The Founder's Guide to SWOT Analysis: Making Strategic Decisions

Hey Reader,

As a founder, never lose sight of what you're here to do. Strip everything back to that one critical feature your app or service must-execute flawlessly aka the job to be done. Then, reverse-engineer the path to achieving it, pinpointing the must-haves to make it happen.

Iterating mid-development isn't agile; it's expensive. Agility comes from deep dives into your concept before any code comes to life. Each thought, each 'what if' is a free iteration, saving you from costly pivots later on.

It's those images of founding teams relentlessly mapping everything out on whiteboards and post-its, through dissent, ideation, and the hopeful breakthrough into unexpected gold.

Most first time founders race into engineering without a clear picture, iterating mid-build, and without even realizing, becoming a feature factory. Building more stuff no one asked for, convinced 'this one feature' is going to change everything.

This week we lightly introduce the SWOT analysis. More than a McKinsey buzzword; It's your initial 360 battlefield assessment, likely the first time you're putting it down on paper.

Think of this workbook as a series of questions that it's only reasonable for you to have answers to...

Every Question, A Decision Point: Remember, at some stage, "What's our SWOT?" becomes "What's our move?" Each question you tackle now helps define your trajectory.

Don't wait until 'later' as that quickly becomes 'if only'. Every founder wishes they'd asked these questions sooner. Your next iteration, aha moment, or new insight, is just a question away.

The goal of this module, is just to introduce a framework, without all the fluff, to ask you to answer some very reasonable questions and then translate that into a business framework you can look at with honest eyes. It's just a first draft.

-- James