SWOT Analysis 🧱 Prompts

SUMMARY

Purpose: SWOT Analysis is a structured strategy tool to assess Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in relation to your product and business goals.

Design Thinking Phase: Define

Time: 45–60 min session + 1–2 hours synthesis

Difficulty: ⭐⭐

When to use:At the start of a product redesign or new feature definitionWhen aligning cross-functional teams around product strategyDuring OKR or roadmapping planning cycles

What it is

SWOT Analysis is a classic strategic framework used in UX to evaluate internal and external factors that influence product decisions. It provides a clear visual snapshot of what's working, what's at risk, and where product opportunities may emerge. When integrated into UX work, SWOT creates alignment on priorities across design, product, and business functions.

📺 Video by NNgroup. Embedded for educational reference.

Why it matters

Designers often operate at the intersection of user needs, product goals, and business viability. SWOT Analysis helps translate user research and product context into design-ready strategy. It’s particularly useful when design teams need to advocate for investments or justify prioritisation with stakeholders. SWOT brings clarity, encourages proactive risk management, and grounds UX decisions in both qualitative and strategic insight.

When to use

• When preparing input for roadmap planning or stakeholder presentations
• When surfacing insights from user research into strategic planning
• When re-evaluating UX goals during major pivots or market shifts

Benefits

• Rich Insights: Helps uncover user needs that aren’t visible in metrics.
• Flexibility: Works across various project types and timelines.
• User Empathy: Deepens understanding of behaviours and motivations.

How to use it

Follow these steps as a team or async workshop activity:

1. Align on the scope: product, service, or flow you are analysing.
2. Create a 2x2 grid with Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
3. Use insights from UX research, data, and stakeholder interviews to populate each quadrant:
   • Strengths: Internal capabilities, assets, or features users love.
   • Weaknesses: Pain points, gaps, or resource constraints.
   • Opportunities: Emerging trends, unmet user needs, or tech we can leverage.
   • Threats: Competitive pressure, market risks, or misalignment.
4. Cluster similar themes, and define potential strategic hypotheses.
5. Synthesise into a 3–4 point design strategy or narrative.

Example Output

Here's a hypothetical SWOT analysis for a redesign of a digital banking app:

Common Pitfalls

• Too generic: Avoid vague entries like “we’re innovative” or “users want more features” — tie insights to evidence.
• Missing cross-functional input: This exercise thrives when PMs, ops, and support are included.
• One-and-done thinking: Revisit SWOT quarterly, not once a year.

10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for SWOT Analysis – UX/UI Edition

How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)

Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.

C.S.I.R. stands for:

• Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
• Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
• Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
• Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)

Level up your career with smarter AI prompts.Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence.First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.

Prompt Template 1: “Generate a SWOT Analysis From My UX Research”

Generate a SWOT Analysis From My UX Research

Context: You are a Lead UX Designer about to present insights from a recent research sprint to your product team.  
Specific Info: You’ve conducted [5 user interviews] and [analytics audit] on a [mobile self-service app for customer support].  
Intent: Translate findings into a SWOT analysis to align product and design next steps.  
Response Format: Provide a 4-quadrant SWOT table with bullet points under each heading.

If research goals or user type is unclear, ask clarifying questions first.  
Suggest one hypothesis or opportunity we should explore next.