An open research practice
for partnership operators.
Most partnership research is vendor-funded, proprietary, or anecdotal. Bluethread publishes transparent, open-methodology research that operators can inspect, challenge, and build upon.
Survey now open. Results publish August 2026.
Help build the industry's first open benchmark for modern partnership organizations.
Your responses directly contribute to publicly available research that benefits the entire ecosystem. 7 minutes. Respondents get the data first.
Current research
AI Partner Program Index — Edition 1
Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google have committed more than $1B to partner ecosystems in five months. BlueThread scores all three on one seven-dimension framework.
Partner Intelligence: Anthropic vs OpenAI
A side-by-side read of how the two frontier-model vendors are building partner ecosystems — programs, motions, attach, and where each is winning.
The Benchmark Was Wrong: What AI-Native Partnerships Actually Requires
Hours saved is the wrong benchmark. The three bars AI has to clear before partnerships becomes a real revenue function — live deal context, execution (not generation), and a sanctioned cross-company layer.
The Partner Reset: It's Already Happening
Field research on how the co-sell layer is being rebuilt — and the diagnostic that scores where your program sits today.
Coming research
A rolling roadmap of the studies we're scoping, fielding, or writing. Subscribe below to be notified when each ships.
AI in Partnerships
How partnership teams are deploying — and gating — AI across sourcing, co-sell, and attribution.
Partner Compensation Benchmark
Base, variable, and quota structures for PMs, CSMs, and channel AEs across ARR bands.
Ecosystem Technology Stack
The tools operators actually run — PRM, co-sell, attribution, marketplace ops — and what they replace.
Marketplace Adoption Report
AWS, Azure, and GCP marketplace mix, listing depth, and co-sell attach by segment.
Co-Sell Benchmark
Sourced vs. influenced ratios, cycle times, and win rates across hyperscaler and ISV motions.
Partner Productivity Index
Revenue per partner, ramp time, and the operating patterns that separate top-decile programs.
Public methodology
Every report ships with a written methodology document — what we measured, how we measured it, and what we excluded.
Published dataset
The underlying data table is downloadable so readers can rerun the analysis, dispute a number, or extend the work.
Disclosed AI assistance
Where AI helped with research, drafting, or synthesis, we say so.
Compiled with research assistance from Claude. All methodology and editorial judgments are Bluethread's.
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Need practical implementation guidance?
Research explains what is changing. Field Notes explains what to do next — operator frameworks, playbooks, and execution.
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