菜单
Use when facing dominant incumbents on multiple fronts where direct competition is impossible — to identify the one viable sequence of achievable positions that creates a platform for reaching the ultimate objective, rather than attacking what cannot be won
默认使用会先检查来源的 Prompt；你也可以切换为直接命令，或下载本地副本。
决定是否安装前，请先阅读 SKILL.md，以及 SkillsMP 当前展示的配套文件。
用 Codex 或 Claude 帮你安装 复制这段 Prompt，粘贴到 Codex、Claude 或其他助手里，让它检查 Skill 页面并帮你完成安装。
直接命令不会经过审查 Prompt；运行前请先检查来源。
npx skills add https://github.com/jeffreytse/grimoire-core --skill apply-viable-path-analysis命令会保持在同一行。复制前请横向滚动并检查完整内容。
想先保存到本地？可下载 SkillsMP 当前能够提供的文件。
Use when comparing very differently-titled roles for compensation banding, leveling, or organizational design — score each role's inherent Know-How (knowledge, skills, experience required), Problem Solving (complexity and freedom of thinking, scored as a percentage of Know-How), and Accountability (freedom to act and magnitude of impact), because job titles and informal seniority perceptions vary inconsistently across departments and don't provide a comparable basis on their own.
Use when many people request your scarce time, mentorship, or expertise and you cannot evaluate their genuine commitment level from a conversation alone — require a specific, costly, objectively verifiable unit of self-directed output (a set number of completed attempts) before engaging, because genuine commitment is what a conversation cannot reliably reveal but a completed, verifiable body of work can.
Use when deciding how to allocate a manager's or leader's limited time across competing activities — before defaulting to whatever is most urgent, estimate each candidate activity's leverage (how many people's output it affects, for how long, and whether it requires your specific position), because a manager's actual output is the output of the organization under their influence, not their own individual task completion.
基于 SOC 职业分类
正在显示 SKILL.md
| name | apply-viable-path-analysis |
| description | Use when facing dominant incumbents on multiple fronts where direct competition is impossible — to identify the one viable sequence of achievable positions that creates a platform for reaching the ultimate objective, rather than attacking what cannot be won |
| source | 隆中对 (Lóng zhōng duì) "The Longzhong Plan" — Zhuge Liang's strategic analysis for Liu Bei (207 AD); Chen Shou "Records of the Three Kingdoms" 三国志 "Zhuge Liang Zhuan" (280–290 AD); Luo Guanzhong "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" 三国演义 (~1400 AD); Moore "Crossing the Chasm" (1991) — beachhead strategy; Christensen "The Innovator's Dilemma" (1997) — foothold markets |
| tags | ["three-kingdoms","viable-path","zhuge-liang","bridgehead","sequencing","incumbents","startup","beachhead"] |
| verified | true |
When direct competition on the primary front is impossible, map every competitive front against its dominant player, classify each as uncontestable, neutralisable, or winnable, identify the sequence from first winnable position to ultimate objective, and hold that sequence against premature deviation.
Origin: In 207 AD, Liu Bei was a warlord without a state, his forces repeatedly defeated, dependent on the goodwill of the Liu Biao of Jing Zhou — a borrowed position with no strategic future. He sought counsel from Zhuge Liang, who had not yet entered public life. Zhuge Liang's response — later recorded as the Longzhong Plan (隆中对) in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms — began not with what Liu Bei could do, but with a systematic mapping of what he could not: Cao Cao controlled the north with overwhelming military and administrative capability — contesting it directly was impossible. Sun Quan controlled the southeast, entrenched for three generations — fighting was suicidal, alliance was possible. Jing Zhou was vulnerable — its ruler was weak, and the Han ruling family could claim historical rights to govern it. Yi Zhou (Sichuan) was rich and defensible but its ruler was incompetent. Zhuge Liang's conclusion: take Jing Zhou first, use it as a staging base to take Yi Zhou, build from that double base, ally with Sun Quan against Cao Cao, and wait for a crisis in the north that would create the opening for a final campaign. The Longzhong Plan converted "the situation is hopeless" into "here is the one path." Liu Bei followed it. Shu Han became one of the Three Kingdoms.
Adopted by: The Longzhong sequencing logic — identify the one winnable front, build from it, and hold the sequence against premature deviation — underlies the most disciplined competitive entries in technology and business. Amazon's original entry into books was not the ultimate objective (Amazon planned from early to be the "everything store") — books were the beachhead: high margin, infinite shelf variety advantage, no single dominant online competitor, audience comfortable with online ordering. The book beachhead funded the expansion into adjacent categories in sequence. Moore's Crossing the Chasm formalises the same logic: a beachhead segment that can be fully dominated, used as a reference base to cross to adjacent segments in sequence. Christensen's foothold market analysis identifies the same pattern: entrants who win in the foothold that the incumbent cannot profitably defend, then expand sequentially into the incumbent's core.
Impact: The alternative to viable path analysis when facing dominant incumbents is either attacking what cannot be won (producing a decisive defeat that exhausts remaining resources) or choosing inaction (producing slow atrophy). Both end the same way. The Longzhong Plan's contribution is identifying the third option: the sequence from an achievable first position to an ultimately sufficient position, holding the sequence against premature deviation even when deviation feels attractive. Liu Bei's generals pushed repeatedly for early northern campaigns; Zhuge Liang refused each time until the strategic conditions from the Longzhong Plan were genuinely met.
Why best: Viable path analysis is the discipline that separates a coherent multi-year strategy from a series of opportunistic tactical moves. Opportunistic moves may each be individually defensible but collectively produce no cumulative position — each win is unconnected to the next, and the ultimate objective remains as distant as before. The Longzhong Plan requires that each position, once won, directly enables the next. The sequence is not chronological — it is causal.
Sources: Chen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms 三国志 — "Zhuge Liang Zhuan" 諸葛亮傳 (280–290 AD); Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三国演义 (~1400 AD); Moore, Crossing the Chasm (1991); Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma (1997)
Begin with a complete inventory, not a filtered one. Omitting a front because it seems unwinnable does not remove it from the competitive landscape — it simply removes it from your analysis. For each front, identify:
| Front | Dominant player | Their position source | Their primary vulnerability |
|---|---|---|---|
| North | Cao Cao | Military supremacy + administrative capacity + political legitimacy | Overextension into multiple simultaneous campaigns |
| Southeast | Sun Quan | Entrenched three generations + geographic advantage (Yangtze) | Vulnerability to northern pressure — needs an ally |
| Jing Zhou | Liu Biao (weak) | Nominal Han authority only | No military successor, competing heirs |
| Yi Zhou | Liu Zhang (weak) | Geographic isolation | Incompetence — local officials are disaffected |
The dominant player's position source matters because it tells you what would have to be true for the position to be contestable. A dominant player whose position rests on military superiority is contestable differently than one whose position rests on regulatory licensing, network effects, or installed base.
| Classification | Definition | Strategic response |
|---|---|---|
| Uncontestable | Cannot be won regardless of resources committed | Do not engage; avoid triggering a direct response |
| Neutralisable | Cannot be won, but the dominant player can be prevented from attacking you or made into an ally | Negotiate, ally, or create mutual deterrence |
| Winnable | Can be won with focused effort from your current resource position | Identify as potential bridgehead |
A front classified as uncontestable is not permanently uncontestable — it becomes contestable when the dominant player becomes overextended, loses key assets, or encounters an internal crisis. The viable path analysis identifies the conditions under which an uncontestable front becomes contestable, and holds that classification as a future milestone rather than a closed door.
Do not self-deceive about classification. The most common error is classifying an uncontestable front as winnable because the ultimate objective requires winning it. If the resources and position required to win the front genuinely exceed what can be assembled, it is uncontestable — regardless of how important winning it would be to the ultimate objective.
Among all winnable fronts, the bridgehead is the one whose conquest most directly enables the next position in the sequence toward the ultimate objective. The bridgehead must satisfy:
Jing Zhou was Liu Bei's bridgehead: Liu Biao was dying with no strong successor, Liu Bei had a historical claim (Han ruling family), and Jing Zhou's position between the Yangtze and the north made it both defensible and a staging point for Yi Zhou.
The bridgehead is not the ultimate objective. Resist the temptation to choose the bridgehead for its ultimate-objective proximity rather than for its current-position accessibility.
The sequence from bridgehead to ultimate objective must be causal, not chronological. Each step must provide something that directly enables the next:
| Position | What it provides | What it enables |
|---|---|---|
| Jing Zhou | Agricultural base, military recruitment zone, geographic access to Yi Zhou | Resource platform for Yi Zhou campaign |
| Yi Zhou (Sichuan) | Defensible base, industrial output, depth for prolonged campaign | Sufficient resource base for northern campaign |
| Allied with Sun Quan | Mutual deterrence against Cao Cao | Two-front pressure on Cao Cao during northern crisis |
| Northern crisis condition | Cao Cao overextended | Window for northern campaign that could not succeed before |
If you cannot trace the causal line from each position to the next, the sequence is not a viable path — it is a wish list. A wish list does not survive contact with resource constraints and opponent responses.
The transition from one position to the next is triggered by conditions, not by the passage of time. Zhuge Liang did not say "we will launch the northern campaign in year 10." He said: when Cao Cao is overextended in a northern or western campaign and an internal crisis weakens the Wei court, then the condition is met. This distinction matters because:
For each transition, define the observable condition:
| Transition | Observable condition |
|---|---|
| Begin Yi Zhou campaign | Jing Zhou secured, Sun Quan alliance confirmed, Yi Zhou internal disaffection at maximum |
| Begin northern campaign | Cao Cao overextended, Wei internal crisis observable, Shu resource base sufficient |
The Longzhong Plan's discipline is not in the initial mapping — it is in holding the sequence against pressure for premature deviation. Pressure sources:
The test for deviation: does this opportunity accelerate the sequence by meeting a transition condition that was not yet met, or does it deviate from the sequence by engaging a front whose classification has not changed? If the classification has not changed — if Cao Cao's north is still uncontestable — engaging it is deviation, not opportunity.
Hold the sequence until the transition conditions are genuinely met. A condition is met when it is observable, not when it feels likely.
Amazon's entry into books (1994) as beachhead for "everything store": Bezos's ultimate objective was a comprehensive online retailer. But in 1994, direct attack on established retail (Walmart, Sears, etc.) was uncontestable — their physical distribution networks and supplier relationships could not be matched from a startup position. The viable path: books were the winnable front. Books had infinite variety that eliminated the physical shelf advantage; publishers were willing to deal with new distributors; the customer profile (readers) was online-early and comfortable with mail order. The book beachhead funded the infrastructure — fulfilment, customer trust, payment systems — that enabled the expansion to music, then electronics, then general merchandise. Amazon held the sequence: books first, each adjacent category building on the infrastructure from the prior one.
Startup entering an enterprise market dominated by Salesforce: A CRM startup cannot contest Salesforce's core market: enterprise sales teams, deep Salesforce customisation, the AppExchange ecosystem, and the installed base make the front uncontestable from a startup position. The viable path: identify the front Salesforce structurally cannot defend — its complexity is a liability for small businesses and specific verticals (construction, healthcare) where domain-specific workflows matter more than integration breadth. Take a specific vertical first, build the vertical-specific integrations Salesforce will not prioritise, accumulate case studies, and use the vertical reference base to enter adjacent verticals in sequence. Each vertical win is causally enabling: the domain expertise, the integrations, and the reference customers from one vertical reduce the entry cost to the next.
Geographic expansion: entering a new market with an established incumbent: A European e-commerce company wants to enter Southeast Asia, where a dominant regional player controls logistics, payments, and merchant relationships in most markets. Direct competition across all markets simultaneously is uncontestable. The viable path: identify the one market where the incumbent's position is weakest (newer market, lower merchant penetration, weaker logistics coverage), enter with full commitment, build local logistics and payment partnerships the incumbent cannot easily replicate, establish the regional reputation, and expand to adjacent markets in sequence. Each market entry is causally enabled by the logistics network, merchant relationships, and brand reputation from the prior market.
Product strategy when core market is locked: A productivity software company wants to compete with Microsoft 365 in enterprise, but Microsoft's installed base, IT administrator relationships, and deep OS integration make direct competition on the core product uncontestable. The viable path: identify the front Microsoft structurally cannot defend — specific workflows (design collaboration, project management, async communication) where Microsoft's horizontal approach creates complexity rather than value. Win one workflow category completely, become the standard in that category, build integrations that make the adjacent workflows accessible, and expand into adjacent workflows in sequence. Notion, Figma, and Slack each followed this sequence: one undefended workflow first, then expansion.
Attacking the ultimate objective directly: The most common failure when facing dominant incumbents is direct attack on the primary front — because that is where the ultimate objective sits. Direct attack against an uncontestable dominant position produces the decisive defeat that eliminates the resources needed for the actual viable path. The discipline of viable path analysis is specifically the discipline of not attacking what cannot yet be won.
Choosing the bridgehead for proximity to the objective rather than causal enabling: A bridgehead adjacent to the ultimate objective is attractive but often indefensible — the dominant player on the primary front will act to protect it. The bridgehead must be accessible from the current position and defensible while preparing the next move, not merely close to the final objective.
Holding the sequence past its validity date: The Longzhong Plan was viable when Jing Zhou was securable. When Jing Zhou fell, the sequence was no longer viable in its original form. Holding a sequence that no longer reflects the current landscape — because revising the sequence feels like failure — produces execution of a plan against a reality that no longer exists.
Deviating from the sequence on tactical opportunity: Every extended campaign produces attractive-looking tactical deviations — opportunities to engage fronts that are not the current bridgehead, possibilities that seem to accelerate the timeline. Each deviation that consumes resources required for the current bridgehead weakens the sequence. Evaluate deviation opportunities by a single test: does this change the classification of any front, or does it only change how an uncontestable front looks from the current vantage point?
Defining transition conditions after the phase begins: Conditions defined after a phase is underway are not conditions — they are rationalizations. "We'll know it's time for the northern campaign when we feel ready" is not a condition; it is indefinite deferral or premature activation depending on mood. Write the conditions before each phase begins.
