I’m Alison Wyrick-Mendoza, marketing, strategy, and transformation consultant with Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM. My job is to help organizations turn market insights into competitive advantages. But a strategy is only as strong as the data it’s built on. 

I recently sat down with my colleague, Dr. Mahdi Jamshid, Director of Market Intelligence at Wohlers Associates. I wanted to dig into the structural gaps that often prevent even the most ambitious projects or teams from succeeding. Here’s what he had to say: 

Q: Mahdi, if everyone knows annual reports are outdated on the day they’re published, why is the industry still relying on them to build three-year strategies? 

A: Because, for a long time, “annual” was a proxy for “accurate.” There’s a comfort in the big, static report. However, the hidden danger is the Methodology Black Box. When you only see the final number once a year, you can’t see the “how” behind the “what.” We’re moving toward an era where transparency is more valuable. If you can’t pressure-test the calculation yourself, you’re not making a data-driven decision; you’re making a faith-based one. 

Q: The market landscape has shifted so much recently. What’s the biggest change you’re seeing for companies trying to plan for growth? 

 A: It’s fundamentally more blurred. In the past, you could safely stay in your “Industrial” or “Desktop” lane. Today, those categories are dissolving, and the “free money” environment that allowed slower pivots is gone. The real risk isn’t just the pace of development; it’s that the old definitions we use to track the market are becoming obsolete. If you are using 2018 categories to describe a 2026 ecosystem, you’re going to miss the competitors coming for your market from the “wrong” lane. 

 Q: In many organizations, technical insights and financial decision-making never actually meet. Why is this ‘Silo Tax’ so expensive during major investment rounds, and how does a ‘unified landscape’ change the math? 

A: Because having the data isn’t the same as integrating the data. We often see a gap where the technical teams have great competitive insights, but the high-level resource allocation—things like government funding applications or major capital investments—happens in a separate room. That’s the Silo Tax. When the “landscape view” isn’t baked into the actual financial decision-making process, you aren’t just investing; you’re hoping. Access to a unified landscape provides a magnificent ROI because it ensures the people allocating the money and the people building the products are finally looking at the same map. 

Alison’s Take: In my work with strategy and transformation, I see the “Silo Tax” Mahdi mentioned playing out in real-time. We often try to transform a company’s marketing or product roadmap, but if the financial decision-makers and the technical teams are looking at two different versions of the truth, the transformation stalls.  

What I also love about Mahdi’s perspective is that it shifts the focus from “what” we know to “how” we know it. Transparency isn’t just a feature of good intelligence—it’s the foundation of a calculated risk. As we navigate this 2026 ecosystem together, ensuring that every person in the room is looking at the same map is the highest ROI move we can make. 

If annual reports feel more like paintings than maps, the solution isn’t another static snapshot. ASTM’s market intelligence platform is designed to provide a continuously updated, transparent view of the additive manufacturing landscape—so strategy, investment, and execution are grounded in the same reality. 

Explore how a unified, decision-grade view of the market supports smarter planning, faster alignment, and more confident action.

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