Skip Trap
Attempting to jump from pioneer to mature stage without building intermediate capabilities - adopting late-stage practices before mid-stage foundations exist.
You cannot skip successional stages any more than forests can skip from lichens to redwoods.
Ecological succession cannot skip stages - forests cannot jump from lichens to redwoods. Each stage creates necessary conditions for subsequent stages through soil building, nutrient accumulation, and environmental modification.
Business Application of Skip Trap
Attempting to jump from pioneer to mature stage without building intermediate capabilities - adopting late-stage practices before mid-stage foundations exist. Series A startups hiring VPs and implementing enterprise sales process before product-market fit exemplify the Skip Trap. The result is successional debt that comes due in crisis.