Porter's Five Forces Analysis Template

Five Forces analyzes market structure and industry-level dynamics. SWOT analyzes your product's specific position (internal strengths/weaknesses plus external opportunities/threats). Five Forces tells you whether an industry is attractive to compete in. SWOT tells you whether your specific product is well-positioned to compete. Use both: Five Forces first to understand the market, then SWOT to assess your position within it.

Very relevant, though the original framework was designed for manufacturing industries in 1979. For SaaS, pay particular attention to buyer power (switching costs, alternative availability), threat of substitutes (spreadsheets, AI agents, no-code tools), and supplier power (cloud providers, API dependencies). The [Product Strategy Handbook](/strategy-guide) adapts these concepts for software.

Use the checklist questions in each section. If most indicators point toward a strong force (many alternatives, low switching costs, easy entry), rate it High. If the evidence is mixed, rate it Medium. Support your rating with specific data points. A rating without evidence is just an opinion.

Yes. Market structure changes. New entrants appear. Regulations shift. Platform policies change. Revisit the analysis every 6-12 months. Between full updates, monitor the 1-2 dominant forces monthly. If a dominant force shifts (e.g., a new substitute emerges), that triggers a full strategy review.

Each force suggests specific product investments. High buyer power suggests building switching costs (data lock-in, integrations, workflow customization). High threat of substitutes suggests differentiation on dimensions substitutes cannot match. Use the [RICE Framework](/frameworks/rice-framework) to prioritize the strategic responses that emerge from your analysis. ---