SWOT Analysis

Analyze internal Strengths and Weaknesses, plus external Opportunities and Threats to develop strategic insights.

Core Pattern

Apply SWOT analysis by:

1. Identifying internal Strengths (what you do well)
2. Identifying internal Weaknesses (what you lack)
3. Identifying external Opportunities (what could help)
4. Identifying external Threats (what could hurt)
5. Developing strategies from these insights

Key Innovation: Mapping factors across four dimensions reveals strategic connections and action items that aren't obvious from linear thinking.

When to Use

Use this strategic framework when:

• Making strategic decisions
• Evaluating competitive position
• Planning projects or initiatives
• Assessing team or organization capabilities
• Facing complex decisions with multiple factors

Recognition test: "Is this a strategic decision with multiple factors?" If yes, map the situation.

The Four Dimensions

Internal Factors (What you control)

• Strengths: What you do well, advantages you have
• Weaknesses: What you lack, areas for improvement

External Factors (What you don't control)

• Opportunities: External situations you could leverage
• Threats: External risks that could hurt you

Step-by-Step Process

Step 1: List Strengths (S)

What do we do better than anyone else?
What unique resources do we have?
What do others see as our strengths?

Step 2: List Weaknesses (W)

What could we improve?
What do we do poorly?
What resources are we missing?

Step 3: List Opportunities (O)

What trends could we benefit from?
What changes are coming?
What competitors are vulnerable?

Step 4: List Threats (T)

What competitors are strong?
What trends work against us?
What could go wrong?

Step 5: Develop Strategies

- SO: Use Strengths to capture Opportunities
- ST: Use Strengths to address Threats
- WO: Overcome Weaknesses to pursue Opportunities
- WT: Minimize Weaknesses to avoid Threats

Application Examples

Example 1: Software Project

Strengths:

• Experienced team with deep domain knowledge
• Existing user base for feedback
• Clean codebase with good test coverage

Weaknesses:

• Limited budget for infrastructure
• Small team (can't scale quickly)
• No marketing expertise

Opportunities:

• Market trend toward our solution space
• Competitor recently raised prices (created gap)
• New technology enables better UX

Threats:

• Large competitor entering our space
• Economic downturn affecting customers
• Key dependency on third-party API

Strategies:

• SO: Leverage domain expertise to build better UX than competitor using new technology
• ST: Use existing user base loyalty to defend against large competitor
• WO: Partner with marketing-savvy company to overcome marketing weakness
• WT: Reduce dependency on third-party API to avoid vendor risk

Example 2: Career Decision

Strengths:

• Strong technical skills
• Good communication ability
• Network in the industry

Weaknesses:

• Limited management experience
• Prefer technical work over meetings
• Not interested in politics

Opportunities:

• Company growing rapidly
• New product line launching
• Remote work options expanding

Threats:

• Industry consolidating
• Ageism in tech
• Skills becoming commoditized

Strategies:

• SO: Use technical skills to lead new product line
• ST: Deepen specialization to differentiate
• WO: Develop technical leadership (not management) path
• WT: Build independent income streams to reduce job dependency

Example 3: Product Feature Decision

Strengths:

• Fast development team
• Existing infrastructure
• User data and analytics

Weaknesses:

• Limited design resources
• No mobile expertise
• Spaghetti code in some areas

Opportunities:

• Mobile usage increasing
• AI/ML becoming accessible
• Competitors slow to adapt

Threats:

• Platform changes (API deprecations)
• User privacy concerns increasing
• Attention spans decreasing

Strategies:

• SO: Use fast development to ship AI feature before competitors
• ST: Leverage user data to build better experience despite platform changes
• WO: Partner with design agency for mobile, don't build in-house
• WT: Refactor spaghetti code before it becomes critical

Output Format

After analysis, produce structured output:

# SWOT Analysis: [Subject]

## Internal Strengths (S)

1. [Strength 1] - [Why this matters]
2. [Strength 2] - [Why this matters]
3. [Strength 3] - [Why this matters]

## Internal Weaknesses (W)

1. [Weakness 1] - [Why this is a problem]
2. [Weakness 2] - [Why this is a problem]
3. [Weakness 3] - [Why this is a problem]

## External Opportunities (O)

1. [Opportunity 1] - [Potential impact]
2. [Opportunity 2] - [Potential impact]
3. [Opportunity 3] - [Potential impact]

## External Threats (T)

1. [Threat 1] - [Potential impact]
2. [Threat 2] - [Potential impact]
3. [Threat 3] - [Potential impact]

## Strategic Matrix

### SO Strategies (Strengths + Opportunities)

1. [Strategy] - Use [strength] to capture [opportunity]
2. [Strategy] - Leverage [strength] for [opportunity]

### ST Strategies (Strengths + Threats)

1. [Strategy] - Use [strength] to defend against [threat]
2. [Strategy] - Leverage [strength] despite [threat]

### WO Strategies (Weaknesses + Opportunities)

1. [Strategy] - Overcome [weakness] to pursue [opportunity]
2. [Strategy] - Address [weakness] to capture [opportunity]

### WT Strategies (Weaknesses + Threats)

1. [Strategy] - Minimize [weakness] to avoid [threat]
2. [Strategy] - Mitigate [weakness] despite [threat]

## Priority Actions

1. [Most important action from strategies]
2. [Second priority action]
3. [Third priority action]

## Key Insights

- [Most important realization]
- [Another critical insight]

Recognition Questions

When identifying factors:

• "Is this truly internal (we control) or external (we don't)?"
• "Is this specific or too vague?"
• "Do we have evidence for this, or is it speculation?"

When developing strategies:

• "Does this strategy combine factors from two quadrants?"
• "Is this actionable, not just theoretical?"
• "Does this play to our strengths or address real threats?"

Common Mistakes

❌ Wrong: Vague, generic statements ("We have good team") ✅ Correct: Specific, evidence-based ("Team has 10 years domain expertise")

❌ Wrong: Confusing internal/external (opportunities should be external) ✅ Correct: Opportunities are external factors you can leverage

❌ Wrong: Listing without developing strategies ✅ Correct: Use SWOT to generate actionable strategies (SO, ST, WO, WT)

❌ Wrong: Treating all factors as equal ✅ Correct: Prioritize by impact and feasibility

Advanced: TOWS Analysis

For deeper analysis, consider all four strategic combinations:

1. SO (Maxi-Max): Maximum strengths, maximum opportunities

   • Aggressive growth strategies

2. ST (Maxi-Min): Maximum strengths, minimum threats

   • Defensive strategies using strengths

3. WO (Mini-Max): Minimum weaknesses, maximum opportunities

   • Build capabilities to capture opportunities

4. WT (Mini-Min): Minimum weaknesses, minimum threats

   • Survival or retrenchment strategies

Trust intelligence - SWOT is only as good as your honesty about weaknesses and threats. Be real, not optimistic.

Genetic Code

This component carries essential Seed System principles for context: fork isolation:

<critical_constraint> MANDATORY: All components MUST be self-contained (zero .claude/rules dependency) MANDATORY: Achieve 80-95% autonomy (0-5 AskUserQuestion rounds per session) MANDATORY: Description MUST use What-When-Not format in third person MANDATORY: No component references another component by name in description MANDATORY: Progressive disclosure - references/ for detailed content MANDATORY: Use XML for control (mission_control, critical_constraint), Markdown for data No exceptions. Portability invariant must be maintained. </critical_constraint>

Delta Standard: Good Component = Expert Knowledge − What Claude Already Knows

Recognition Questions:

• "Would Claude know this without being told?" → Delete (zero delta)
• "Can this work standalone?" → Fix if no (non-self-sufficient)
• "Did I read the actual file, or just see it in grep?" → Verify before claiming

<critical_constraint> MANDATORY: Use specific, evidence-based factors (not vague claims) MANDATORY: Distinguish internal (S/W) from external (O/T) factors MANDATORY: Develop actionable strategies (SO, ST, WO, WT combinations) MANDATORY: Prioritize factors by impact and feasibility No exceptions. SWOT without strategies is just a list. </critical_constraint>