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Porters Five Forces

Perform Porter's Five Forces analysis — competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and threat of new entrants. Use when analyzing industry dynamics, assessing competitive forces, or evaluating market attractiveness.

By phuryn
25k2.6kUpdated 1 month agoMIT

Skill Content

# Porter's Five Forces

## Metadata
- **Name**: porters-five-forces
- **Description**: Perform a Porter's Five Forces analysis evaluating competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and threat of new entrants.
- **Triggers**: Porter's five forces, competitive forces, industry analysis, market forces, competitive dynamics

## Instructions

You are a competitive strategist conducting a Porter's Five Forces analysis for $ARGUMENTS.

Your task is to evaluate the structural attractiveness of an industry and identify the competitive dynamics that will determine profitability.

## Input Requirements
- Industry or market definition
- Current competitors and competitive positioning
- Supplier and customer landscape
- Potential substitutes and new entrants
- Product or service specifics

## Porter's Five Forces Framework

### 1. Competitive Rivalry (How intense is competition?)
The degree to which companies compete directly for market share and customers.

**High Rivalry When:**
- Many competitors of similar size and strength
- Slow industry growth (zero-sum competition)
- Low product differentiation (commoditized)
- High fixed costs (pressure to maintain volume)
- Exit barriers are high (expensive to leave)
- Price competition is intense
- Rivals have diverse strategies and goals
- Emotional or strategic commitments keep rivals fighting

**Low Rivalry When:**
- Few competitors
- High growth market
- High differentiation (less price-sensitive)
- Low fixed costs
- Low switching costs for competitors
- Industry leader has clear dominance
- Rivals are cooperative or have compatible goals

**Strategic Implications:**
- Assess competitive positioning and differentiation
- Define defensible competitive advantages
- Monitor competitor moves and market consolidation
- Invest in differentiation or cost leadership

---

### 2. Supplier Power (How much power do suppliers have?)
The ability of suppliers to increase prices or reduce quality, affecting your profitability.

**High Supplier Power When:**
- Few suppliers or concentrated supplier base
- Switching costs are high (changing suppliers is expensive)
- Backward integration threat (suppliers become competitors)
- Suppliers' product is critical or unique
- Suppliers have strong bargaining position
- No substitutes for supplier offerings
- Suppliers sell to many industries (less dependent on you)

**Low Supplier Power When:**
- Many suppliers available
- Low switching costs
- Suppliers depend on your business
- Commodity products (interchangeable suppliers)
- Threat of forward integration (you become your own supplier)
- Available substitutes for supplier offerings
- You have significant bargaining leverage

**Strategic Implications:**
- Diversify supplier base to reduce dependency
- Build strong supplier relationships
- Consider vertical integration or alternatives
- Negotiate long-term contracts with favorable terms
- Invest in suppliers' success (partnerships)

---

### 3. Buyer Power (How much power do customers have?)
The ability of customers to negotiate lower prices or demand higher quality, affecting your margin.

**High Buyer Power When:**
- Few large customers (concentrated demand)
- Buyers switch easily and often (low switching costs)
- Backwards integration threat (customers become competitors)
- Product is undifferentiated (commoditized)
- Buyers have price sensitivity or tight budgets
- Buyers have full information about alternatives
- Customers can bypass you entirely

**Low Buyer Power When:**
- Many fragmented customers
- High switching costs (lock-in, integration, training)
- High product differentiation (fewer alternatives)
- Customers depend on your product
- You have strong brand or reputation
- Switching to alternatives involves risk
- Customers lack information about alternatives

**Strategic Implications:**
- Build strong customer relationships and loyalty
- Create switching costs through integration
- Invest in brand and differentiation
- Develop customer success programs
- Create network effects or communities
- Segment customers by willingness to pay

---

### 4. Threat of Substitutes (Are there alternative solutions?)
The risk that customers will switch to alternative products that solve the same problem.

**High Threat When:**
- Good substitutes exist and are easily accessible
- Substitutes have similar performance or better value
- Switching costs to substitutes are low
- Customers are willing to try alternatives
- Substitutes are improving faster than your product
- Price-to-performance of substitutes is attractive
- Substitute technology is disruptive or emerging

**Low Threat When:**
- No good substitutes exist
- Substitutes are more expensive or inferior
- Switching costs are high
- Your product is deeply integrated into customer workflows
- Customer preference and loyalty are strong
- Barrier to substitute entry are high
- Your product solves the problem uniquely

**Strategic Implications:**
- Monitor emerging substitutes and disruptive technologies
- Build customer stickiness through integration and loyalty
- Invest in product innovation and improvement
- Create switching costs through ecosystem or community
- Diversify into adjacent or complementary products
- Defend through brand, service, or convenience

---

### 5. Threat of New Entrants (Can new competitors easily enter?)
The risk that new competitors will enter the market and capture share.

**High Threat When:**
- Low barriers to entry (capital, expertise, licensing)
- Attractive industry margins and growth
- Incumbents are vulnerable or complacent
- Distribution or channel access is available
- Economies of scale are limited
- Network effects are weak or absent
- Regulation is permissive
- New technologies enable disruption

**Low Threat When:**
- High barriers to entry (capital, IP, expertise, relationships)
- Entrenched incumbents with scale advantages
- Strong network effects or switching costs
- Brand loyalty is high
- Regulatory or licensing barriers exist
- Economies of scale create cost advantage
- Control of critical resources or distribution
- Retaliation by incumbents is credible

**Strategic Implications:**
- Build defensible barriers (IP, brand, network effects)
- Establish cost leadership and scale advantages
- Create switching costs and customer lock-in
- Invest in brand and customer relationships
- Monitor startups and disruptors in your space
- Build alliances and control key resources

---

## Output Process
1. Assess each of the five forces (High, Medium, Low)
2. Rate industry attractiveness (High rivalry + strong forces = less attractive)
3. For each force, identify:
   - Current state and trend (getting stronger/weaker)
   - Key players or dynamics
   - Implications for profitability
4. Prioritize the 2-3 forces most critical to your strategy
5. Develop strategic responses:
   - How can we reduce threat of high-power forces?
   - How can we leverage weak forces for advantage?
6. Identify competitive positioning opportunities
7. Create strategic initiatives aligned with force analysis

## Industry Attractiveness
- **Attractive**: Low rivalry, weak supplier/buyer power, few substitutes, high entry barriers
- **Unattractive**: High rivalry, strong supplier/buyer power, many substitutes, low entry barriers
- **Moderate**: Mixed dynamics requiring strategic differentiation

## Notes
- No industry is universally attractive or unattractive; position matters
- Same industry can be attractive for some companies, unattractive for others
- Forces change over time; re-assess as market evolves
- Use Porter's Five Forces with SWOT and PESTLE for comprehensive analysis
- Strategy should directly address the highest-force threats

---

### Further Reading

- [The Product Management Frameworks Compendium + Templates](https://www.productcompass.pm/p/the-product-frameworks-compendium)

How to use

  1. Copy the skill content above
  2. Create a .claude/skills directory in your project
  3. Save as .claude/skills/pm-skills-porters-five-forces.md
  4. Use /pm-skills-porters-five-forces in Claude Code to invoke this skill

README

View on GitHub

GitHub stars License: MIT PRs Welcome Tests Companion: pm-skills Companion: burnstop Companion: claude-usage

PM Skills Marketplace: The AI Operating System for Better Product Decisions

68 PM skills and 42 chained workflows across 9 plugins. Claude Code, Cowork, and more. From discovery to strategy, execution, launch, growth, and shipping AI-built code.

PM Skills marketplace: skills, commands, and all 9 plugins at a glance

Designed for Claude Code and Cowork. Skills compatible with other AI assistants.

Start Here

New idea? → /discover
Need strategic clarity? → /strategy
Writing a PRD? → /write-prd
Planning a launch? → /plan-launch
Defining metrics? → /north-star

If this project helps you, ⭐ the repo.

Why PM Skills Marketplace?

Generic AI gives you text. PM Skills Marketplace gives you structure.

Each skill encodes a proven PM framework — discovery, assumption mapping, prioritization, strategy — and walks you through it step by step. You get the rigor of Teresa Torres, Marty Cagan, and Alberto Savoia built into your daily workflow, not sitting on a bookshelf.

The result: better product decisions, not just faster documents.

How It Works (Skills, Commands, Plugins)

Example prompts: a skill and two commands (/write-prd, /ship-check) in action

Skills are the building blocks of the marketplace. Each skill gives Claude domain knowledge, analytical frameworks, or a guided workflow for a specific PM task. Some skills also work as reusable foundations that multiple commands share.

Skills are loaded automatically when relevant to the conversation — no explicit invocation needed. If needed (e.g., prioritizing skills over general knowledge), you can force loading skills with /plugin-name:skill-name or /skill-name (Claude will add the prefix).

Commands are user-triggered workflows invoked with /command-name. They chain one or more skills into an end-to-end process. For example, /discover chains four skills together: brainstorm-ideas → identify-assumptions → prioritize-assumptions → brainstorm-experiments.

Plugins group related skills and commands into installable packages. Each plugin covers a PM domain — discovery, strategy, execution, and so on. Installing the marketplace gives you all 9 plugins at once.

Commands use skills. Some skills serve multiple commands. Some skills (like prioritization-frameworks or opportunity-solution-tree) are standalone references that Claude draws on whenever relevant — no command needed.

Commands are designed to flow into each other, matching the PM workflow. After any command completes, it suggests relevant next commands — just follow the prompts.

Installation

Claude Cowork (recommended for non-developers)

  1. Open Customize (bottom-left)
  2. Go to Browse plugins → Personal → +
  3. Select Add marketplace from GitHub
  4. Enter: phuryn/pm-skills

All 9 plugins install automatically. You get both commands (/discover, /strategy, etc.) and skills.

Installing PM Skills in Claude Cowork

Claude Code (CLI)

# Step 1: Add the marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add phuryn/pm-skills

# Step 2: Install individual plugins
claude plugin install pm-toolkit@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-product-strategy@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-product-discovery@pm-skills 
claude plugin install pm-market-research@pm-skills 
claude plugin install pm-data-analytics@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-marketing-growth@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-go-to-market@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-execution@pm-skills
claude plugin install pm-ai-shipping@pm-skills

Codex CLI (OpenAI)

Codex reads the same plugin marketplace file as Claude Code, so you can install PM Skills natively — no conversion or file-copying needed:

# Step 1: Add the marketplace
codex plugin marketplace add phuryn/pm-skills

# Step 2: Install the plugins you want
codex plugin add pm-toolkit@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-product-strategy@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-product-discovery@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-market-research@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-data-analytics@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-marketing-growth@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-go-to-market@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-execution@pm-skills
codex plugin add pm-ai-shipping@pm-skills

What you get: every skill (the PM frameworks), available to Codex and invocable by name. Install whole plugins rather than cherry-picking individual skills — a workflow usually relies on several skills that ship together.

What's different from Claude Code: the /slash commands (/discover, /write-prd, …) install but don't run as Codex slash commands — Codex plugins don't expose commands. To run a workflow, just describe the steps in plain language, for example:

Run product discovery on [your idea]: brainstorm options, map assumptions, prioritize the risky ones, then design experiments — pause between each step.

Optional — let Codex turn the workflows into skills. Because the command files ship inside each installed plugin, you can ask Codex to convert the ones you use most:

Read the command files in the pm-execution plugin and create equivalent Codex skills for the workflows I use most often.

This is a best-effort, model-driven conversion (some Claude-specific command syntax won't translate), but it's a quick way to get the guided workflows on Codex without leaving the CLI.

Other AI assistants (skills only)

The skills/*/SKILL.md files follow the universal skill format and work with any tool that reads it. Commands (/slash-commands) are Claude-specific.

ToolHow to useWhat works
Gemini CLICopy skill folders to .gemini/skills/Skills only
OpenCodeCopy skill folders to .opencode/skills/Skills only
CursorCopy skill folders to .cursor/skills/Skills only
KiroCopy skill folders to .kiro/skills/Skills only
# Example: copy all skills for OpenCode (project-level)
for plugin in pm-*/; do
  mkdir -p .opencode/skills/
  cp -r "$plugin/skills/"* .opencode/skills/ 2>/dev/null
done

# Example: copy all skills for Gemini CLI (global)
for plugin in pm-*/; do
  cp -r "$plugin/skills/"* ~/.gemini/skills/ 2>/dev/null
done

Available Plugins

<details> <summary><strong>1. pm-product-discovery</strong> — Ideation, experiments, assumption testing, OSTs, interviews (13 skills, 5 commands)</summary>

Skills (13):

  • brainstorm-ideas-existing — Multi-perspective ideation for existing products (PM, Designer, Engineer)
  • brainstorm-ideas-new — Ideation for new products in initial discovery
  • brainstorm-experiments-existing — Design experiments to test assumptions for existing products
  • brainstorm-experiments-new — Design lean startup pretotypes for new products (Alberto Savoia)
  • identify-assumptions-existing — Identify risky assumptions across Value, Usability, Viability, and Feasibility
  • identify-assumptions-new — Identify risky assumptions across 8 risk categories including Go-to-Market, Strategy, and Team
  • prioritize-assumptions — Prioritize assumptions using an Impact × Risk matrix with experiment suggestions
  • prioritize-features — Prioritize a feature backlog based on impact, effort, risk, and strategic alignment
  • analyze-feature-requests — Analyze and categorize customer feature requests by theme and strategic fit
  • opportunity-solution-tree — Build an Opportunity Solution Tree (Teresa Torres) — outcome → opportunities → solutions → experiments
  • interview-script — Create a structured customer interview script with JTBD probing questions
  • summarize-interview — Summarize an interview transcript into JTBD, satisfaction signals, and action items
  • metrics-dashboard — Design a product metrics dashboard with North Star, input metrics, and alert thresholds

Commands (5):

  • /discover — Full discovery cycle: ideation → assumption mapping → prioritization → experiment design
  • /brainstorm — Multi-perspective ideation (ideas|experiments × existing|new)
  • /triage-requests — Analyze and prioritize a batch of feature requests
  • /interview — Prepare an interview script or summarize a transcript (prep|summarize)
  • /setup-metrics — Design a product metrics dashboard

Examples:

Skills:

  • What are the riskiest assumptions for our AI writing assistant idea?
  • Help me build an Opportunity Solution Tree for improving user activation
  • Prioritize these 12 feature requests from our enterprise customers [attach CSV]

Commands:

  • /discover AI-powered meeting summarizer for remote teams
  • /brainstorm experiments existing — We need to reduce churn in our onboarding flow
  • /interview prep — We're interviewing enterprise buyers about their procurement workflow
</details> <details> <summary><strong>2. pm-product-strategy</strong> — Vision, business models, pricing, competitive landscape (12 skills, 5 commands)</summary>

Product strategy, vision, business models, pricing, and macro environment analysis. Covers the full strategic toolkit from vision crafting through competitive landscape scanning.

Skills (12):

  • product-strategy — Comprehensive 9-section Product Strategy Canvas (vision → defensibility)
  • startup-canvas — Startup Canvas combining Product Strategy (9 sections) + Business Model — an alternative to BMC and Lean Canvas for new products
  • product-vision — Craft an inspiring, achievable, and emotional product vision
  • value-proposition — 6-part JTBD value proposition (Who, Why, What before, How, What after, Alternatives)
  • lean-canvas — Lean Canvas business model for startups and new products
  • business-model — Business Model Canvas with all 9 building blocks
  • monetization-strategy — Brainstorm 3–5 monetization strategies with validation experiments
  • pricing-strategy — Pricing models, competitive analysis, willingness-to-pay, and price elasticity
  • swot-analysis — SWOT analysis with actionable recommendations
  • pestle-analysis — Macro environment: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental
  • porters-five-forces — Competitive forces analysis (rivalry, suppliers, buyers, substitutes, new entrants)
  • ansoff-matrix — Growth strategy mapping across markets and products

Commands (5):

  • /strategy — Create a complete 9-section Product Strategy Canvas
  • /business-model — Explore business models (lean|full|startup|value-prop|all)
  • /value-proposition — Design a value proposition using the 6-part JTBD template
  • /market-scan — Macro environment analysis combining SWOT + PESTLE + Porter's + Ansoff
  • /pricing — Design a pricing strategy with competitive analysis and experiments

Examples:

Skills:

  • Compare Lean Canvas vs Business Model Canvas vs Startup Canvas for my marketplace startup
  • Design a value proposition for our AI writing assistant targeting non-native English speakers
  • Run a Porter's Five Forces analysis for the project management SaaS market

Commands:

  • `/strategy B2B project manage

…

View source on GitHub