Run your first SWOT¶

By the end you'll have a committed docs/product/shaping/swot-analysis.md — a four-quadrant read of one product's position — and you'll have seen where it lands in the shaping surface the downstream build packs read. One skill, run-swot, from a standing start to a committed artifact.

You need the product-strategy pack installed. It installs to user scope, so the skill loads in whatever workspace you're in.

1. Pick the product and open the workspace¶

Work in a repo that has a docs/product/ tree, or where you're happy for one to be created. Have one product in mind — the thing the SWOT is about.

You should see a normal working repo. Nothing has happened yet; this step only sets where the artifact will land.

2. Ask for the SWOT¶

In your agent, say what you want in plain language:

Run a SWOT for our payments product.

run-swot activates. It works one quadrant at a time — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

You should see the skill begin the SWOT and start on the first quadrant, naming the product you gave it.

3. Answer for the internal quadrants¶

The skill works Strengths and Weaknesses first. These are internal and present-tense — what's true about the product today.

Give concrete claims, not adjectives. "Brand recognition lets us charge a 15% premium with enterprise buyers" is a Strength; "good brand" is not.

You should see each internal quadrant fill with specific, present-tense entries about the product itself.

4. Answer for the external quadrants¶

The skill moves to Opportunities and Threats. These are external and forward-looking — what the market opens or threatens.

You should see the two external quadrants fill with forward-looking entries pointed at the market, distinct from the internal claims above them.

5. Review the assembled analysis¶

The skill shows you the full four-quadrant SWOT before it writes anything.

Read it as a whole. Check that every entry is a claim with a consequence, not a lone noun. If a quadrant reads thin or vague, say so and the skill reworks it.

You should see all four quadrants together, and you should be asked to confirm before it commits.

6. Commit the artifact¶

Approve. The skill writes swot-analysis.md into docs/product/shaping/.

You should see a new file at docs/product/shaping/swot-analysis.md containing the four quadrants you reviewed.

7. See where it landed¶

Open docs/product/shaping/. Your swot-analysis.md sits alongside whatever other strategy artifacts the pack has produced. This directory is the shaping surface — the committed strategy artifacts the downstream product-engineering and experience-design packs draw on.

You should see swot-analysis.md in docs/product/shaping/, committed and ready for a reviewer to open on its own.

What you did¶

You took one product from a standing start to a committed, four-quadrant strategy artifact in the shaping surface — the same surface every other Pillar-1 skill writes to. The next market picture usually needs more than a SWOT: the competitive structure, the macro forces, the portfolio position. Reach for those in Run a market and competitive analysis.