SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis helps you to understand the strategic position of your business or project by identifying the internal and external factors that will help or hinder your objectives. It is ideally suited to the preliminary stages of a decision making process.

A SWOT analysis focuses on four areas:

• Strengths. Advantages that your business or project has over others.
• Weaknesses. Factors which put business or project at a disadvantage to others.
• Opportunities. Outside factors that your business or project may be able to take advantage of.
• Threats. Outside factors which may cause problems for your business or project.

Strengths and Weaknesses can be thought of as internal factors which helper and hinder, while Opportunities and Threats can be thought of as external factors.

Run a SWOT analysis session with your team by filling in sticky notes with strengths, weaknesses, threads and opportunities in the corresponding categories. You can combine a SWOT analysis with techniques like the Silent Brainstorm to encourage novel ideas and contributions from everyone in your team.