The SEPO Analysis Grid is a classic, strategic planning tool for evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an idea or challenge, or any other major decision situation within an organization. Here, the credo of the method is: “Let’s look back at the strengths and weaknesses of the past and look out at the opportunities and risks of the future.”
With a SEPO analysis, internal and external factors are queried in order to derive the parameters for idea optimization and idea evaluation. The aim is to make the most of opportunities and keep risks to a minimum.
A SEPO analysis is a good opportunity to gather all the information from all the stakeholders on the idea or challenge. It allows participants to evaluate the idea from a distance, share their views regarding the four areas, and thus come to a more comprehensive common view.
SEPO is suitable both in the phase of problem analysis and especially in the phase of evaluation of an idea.
