Purpose
Produce a decision-ready industry analysis that sizes the market, maps competitive dynamics, profiles key players, and delivers a strategic outlook — replacing days of scattered desk research with a single structured brief an analyst can drop into a report or deck.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Analyze or research a specific industry or market
- Size a market opportunity (TAM/SAM/SOM) or estimate market size and growth
- Understand competitive dynamics or the major players in a sector
- Prepare an industry section for a strategy deck, pitch, or investment memo
- Build an MBA-style industry case analysis or Porter's Five Forces
- Get a briefing on a sector before entering it or advising a client
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Industry/sector: The specific market to analyze (as narrow or broad as needed)
- Geography: Global / region / single country — defines the market scope
- Purpose of analysis: Market entry / investment / competitive benchmarking / academic / general briefing
- Time horizon: Historical lookback and forecast window (e.g., 2019–2029)
- Depth: Executive overview / standard analysis / deep dive
- Known constraints or focus areas: Specific segments, players, or questions to prioritize
If geography or time horizon is missing, default to a global 5-year forward view and note the assumption. When precise figures are unavailable, use clearly labeled estimates with stated reasoning rather than omitting the section.
Instructions
Step 1: Market Definition and Sizing
Establish scope before numbers.
- Define the market boundary: What's in and out — product categories, buyer types, adjacent markets excluded
- Segment the market: By product/service line, customer type, price tier, or channel — whichever is most decision-relevant
- Size it with TAM/SAM/SOM:
- TAM (Total Addressable Market): full demand if every potential buyer participated
- SAM (Serviceable Available Market): the portion reachable given geography and business model
- SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): realistic near-term capture given competition
- State methodology: Top-down (industry figures × share) or bottom-up (units × price × buyers) — name which and why
- Label any figure as reported, derived, or estimated. Provide a range when uncertain.
Step 2: Growth Trends and Drivers
Quantify direction and explain why.
- Historical CAGR across the lookback window and projected CAGR across the forecast window
- Demand drivers: 3–5 forces pulling the market up (technology shifts, demographics, regulation, cost curves, behavior change)
- Headwinds: 2–4 forces constraining growth (saturation, substitution, regulatory risk, input costs)
- Inflection points: Any structural shift that changes the trajectory (a technology maturing, a policy taking effect, a business model displacing another)
Step 3: Competitive Dynamics — Porter's Five Forces
Rate each force Low / Moderate / High with 2–3 sentences of specific reasoning:
- Competitive rivalry: Number and concentration of players, growth vs. share battles, differentiation
- Threat of new entrants: Capital requirements, regulation, brand moats, network effects, switching costs
- Bargaining power of suppliers: Supplier concentration, input criticality, forward-integration risk
- Bargaining power of buyers: Buyer concentration, price sensitivity, switching ease
- Threat of substitutes: Alternative solutions, relative price-performance, propensity to switch
- Net assessment: One sentence on overall industry attractiveness for a profit-seeking player
Step 4: Value Chain Mapping
Trace where value and margin accumulate.
- Map the stages from raw inputs to end customer (e.g., supply → production → distribution → retail → service)
- Identify which stages capture the most margin and why
- Flag stages being disrupted, disintermediated, or consolidated
Step 5: Key Player Profiles
Profile the 4–6 most significant players. For each:
- Name and positioning: Where they sit (leader / challenger / niche / disruptor)
- Estimated market share or relative scale: Figure or tier, labeled if estimated
- Core advantage: The specific moat (cost, brand, technology, distribution, ecosystem)
- Notable moves: Recent strategic actions relevant to the analysis Include a short note on notable emerging or well-funded entrants when relevant.
Step 6: Regulatory and Macro Landscape
- Regulatory environment: Key rules, licensing, compliance regimes, and pending changes
- Macro sensitivities: Exposure to interest rates, commodity prices, trade policy, or economic cycles
- ESG and structural pressures: Sustainability, labor, or data/privacy forces reshaping the sector
Step 7: Strategic Outlook and Implications
- 3-year outlook: The most probable trajectory in 2–3 sentences
- Opportunities: 2–3 specific openings for a new or existing player
- Risks: 2–3 specific threats to watch
- Strategic implication: One clear recommendation tied to the stated purpose of the analysis
Output Format
- Structure: Seven labeled sections in order; Five Forces and key players formatted as tables; sizing shown with the TAM/SAM/SOM figures explicit
- Length: 1,100–1,600 words (standard depth); scale up for deep dive, down for executive overview
- Format: Structured report — headers, tables for Five Forces and player profiles, bullets for drivers and implications, short prose for framing
- Sections: Market Definition & Sizing → Growth Trends & Drivers → Five Forces → Value Chain → Key Players → Regulatory & Macro → Strategic Outlook
- Tone: Strategy consultant — analytical, evidence-anchored, decisive on conclusions, transparent about estimates
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] TAM, SAM, and SOM are each stated with a figure or range and the sizing method is named
- [ ] Both historical and projected CAGR are provided across the stated time horizon
- [ ] All five forces are rated Low/Moderate/High with specific reasoning — not generic
- [ ] Between 4 and 6 key players are profiled, each with positioning and a named core advantage
- [ ] Every estimated figure is explicitly labeled as an estimate with stated reasoning
- [ ] The strategic outlook ends with a clear recommendation tied to the analysis purpose
Notes
- When hard market-size data is unavailable, a labeled bottom-up estimate (units × price × buyer count) is more credible than an unsourced round number — show the arithmetic
- For market-entry purposes, weight the SOM discussion and Five Forces net assessment; for investment purposes, weight growth drivers and key-player moats
- Narrow the industry definition when the sector is broad — "cloud infrastructure" analyzes better than "software," and the sizing stays defensible
- If the sector is fast-moving, note the data as of the analysis date and flag which figures are most likely to shift
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills