Strengths, Weknesses, Opportunities and Threats
Each week I write a short article on a technqiue or tool that you can use in your project or work. This can go into your toolkit to be used at the appropriate time.
Another classic technique can be used to assess your project’s, organisation’s or personal internal and external environments that it is or you are working in.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths and weaknesses let you look at the internal factors within your organisation, project or personal level.
Opportunities and Threats look at the external environments and how they would affect your organisation, project or personal.
To use the technique, draw a large box. Split it into 4 smaller boxes, and label each with a heading for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. (See the image below.)
Starting with strengths, brainstorm a list of things that you or the organisation or project is good at. Have a look at the successes and what you can glean from them.
What unique skills or capabilities you have?
What advantages do you have?
What do you get praise for?
Do the same for weaknesses.
What are the things you are not good at?
What feedback or complaints do you get?
Where are we underperforming?
For threats and opportunities, you need to look externally. This will require some research and investigation.
For opportunities:
What emerging technologies could you take advantage?
Are there partnerships and collaborations that can be identified?
Are there opportunities for expansion or economies of scale?
For threats:
What are the risks you face?
What are the competitors doing that could derail us?
Are there dependencies that we’re not aware of that could derail us?
Once you have completed the brainstorming session, the next step is to prioritise the ideas in each section.
Then, pick the top three in each section to work on. Generate actions and next steps to take these ideas to the next level.
Let me know how you went using the tool or if you would like to share how your method may be different to the one described above.