8 SWOT – Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats
A SWOT looks at a mix of external and internal facing challenges. Each of the components of the SWOT are defined below:
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- The strength of your offering: What product characteristics make yours a strong product for your customers? This is what makes your product unique.
- Weakness of your product: Your product can not solve all problems, and there are always some weaknesses that you may or may not want to overcome. Remember, no product can be all things to all people.
- Future opportunities: What could your product or service take advantage of that it is not currently doing? This might be a new positioning or message for a new target market or it might be adjusting your product characteristics slightly to take advantage of a new opportunity. Or it could be an entirely new product using elements of your current product to address an unmet need.
- Technology: This is three fold: 1) What is the current technology that is embedded in your product currently that makes it superior? 2) What technologies are available that could make your product even better? 3) What emerging technologies are a threat to your product or service or could be incorporated in the future to make your product better, more competitive, or more unique? These technologies may not be matured to the point that they can be incorporated into your product, but they are lingering out there and could present a threat or opportunity.
Listen to the following PPT to learn in more detail how to fill out a SWOT:
Here is a SWOT template for you to fill out:
