SWOT analysis template

The SWOT analysis template helps you quickly create a SWOT matrix or facilitate workshops that incorporate a SWOT analysis. Assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to address where you excel and where you may fall short.

What is a SWOT analysis?

A SWOT analysis is an exercise that helps understand an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats.

Strengths will let you know what you’re doing well and identify where you have an advantage in your project. Weaknesses will similarly let you see what you can work on to make it better. Opportunities show how you can take advantage of undiscovered options, and threats can determine where internal or external problems might harm your chances of success

A SWOT analysis uses a matrix to collect and analyze this information about your company or project.

Why use a SWOT analysis template?

The SWOT analysis template provides the framework to help determine the overall viability of a given strategy, evaluate internal and external factors, and determine what may be holding a strategy or organization back from improving its strategic positioning.

To determine the viability of a campaign or a go-to-market strategy

In-house business analysts in marketing and strategic roles will find a SWOT analysis helpful. Marketers can use a SWOT analysis when looking for insights before a campaign. When they learn the strengths of their product, they can use those strengths as part of messaging. Alternatively, they can use its weaknesses to their advantage.

To evaluate internal and external factors when first starting a new venture

Knowing what you’re up against in a SWOT analysis can help you see where you can be better than the competition. One method is to evaluate your own weaknesses before addressing threats. If you have relatively few weaknesses, then you’re better prepared to attack the threats you identify.

To determine what is holding a client back from becoming better

Client-facing consultants might use a SWOT analysis to determine a client’s strengths and weaknesses in order to understand what may hold them back from becoming better. Using this information the client can build a strategy to shore up their strengths and begin reducing factors that contribute to their weaknesses.

How to create a SWOT analysis

1. Set up a quadrant in a blank canvas or start from a template.
2. Label each square in the quadrant: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
3. Start by identifying your strengths first, then weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths should be highlighted first so you can quickly evaluate the importance of the rest of the SWOT analysis. A company with few strengths has a long road to travel to success.
4. Organize the information into a report and distribute it to the team with notes.
5. Come up with action items from the analysis (i.e., Our weakness is customer service. Let’s fix it by changing A, B, and C) and owners (who will handle opportunities?)

How to get the most from the SWOT analysis template

Rank items in each SWOT template from most important to least important

MURAL’s template allows all team members to vote on which is more important to work on first — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats. Getting this input from your team not only creates a collaborative spirit, but also allows you to see what your team thinks is important.
A simple timer feature is used to limit the amount of time people have to vote, allowing SWOT meetings to progress appropriately. The facilitator of the SWOT analysis can set the time limits.

Develop a strategic plan based on specific questions

While navigating through a team dynamic, you also want to make sure everyone is focused on the goal of analyzing the data in a SWOT report.

Although you can come up with questions that speak specifically to your company’s needs or team dynamics, you can also use the questions provided in the MURAL template, like:

• How do you use strengths to take advantage of opportunities?
• How do you overcome weaknesses preventing you from taking advantage of opportunities?
• How can your strengths reduce the probability of threats?
• What can you do about the weaknesses that make your threats less likely?