How to use the Porter's Five Forces Analysis agent skill

What the skill makes the agent do

Porter's Five Forces is a classic business strategy framework. It looks at five pressures on an industry: competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and threat of new entrants. The skill tells the agent to assess each force as High, Medium or Low, explain the reasons, and give strategic implications for each one.

The skill is instruction-only. It guides how the agent thinks and how it formats its output. It does not run software, and it does not look up market data. The analysis is based on the agent's reasoning and the information you provide.

• Rates each of the five forces as High, Medium or Low
• Lists factors that make each force stronger or weaker
• Rates overall industry attractiveness as Attractive, Moderate or Unattractive
• Prioritises the two or three forces most critical to your strategy
• Suggests strategic responses and initiatives

How to install the porters-five-forces skill

Download the skill ZIP from the page you found it on. The skill's files are a single SKILL.md file. Unzip the download, then place the folder in one of these locations, depending on how you want to use it.

For a personal install available across your projects, unzip it into your user skills folder. For a single project, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.

You can also upload the skill in the Claude apps. Go to Settings, then Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the ZIP there.

• Personal (all projects): ~/.claude/skills/
• Single project: .claude/skills/ inside your project folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP

How to trigger the skill with natural requests

You do not need a special command. Ask the agent about an industry, market or competitive situation, and mention forces, competition or market attractiveness. The skill's description covers requests about analysing industry dynamics, assessing competitive forces, and evaluating market attractiveness.

The more specific your request, the better the result. Name the industry, the segment, and the kind of decision you are making.

• Run a Porter's Five Forces analysis of the online project management software market for small agencies.
• Assess the competitive forces in the electric scooter rental industry in European cities.
• Is the meal kit delivery market attractive for a new entrant? Use the five forces.
• Give me the buyer power and threat of substitutes for our B2B invoicing tool.

What information to give the agent

The skill lists the inputs it needs: the industry or market definition, current competitors and their positioning, the supplier and customer landscape, potential substitutes and new entrants, and details of your product or service. The agent will work with whatever you supply and should say where information is missing.

Because the skill has no data sources, your input drives the quality of the output. Paste in facts you already have, such as number of competitors, pricing pressure, or switching costs, and the ratings will be better grounded.

• Industry or market definition and target segment
• Known competitors and how they position themselves
• Who your suppliers and customers are, and how concentrated they are
• Known substitutes and any new entrants
• Your product or service and what makes it different

Safety notes: scripts and network access

The skill runs no scripts and uses no network access, according to its listing. It consists of instructions in SKILL.md only. This means it does not send your data anywhere on its own. Anything you type into the agent is handled under the rules of the agent you use.

Treat the output as a structured draft. The skill itself does not verify facts, so check any market figures or competitor claims against your own sources before you rely on them.

• Runs scripts: no
• Uses network: no
• Requires: nothing listed

Tips for better analyses

Ask for the forces one at a time when you need depth. Ask for a full analysis when you need an overview. Follow up by asking which two or three forces matter most for your strategy, since the skill is designed to prioritise them.

Re-run the analysis when conditions change. The skill's own notes say forces change over time, and that the same industry can be attractive to one company and unattractive to another.

• Give your own position, not just the industry name, so implications are specific to you
• Ask the agent to state which information it assumed
• Pair the output with SWOT or PESTLE for a fuller review, as the skill suggests