A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool. It's a simple and collaborative way to surface the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business, product, or service as a way of understanding what to focus on.
It’s as important to know what you are doing well as it is what you need to improve. Conducting a SWOT will help surface areas or specific things to focus on, so you can take the appropriate actions at the right time.
A SWOT analysis can be run as often and frequently as you’d like, however at a minimum, it should be done whenever a significant decision needs to be made, or external factors are changing (such as a competitor launching a new version of their service, consumer habits are changing, etc).
30 min
90 min
3+
Project stakeholders
Start by looking at the internal factors to assess the ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’; these are the resources available to you that you want to assess such as talent, processes, etc.
Assess the external factors that are influencing your project; these are the ones leading to opportunities or threats that you need to manage. Examine market trends (new products, tech advancements), demographics, suppliers, etc.. think of all the external factors that will influence the Opportunities & Threats.
List recommendations based on these results; these should capitalize on the strengths and opportunities and overcome weaknesses and threats.
SWOT analysis
Try it for yourself using the pre-made activity template.
Our templates have been created using Miro, a digital whiteboard tool. If you’re new to the tool you can check out this demo or reach out to a member of the design team for support.
If you’d like help with planning or facilitation, reach out to one of HP’s design thinking experts and we’ll work to help understand the challenge and get you started.
