Tool: Emerging Technology Wheel Template

Published 14 April 2022 - ID G00765549 - 3 min read

By Analyst(s): Marty Resnick, David Cearley

Initiatives: Technology Innovation

Organizations rely on enterprise architecture and technology

innovation leaders, like CTOs, to navigate through the hype about
emerging technologies. Business stakeholders require a simple
visualization informing on obstacles, opportunities and outcomes
each provides.

Additional Perspectives

■ Summary Translation: Tool: Emerging Technology Wheel Template

(11 May 2022)

When to Use
Gartner offers many ways to equip enterprise architecture (EA) and technology leaders
with tools to lead their organizations in their response to disruptive and emerging
technologies. Gartner’s Hype Cycles provide insight into the technologies and innovations
in different domains and where they are in their life cycles (see Create Your Own Hype
Cycle With Gartner’s Hype Cycle Builder 2021). The emerging tech radar is a tool to help
enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders recommend and prioritize
technology initiatives while informing their organization of the critical technologies to be
aware of and potentially act on (see Toolkit: How to Build an Emerging Technology
Radar).

Each emerging technology offers promises to create opportunities to fundamentally

transform business and lead to digital transformation. However, unless organizations are
able to discern and determine the specific i obstacles, opportunities and outcomes that
each individual technology brings, they will just be spinning their wheels, focusing on
every new technology introduced with no real direction

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 Emerging technology wheels (ETW) are used to create a snapshot and simple
visualization for each technology that an organization is tracking. ETWs are most
effectively used to complement the emerging tech radar and offer a drill-down technology
profile of each technology being tracked. The ETW also provides a single-page strategy of
each technology that is customized to target specific business strategies of the
organization (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: An Emerging Technology Wheel for Metaverse

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 The ETW is made of four concentric circles describing a specific emerging technology (in
the center). The ETW is divided into equal parts (six in this case) organized by specific
impact areas. Each area is defined as follows, starting from the outermost area of the
ETW:

1. Impacts — The wheel is typically divided into impact/benefit areas that are labeled
on the outside of each slice of the wheel. Impacts are specific areas, or domains,
that the particular technology specifically helps support. These should be color-
coded.

2. Obstacles — These are the specific challenges of implementing the technology.

Typically, they will be specific to the organization or industry.

3. Opportunities — This circle shows the specific sample recommended use cases that
the organization should initially explore to prove out the value of the emerging
technology. Fill the dots with colors that match the applicable impacts.

4. Outcomes — Business outcomes are expressed as a specific and measurable result

that the emerging technology will provide (see How Enterprise Architects Use OKRs
to Deliver Business Outcomes).

ETWs are “living documents” that should be updated on a regular basis as new impacts,
obstacles, opportunities and outcomes arise for each profiled technology. ETWs are also
designed to be shared across the organization to business leaders and IT alike.

Recommended by the Authors

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2021

CTO Insights: Building a Process for Trendspotting and Innovation

How Enterprise Architects Use OKRs to Deliver Business Outcomes

Toolkit: How to Create Business Scenarios That Drive Digital Disruption Innovation

Toolkit: How to Build an Emerging Technology Radar

Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022

Predicts 2022: 4 Technology Bets for Building the Digital Future

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 Disclaimer: Unless otherwise marked for external use, the items in this Gartner Tool are for
internal noncommercial use by the licensed Gartner client. The materials contained in this
Tool may not be repackaged or resold. Gartner makes no representations or warranties as
to the suitability of this Tool for any particular purpose, and disclaims all liabilities for any
damages, whether direct, consequential, incidental or special, arising out of the use of or
inability to use this material or the information provided herein.

Document Revision History

Toolkit: How to Create an Emerging Technology Wheel - 11 December 2019

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