porters-five-forces
by phurynThe porters-five-forces skill helps you assess competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, substitutes, and new entrants. Use it for porters-five-forces for Competitive Analysis when you need a structured view of market attractiveness, pricing pressure, and barriers to profit.
This skill scores 78/100 and is worth listing: it gives agents a clear Porter's Five Forces workflow, enough structure to trigger the skill reliably, and practical input requirements that reduce guesswork for market analysis tasks. Directory users should view it as a solid, reusable strategy-analysis skill with some missing adoption aids rather than a turnkey package.
- Clear trigger and use-case metadata for competitive strategy, industry analysis, and market attractiveness work
- Substantial body content with a full Five Forces framework, input requirements, and structured analysis guidance
- No placeholder or experimental signals; frontmatter is valid and the skill appears to be real workflow content
- No install command, scripts, or support files, so there is little operational packaging beyond the SKILL.md
- No repo/file references or references/resources, which limits trust signals and examples for edge cases
Overview of porters-five-forces skill
What porters-five-forces does
The porters-five-forces skill helps you run a Porter's Five Forces analysis for an industry, market, or product category: competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and threat of new entrants. It is best for users doing porters-five-forces for Competitive Analysis when they need a structured view of market attractiveness, pricing pressure, and where profit is likely to be captured.
Who should use it
Use the porters-five-forces skill if you are a strategist, founder, product manager, analyst, or consultant who needs a defensible industry readout rather than a generic brainstorm. It is especially useful when the question is not “What ideas exist?” but “How hard is this market to win in, and why?”
Why this skill is worth installing
The main value of porters-five-forces is structure. It forces you to define the industry, identify the relevant players, and separate each force so weak assumptions are easier to spot. That makes the output more decision-ready than a vague “competitive analysis” prompt, especially when you need a clear view of barriers, leverage, and substitution risk.
How to Use porters-five-forces skill
Install and locate the skill
Install with npx skills add phuryn/pm-skills --skill porters-five-forces. After install, start with SKILL.md in pm-product-strategy/skills/porters-five-forces, because this repository does not include support folders or extra rule files. For a fast read, focus on the frontmatter, Metadata, Instructions, and Input Requirements sections first.
Give the skill the right problem shape
The porters-five-forces usage works best when your prompt defines a real market boundary, not a vague theme. Strong inputs include the industry scope, target customer segment, geography, and product category. Weak inputs like “analyze competition in tech” produce shallow output because the skill cannot judge rivalry or substitutes without a clear boundary.
A better prompt looks like:
- “Analyze Porter's Five Forces for mid-market CRM software in North America.”
- “Evaluate supplier and buyer power for specialty coffee roasting equipment in Europe.”
- “Assess the threat of substitutes for in-app note-taking tools used by knowledge workers.”
Use a workflow that feeds the framework
A practical porters-five-forces guide is: define the market, list the main competitors, identify suppliers and buyers, then test substitutes and likely entrants before asking for a summary judgment. Include product specifics such as pricing model, switching costs, regulation, network effects, or capital intensity if they matter. Those details materially change the force ratings and the final attractiveness call.
Read the repo in the right order
If you want to understand how the skill thinks before using it, read the repo in this order:
SKILL.mdfor the core task and required inputs- The
Metadatasection for trigger phrases and intent - The
Porter's Five Forces Frameworksection for force-by-force reasoning - The
High/Lowindicators and any decision logic in the body
porters-five-forces skill FAQ
Is porters-five-forces only for classic strategy work?
No. The porters-five-forces skill is useful anytime you need a market-structure view, including product strategy, startup planning, category expansion, vendor selection, and investment screening. It is less useful for brand messaging, feature ideation, or customer interview synthesis.
How is this different from a normal prompt?
A normal prompt often asks for a broad competitor overview and leaves the model to improvise the structure. porters-five-forces gives you a defined analytical frame, which usually improves consistency, comparability across markets, and the quality of the final recommendation.
Is it beginner-friendly?
Yes, if you can name the market clearly. Beginners often get better results by narrowing scope and adding context such as customer type, region, and business model. If you do not know those basics, the skill can still help, but the conclusions will be less decisive.
When should I not use it?
Do not use porters-five-forces when you need a customer sentiment analysis, a feature comparison table, or a tactical go-to-market plan. It is a market structure tool, not a full business plan generator. If the industry boundary is fuzzy or you are analyzing a single company without context, define the market first.
How to Improve porters-five-forces skill
Provide force-specific evidence
The fastest way to improve porters-five-forces output is to supply evidence that maps to each force: top competitors, supplier concentration, buyer switching costs, substitute products, and entry barriers. If you have numbers, include them: market growth rate, average contract length, CAC, concentration, or regulatory costs. That lets the model move from generic labels to grounded judgments.
State the decision you need
The skill works better when the prompt tells it what the analysis is for. For example, ask whether the market is attractive for entry, whether pricing can hold, or whether a category is defensible. A decision-shaped prompt improves the conclusion, because the analysis can emphasize the forces that matter most for that choice.
Watch for common failure modes
The most common failure is a too-broad industry definition, which makes every force look average. Another is missing buyer or supplier detail, which leads to vague leverage claims. If the first output is thin, tighten the scope, add concrete market facts, and ask for a revised force-by-force rating with specific reasons.
Iterate after the first pass
Use the first result to identify which force is least certain, then rerun porters-five-forces with targeted evidence for that area. For example, if substitute risk feels unclear, add the closest alternatives and switching reasons; if supplier power is ambiguous, add vendor concentration and replacement options. That second pass usually produces the most useful porters-five-forces for Competitive Analysis output.