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Jackson Hille on The Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis

I am Jackson Hille, the Content Associate for FormSwift, a SF-based startup that helps organizations, entrepreneurs, and businesses go paperless. Recently, for a work project, I had to evaluate the current strengths and weaknesses of our content campaigns, and also decide what content avenues present our greatest opportunities and our greatest threats. As a professional evaluator, you might be familiar with the aforementioned planning concept, commonly referred to as a SWOT Analysis. I am new to the business world, as I just graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2014, so as any decent millennial would do, I Googled and searched guides to SWOT Analysis. While the majority of what I found was disappointing, there was one existing rad resource out there from the University of Kansas; nonetheless, there was no SWOT Guide that combined honest evaluations about the modern economy, usable templates and a user friendly design. So, I called up my college mentor and we created our own, “Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis.”

Rad Resource: The Community Tool Box’s SWOT Chapter:

The Community Tool Box is a service of the Work Group for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas. Their SWOT Guide is comprehensive, user friendly and a great resource for any evaluator within the public health or community development field. The SWOT Guide not only provides a thorough explanation of the appropriate evaluation process when conducting a SWOT Analysis centered around health and community development related issues, but it also provides readers with multiple forms of content. For instance, it contains relevant examples for health and community development professionals, a ready-made PowerPoint version of the guide’s highlights, and a handy checklist to ensure you are taking the correct steps when conducting your SWOT Analysis.

Rad Resource: The Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis:

The Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis is the end product of a unique collaboration. As previously noted, through my work at a startup, I realized that there were no great, comprehensive SWOT guides out there, especially for people in the business world. So, I enlisted my college mentor, Justin Gomer, a Lecturer at UC Berkeley, and we decided to make a comprehensive guide ourselves. The finished product is a guide to SWOT Analysis that is readily usable for either a professional evaluator hired as a consultant to help out with a company’s investment strategy, or for a volunteer at a non-profit, who needs help evaluating an organization’s goals for the upcoming summer.

Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

1 thought on “Jackson Hille on The Essential Guide to SWOT Analysis”

  1. Kelsey Brunton

    This is AWESOME and totally RAD! Thank you for posting and creating such an excellent and much needed resource for SWOT users.

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