5 SWOT Analysis Examples For Beginners

What if you could sum up all of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with a straightforward exercise that could guide your organizational strategy for years to come? Would you do it?

Of course you would. And the good news is that the groundwork for this type of exercise has already been laid out.

It’s called a SWOT analysis, and in this article we’ll look at what SWOT analysis is, how to do it, and several examples to follow for your own analysis.

What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

SWOT analysis is just one of the tools in a project manager’s toolbox, along with things such as project management software and SMART criteria, and it can be very helpful during strategic planning and decision making.

SWOT can be used to analyze teams, projects, businesses, organizations, or even individual products. In fact, you can use it to make routine decisions in your everyday life.

What to have for breakfast? SWOT it. Where to go this weekend? SWOT it. How to lose weight? SWOT it.

If SWOT analysis sounds a little ambiguous it’s because it is very open-ended.

In a SWOT analysis, you essentially take a long, hard look in the mirror—preferably as a group—and determine what your organization is really good at, what it could get much better at, areas for growth, and what external factors could undermine your efforts.

SWOT analysis doesn’t so much help you determine what to do, as much as it helps you determine whether or not to do something. In other words, SWOT analysis is less of a crystal ball and more of a compass.

The ultimate goal of SWOT analysis is to match strengths with opportunities to determine a clear path to success, or uncover weaknesses that could be exploited so that they can be avoided in your organizational strategy.

In this way, SWOT analysis informs risk management.

How to write a good SWOT analysis

Writing a good SWOT analysis starts with brainstorming, or brainwriting. Get your team together in a room with a whiteboard, and start coming with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.​

You’ll notice that the first two letters focus on things that you have some control over internally, while the last two focus on external, environmental conditions that your organization will have to respond to.

Once you have a handful of ideas for each quadrant, you’re ready to populate the template and start making connections.

A free SWOT analysis template to get you started

Here’s a SWOT analysis template that you can copy and fill in with your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Then, in the next section, we’ll look at what to do once you’ve filled out the template. We’ve also included some example SWOT analyses below, using this same template.

Once you have filled out the SWOT worksheet, it’s time to turn your brainstorming into tangible next steps.

How do I use a SWOT analysis?

Start by looking for connections. If you can draw clear lines between strengths and opportunities—say your sunglasses business caters to young people and you have an opportunity to open a new location near a college campus—it’s a good time to be aggressive.

On the other hand, if your weaknesses and threats seem to outweigh your strengths and opportunities—say you’re a traditional printing company and the industry is being overtaken by digital press—it may be time to come up with some new objectives, like expanding into digital markets.

5 SWOT analysis examples

Here are some basic examples of SWOT analysis so you can see how it’s done.

1. SWOT Examples: Banana for breakfast

Strategy: The cost, nutritional value, and versatility of the banana make it a wise choice, despite its negligible shortcomings and different options.

2. SWOT Examples: Weekend trip to the lake

Strategy: The natural beauty and the selection of outdoor activities makes the lake a tantalizing destination for a weekend getaway, but its high cost and risk of bodily harm could warrant a look at other locations.

3. SWOT Examples: Jog after work

Strategy: The combination of getting your cardio in and giving yourself a chance to find a mate, internet fame, and/or riches far outweighs the downside of dodging traffic and having to do laundry afterward.

As you’ll see below, SWOT analysis can also be used to make project management decisions in the workplace.

4. SWOT Examples: Free or open source project management software

Strategy: Free project management software has its limitations, but can be a good fit for small teams or freelancers looking to try it out for the first time. But it is not a replacement for full featured project management software.

5. SWOT Examples: Hiring a summer intern

Strategy: With preparation and proper expectations, summer interns can be cost effective and productive.

SWOT are you waiting for?

Now that you know a little bit more about SWOT analysis and have seen a few examples, it’s time to try out SWOT analysis with your team!