Solutioning & Roadmapping

Step 4: How Do We Get There?

With understanding from Step 3, this step plots the route: identifying obstacles, designing interventions, and sequencing them into an actionable roadmap. Time available shapes not just the route but the "transportation": some solutions require long lead times; others can start immediately.

Finding Solutions

If solutions did not emerge during Step 3, several approaches help identify leverage points and gaps:

Network parameter analysis: Evaluate each network parameter to find where the system is weakest and where small changes could have large effects.

ELSI spectrum scan: Check each category for opportunities overlooked during mapping, especially less-examined domains.

Biomimicry and design thinking: Nature-inspired strategies and human-centered methods generate solutions at network and system level that conventional engineering misses.

Backcasting: Start from the desired end state and work backward to identify the steps needed to reach it.

The Block Transition Strategy

A practical framework for understanding systemic change. Imagine blocks on a table, connected by rubber bands (representing relationships). To move the system toward a new state:

1. Determine agents: Identify who or what can move within the system.
2. Create awareness: Help agents understand where they are and where they need to go.
3. Align goals: Build shared direction among agents through co-creation and dialogue.
4. Enable action: Push (incentivize), pull (attract), lubricate (remove friction), or tilt the table (change the systemic conditions). Tilting the table is the most powerful intervention: it changes the environment so that all blocks move simultaneously.

Building Roadmaps

A roadmap plots all actions along a timeline, typically spanning years or decades. Ten steps toward a complete roadmap:

1. Draw a global timeline from now to the target date.
2. Place the end-goal and set the ambition level.
3. Review whether the ambition is realistic given constraints.
4. Map solutions onto the timeline.
5. Cluster and arrange interventions in channels (e.g., by ELSI category).
6. Identify missing steps and dependencies.
7. Identify the transition phase: the critical period where old and new systems coexist.
8. Assign responsible parties to each intervention.
9. Set milestones and reporting moments.
10. Create a concrete action plan and evaluate.

Classify each intervention as Change (modify existing), Start (introduce new), Stop (phase out), or Replace (substitute). Each type requires different management. Sequence for synergy: earlier actions should support later ones, creating positive cascading effects.