What Joseph suggests having before you start your partner program: 

1. Start with your top line sales numbers - nail these prior to launching. 
2. Have strong inbound for partnership opportunities from that IPP - requests from quality partners.
3. Make sure the pain points align - for agencies/consultants - the pain points may be around adoption and rollout timeframes. Reducing churn. 

Things to look for in the sales ecosystem to viability: 

1. ICPs are going through a major adjustment.
2. There is a lot at stake around the decision to implement you or a competitor. "Customers are vetting you based on your tech, but also based on your implementation (speed and ease)."
3. Your prospects are involved with an agency or consultant to advise them on this transition. If/when you notice a large number of agencies/consultants were involved with your prospects already, you may need a partner program to compete.
4. And finally, your tool should (not a must, but it helps a great deal) solve a MATERIAL need. 
5.   Do your channel partners (the agents/consultants) have a material need (revenue is being lost daily) to implement your tool?

What Joseph wish he did differently: 

1. "Only the right partners at the beginning. 
2. I wish I had tied our partners into the roadmapping activities from the beginning." 

A partner testimonial: 

“Kiite has allowed ClozeLoop to deploy playbooks 5 times faster than those deployed in pdf, doc, ppt, or wiki format. They are able to surface only the relevant information to each individual in an organization creating immediate adoption… Kiite’s completely customizable interface allows ClozeLoop the flexibility of aligning with a company’s existing systems, process, and culture eliminating the need for re-training and workflow interruption.”

 - Hilmon Sorey, Managing Director, ClozeLoop

Links: 

https://kiite.ai/

https://kiite.ai/become-a-partner/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfung/