Market and competition
SWOT analysis
List strengths and weaknesses inside the organisation and opportunities and threats outside it, to see a situation before planning.
- Time30 to 60 minutes
- People3 to 12 people
- Steps4
What it's for
SWOT is a quick way to take stock before a strategy discussion. Strengths and weaknesses are things you control; opportunities and threats are things you don't. Its value comes from what you do next: match strengths to opportunities, and shore up weaknesses that threats would expose.
Be specific. "Great team" isn't a strength anyone can use; "Two engineers who built the last payments migration" is.
How to run it
Fill the four boxes15 min
Add notes to each, silently first.
Vote on what matters5 min4 votes each
Vote on the notes that matter most in each box.
Connect them10 min
Draw arrows from strengths to the opportunities they could win, and from threats to the weaknesses they'd hit.
Decide10 min
Turn the strongest connections into two or three actions.
Tips
- Keep internal and external apart. "A competitor launched" is a threat, not a weakness.
- A SWOT without the connecting step is a list. The connections are the analysis.
Where it comes from
Usually traced to business planning research at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, often credited to Albert Humphrey, though the attribution is disputed.
Pairs well with
Impact and effort matrix
Place each option by how much difference it would make and how hard it would be, to find the quick wins and the big bets.
Stakeholder map
Place everyone affected by a project by how much power they have over it and how much they care, then plan how to work with each.
Objectives and key results
Set an ambitious objective and three or so measurable key results that would show you achieved it.