partner-ecosystem-expansionlisted

# Partner Ecosystem Expansion Plan which categories of partner to add next and in what order, as a staged roadmap with gates. Be honest about the evidence before anything else: - No peer-reviewed optimal partner-category sequence exists. - Most published "frameworks" for this decision are borrowed strategy grids force-fit onto channels. - Nearly every quoted benchmark comes from a vendor or consultant that profits when the number looks good. What the evidence genuinely supports: - **Adner's minimum viable ecosystem (MVE) + staged expansion + value blueprint** (_The Wide Lens_; _Winning the Right Game_) - the one framework designed for exactly this problem: prove the smallest partner configuration that evidences joint value, then add categories in a deliberate order, gated on evidence. - **The alliance-portfolio-diversity inverted-U** (Jiang, Tao & Santoro 2010, _SMJ_; Lee et al. 2017 meta-analysis) - the field's only independent evidence: partner-type diversity helps firm performance up to a point, then coordination and governance costs dominate. It argues for restraint and sequencing; it prescribes no order. - **Operational coverage/capacity math and stage-gate pilots** - unbranded, but the actual working method: gate every category on capacity, not enthusiasm. McBain/Canalys' channel trifurcation supplies the category taxonomy (never a sequence), and Moore's whole product / bowling alley partially transfers. Name and reject the force-fits when a user brings one: Ansof