The Ecosystem Diagnostic
Use when you need to understand your company's ecosystem position, identify single points of failure, assess market maturity, or design strategy that matches your trophic level.
A seven-step audit for diagnosing your true position in a business ecosystem, identifying critical dependencies, and designing strategy based on ecological reality rather than organizational ego.
When to Use The Ecosystem Diagnostic
Use when you need to understand your company's ecosystem position, identify single points of failure, assess market maturity, or design strategy that matches your trophic level. Essential for strategic planning, risk assessment, and competitive positioning.
How to Apply
Map Your Ecosystem Position
Identify where you sit in the ecosystem's structure: Keystone Species, Ecosystem Engineer, Apex Predator, Platform Intermediary, Application/Service, Symbiont/Partner, or Pioneer Species.
Questions to Ask
- If you disappeared tomorrow, would your ecosystem collapse?
- Do others build businesses on your infrastructure?
- Do you aggregate users/traffic and capture attention?
- Do you connect buyers and sellers for a fee?
- Do you deliver end-user value using someone else's platform?
- Are you tightly coupled to another company's success?
- Are you colonizing a new market with no infrastructure?
Outputs
- Ecosystem Position Map
- Dependencies with criticality scores
- Power dynamics visualization
Identify Critical Dependencies
Map dependencies that could collapse your business: single suppliers, platform lock-in, payment processors, geographic concentration, key customers, regulatory dependencies.
Questions to Ask
- Is there one vendor you can't replace?
- Does one platform control distribution?
- Does one company handle transactions?
- Is production/talent in one location?
- Does one customer represent >30% revenue?
- Does one rule enable your business?
Outputs
- Dependency mapping table
- Risk scores (1-5)
- Mitigation plans for 4-5 rated dependencies
Assess Successional Stage
Determine whether your market is Pioneer (absent infrastructure, scarce talent, absent regulation), Seral (emerging infrastructure, growing talent, rising competition), or Climax (mature infrastructure, abundant talent, brutal competition).
Questions to Ask
- Is infrastructure absent, emerging, or mature?
- Is talent scarce, growing, or abundant?
- Is regulation absent, emerging, or enforced?
- Is competition low, rising, or brutal?
- Is customer behavior experimental, segmenting, or habitual?
Outputs
- Market stage classification
- Strategy recommendation (r-selection vs K-selection)
- Mismatch identification
Design for Trophic Position
Identify your trophic level (Infrastructure, Platform, Application, Aggregator) and ensure your revenue model matches. Infrastructure captures small % of massive volume; Aggregators capture attention.
Questions to Ask
- Are you Level 1 (infrastructure), Level 2 (platform), Level 3 (application), or Level 4 (aggregator)?
- Does your revenue model match your trophic position?
- Are you trying to capture margins inappropriate for your level?
Outputs
- Trophic level classification
- Revenue model alignment assessment
- Pricing strategy recommendations
Evaluate Invasive Species Risk
Determine if you're experiencing ecological release (regulatory gaps, capital asymmetry, naive competition) or defending against an invader.
Questions to Ask
- Are rules absent, ambiguous, or weakly enforced?
- Can you subsidize at a loss longer than competitors?
- Are incumbents slow to adapt or unaware of threat?
- Is the market served by many small, local players?
- Do you understand local conditions better than global competitors?
Outputs
- Invasive species status assessment
- Attack or defense strategy
- Timeline for regulatory arrival
Build Ecosystem Resilience
Audit geographic diversity, supplier diversity, customer diversity, technical redundancy, and talent concentration. Address any factor scored 1-2.
Questions to Ask
- Are operations in multiple regions?
- Do you have backup suppliers for critical inputs?
- Is revenue spread across many customers?
- Can systems fail without business collapse?
- Is critical expertise held by few people?
Outputs
- Resilience scores (1-5)
- Single point of failure identification
- Diversification action plan
Monitor for Trophic Cascades
Set up monitoring for upstream changes (infrastructure pricing/policy), downstream changes (aggregator behavior/demand shifts), regulatory cascades, competitive cascades, and technology cascades.
Questions to Ask
- What changes at levels above you would cascade down?
- What changes at levels below you would cascade up?
- What regulatory changes could affect your level?
- What new entrants could disrupt adjacent levels?
- What technology breakthroughs could enable new capabilities?
Outputs
- Cascade monitoring system
- Quarterly review process
- Top 3 cascade contingency plans