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SWOT analysis, run live in your meeting
A SWOT analysis sorts what a team knows about a business, product or plan into four boxes: strengths and weaknesses from inside, and opportunities and threats from outside. Done well, it ends with a few points per box the room can back with evidence, and the moves that use the strengths, fix the weaknesses and meet the rest.
Troopa fills in the grid during a call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet: say “Hi Troopa, bring up a SWOT for opening in Berlin”, and each point lands in its box as people make it. Ask what to do about it and Troopa adds the strategies that pair the boxes up, and the grid stays on your screen until you choose to present it.
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time. Last checked against the product on 16 October 2026.
Why SWOT sessions so often go nowhere
- The session ends with ninety points of equal weight, and nobody can say which three matter.
- The most senior person speaks first, and every box fills up with versions of what they said.
- People get defensive when their own area is named as a weakness, so the honest points stay unsaid.
- Vague entries like “strong culture” go in because they are safe, and nobody can act on them.
- The finished grid is photographed, filed, and never turned into a single thing anybody will do.
- On a hybrid call the people in the room fill the board while the people on screen wait to be asked.
How to do a SWOT analysis in a meeting with Troopa
Step 1: Ask, or say yes
Say “Hi Troopa, bring up a SWOT for the Berlin office”, or wait for Troopa’s offer in a box only you see when the room weighs a move: “Shall I lay it out as a SWOT analysis as you talk?”
Step 2: Talk it through
Each point lands in its box in a few words as somebody makes it, so whoever runs the session can run it instead of writing.
Step 3: Ask what to do about it
Say “what should we do about it?” and Troopa adds TOWS strategies: strengths used on opportunities and against threats, weaknesses fixed through opportunities or kept clear of threats.
Step 4: Move points on the card
Drag a point to another box, type over it, or say “that’s a threat, not a weakness”. What you change stays as you set it.
Step 5: Present when it is ready
Weaknesses are sensitive, so the grid is yours until you present it. Download it as a picture, a PDF or an Excel workbook with the quarters and the strategies.
A SWOT analysis example: a fintech deciding on Berlin
A London payments company is deciding whether to open an office in Berlin next year. The leadership team meets on Microsoft Teams, and Ada runs the session with Troopa open.
- Ada“Hi Troopa, bring up a SWOT for opening in Berlin.”
- Ben“Our strength is the API. German merchants keep asking us for it.”
- Chloe“The weakness is people: nobody on the team speaks German, and we have no licence there yet.”
- Ben“A partner bank in Frankfurt has offered to sponsor us, which is a real opportunity.”
- Chloe“And the threat is the two local players cutting their prices.”
- Ada“Hi Troopa, what should we do about it?”
- Troopa, on your screen“Added strategies for each pairing of the boxes.”
Where a SWOT analysis earns its place
Fintech and financial services
Deciding whether to enter a new market: licensing as a threat, a partner bank as an opportunity, the product’s fit as a strength. The SWOT goes into the board paper with the strategies that answer it.
Healthcare operations
Reviewing a service line or the case for a new site with the managers who run it: staffing, premises, demand and the local alternatives. Kept to running the service, never to clinical judgement or anybody’s records.
Agencies and consultancies
An account review before renewal, or a competitor SWOT for a pitch, built with the client in the room so the result is theirs rather than a report they rent from you.
Charities and the public sector
A strategy refresh or a funding bid, with trustees or a programme board weighing what the organisation does well against what is changing around it.
E-commerce and retail
Deciding whether to add a marketplace channel or open a store: what the brand has that rivals do not, where fulfilment is thin, and what the channel’s fees would do to margins.
Schools and colleges
A department or school improvement plan, where staff list what is working and what is not before the plan is written, and the governors see the same grid.
A SWOT analysis template, with the questions to ask
Write the decision at the top first: a SWOT about nothing in particular fills up with everything. Keep three to five points in each box, each one something the room could show evidence for.
Decision: [e.g. “Should we open in Berlin next year?”]
Helpful Harmful
Inside STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
- [point] [evidence] - [point] [evidence]
Outside OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
- [point] [evidence] - [point] [evidence]
What to do about it (TOWS)
- Strengths × opportunities: [use a strength to take an opportunity]
- Strengths × threats: [use a strength to blunt a threat]
- Weaknesses × opportunities: [fix a weakness by taking an opportunity]
- Weaknesses × threats: [reduce what a threat could do through a weakness]
Next: [the first move] · Who: [name] · Review: [date]SWOT analysis questions for each box
- Strengths: what do we do better than anyone else, and what do customers praise without being asked?
- Weaknesses: where do we lose deals or customers, and what would a competitor say about us?
- Opportunities: what is changing in the market, in technology or in the rules, and who could we partner with?
- Threats: what are competitors doing, and what could a supplier, a regulator or the economy do to us?
- Have everyone write their points alone for five minutes before anybody speaks, so the first voice does not set the rest.
- Finish with the strategies and a first move with a name and a date, or the grid will be filed and forgotten.
Questions about SWOT analysis
What does SWOT stand for?
SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are inside the organisation or project, and opportunities and threats come from outside it, so the grid is usually drawn with the inside on the top row and the outside on the bottom row.
Who created the SWOT analysis?
It grew out of long-range planning in the 1960s. A 2023 study in Long Range Planning traced it to Robert F. Stewart’s method at the Stanford Research Institute, where managers listed and sorted planning issues in groups; it is often credited to Albert Humphrey instead.Puyt, Lie and Wilderom (2023), The origins of SWOT analysis, Long Range Planning →
What is the difference between SWOT and TOWS?
A SWOT lists the four kinds of factor. TOWS takes the same four boxes and pairs them up to find strategies: strengths used on opportunities, strengths against threats, weaknesses fixed through opportunities, and weaknesses kept clear of threats. It is the step that turns a list into a plan.
How many people should take part in a SWOT workshop?
Enough to see the organisation from several sides, usually six to twelve people from different teams and levels. Fewer and the grid reflects one department; many more and the discussion splits, so a big group works better in small groups that report back.
What do you do after a SWOT analysis?
Pick the few points that matter most, turn them into strategies by pairing the boxes, and give the first moves to named people with a date to review them. Without that step a SWOT analysis is a list, which is the most common criticism of the method.Nielsen Norman Group, SWOT analysis →
Can AI do a SWOT analysis?
AI can suggest points, but the useful ones come from the people who know the business. Troopa builds the grid from what your team says during the call and, when asked, adds strategies of its own for the room to keep or change, so the analysis stays the team’s own.
Sources
- University of Kansas Community Tool Box, SWOT analysis
- Puyt, Lie and Wilderom (2023), The origins of SWOT analysis, Long Range Planning
- Nielsen Norman Group, SWOT analysis
Read on 15 October 2026, by the people who make Troopa.
Try it in your next meeting
Install Troopa on your Mac, Windows PC or Ubuntu computer, join your call on Teams, Zoom or Google Meet as you always do, and ask: “Hi Troopa, bring up a SWOT for opening in Berlin.”
14 days free, no card. Then $15 per seat, per month. Cancel any time.