porters-five-forces

# Porter's Five Forces (Evidence-Cited) ## Purpose Read an industry's structure through Porter's Five Forces, with evidence: **search plan → force-by-force ratings with signals → profit-pool implication → next-step options.** Each force — competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, buyer power, supplier power — is rated weak/moderate/strong and justified with documented signals, because a rating without signals is vibes. The analysis closes where it should have been aiming all along: **where the profit pool sits and who is squeezing it.** Five forces is an argument about where margin goes, not a diagram for slide four. ## Input **Works best with:** the industry or segment, named as precisely as you can ("clinical data management SaaS," not "healthcare"), and **the decision this analysis should support**. **Also useful:** a geographic boundary if the structure differs by region, and a [`market-landscape-scan`](../market-landscape-scan/SKILL.md) in session — the forces read builds on it and searches only gaps. Input supplied inline with the invocation — text after the skill name, a pasted context dump, or an appended `ARGUMENTS:` line — counts as answers already given. Use it against the question budget; don't re-ask. **Arriving empty-handed? That works too.** The skill opens with at most 3 questions (segment, decision, boundary) and proceeds on labeled assumptions if they go unanswered. **Example invocation:** `Five forces on mid-market field-ser...