the way this page describes market confusion, misalignment, or stalled momentum feels familiar, a Clarity Map may be a useful place to start.
Sometimes the most valuable work isn’t doing more…
it’s seeing clearly enough to decide what actually matters.