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Partnerships Patterns

Pick partners you will still want next year.

Methods for building business partnerships both sides still value a year later. For founders, partnership managers and business development teams, the cards cover deciding whether to partner at all, finding and qualifying partners, choosing a model, designing what each side gains, launching with a joint plan, running and measuring the relationship, and renewing, resetting or ending it well.

49 cards · 7 suits · 5 recipes · 2 missions

What's inside

• Decide7Should this really be a partnership?
• Find7Have you found a partner that truly fits?
• Shape7Is the model sized to the commitment?
• Value7Does each side get enough to stay?
• Launch7Can both teams act on the agreement tomorrow?
• Run7Are you sure the partnership is still healthy?
• End7Have you agreed how this could end well?

A few cards

Decide

Build, Buy Or Partner

Before you shake hands, check that a partner really beats doing it yourself or buying it.

Find

Partner Profile

Describe the ideal partner by customers, capability, size and ways of working.

Value

Joint Value Proposition

Write one statement of what the shared customer gets that neither of you could give alone.

One card in full

Run

Partnership Health Check

Score value, trust, activity and alignment on a regular rhythm, from both sides.

Results tell you how the partnership did last quarter. They say little about whether it will still be working next year. A short health check, filled in by both sides, catches the slow problems: fading trust, misaligned goals, people quietly losing interest.

How to use it

1. Write four headings: value (are we each getting what we expected?), trust (do we believe each other?), activity (are we doing what we planned?), alignment (do we still want the same things?).
2. Under each, write two short statements people can score from 1 to 5.
3. Ask several people on each side to score separately and anonymously.
4. Compare the two sides' scores; the gaps are often more telling than the averages.
5. Discuss the lowest scores and biggest gaps at the next review, and agree one action for each.
6. Repeat every quarter or half-year and track the trend.

Example

A hypothetical engineering consultancy and a construction firm run a twice-yearly check. Trust scores are high on both sides, but the consultancy rates value far lower. That opens a conversation about scope that the results alone would have hidden.

Watch out

• Only asking the sponsors. The working teams know first when something is wrong.

It complements the Shared Scorecard, gives early warning of Drift Signals, and feeds the Joint Business Review.

Recipes

• Design The Partnership: Pick how deep to go, write what the customer gets from both of you, balance what each side gives, choose how money moves, settle who holds the customer and agree the way out.
• Kick Off Right: Put the basics on one page, pair people at every level, plan the first year, agree the numbers, equip the partner's staff and start with a small project that can win quickly.
• Revive A Stalled Partnership: Score how the relationship feels on both sides, read the warning signs, check who kept their word, decide whether to fix it, reset the deal if needed and confirm it in a joint review.
• Shortlist Partners: Describe the partner you need, map who already serves your customers, compare accounts, score the candidates, check them properly and confirm their people would gain from it.
• Should We Partner?: Compare partnering with building or buying, pin down the gap, list what you offer, count the overhead, check for clashes with your own channels and write the case in two sentences.

Missions

• End a partnership well: from a partnership that no longer pays its way to an exit plan with notice, a customer transition, an asset split and an ending review.
• Propose a partnership: from a name on a list of possible partners to a one-page proposal with the thesis, joint value, model, give-get balance and a first project.

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