I'll share two ways to turn the building blocks of the SWOT analysis into action:
The TOWS approach
Using parts of the SWOT for different teams (as inspired by an article by the team at Zapier).
TOWS
In the TOWS approach, we will do it like this:
We take an internal strength and mix it with an external opportunity.
Then what happens? We get a strategy that uses strengths to maximize opportunities.
Or we take an internal strength and make it have babies with an external threat. This gives us a strategy that uses strengths to minimize threats.
Or we take an internal weakness and make it have a baby with an external opportunity. This gives us a strategy that minimizes weakness by taking advantage of opportunities.
Finally in the TOWS approach, you can also take an internal weakness and then make it, have a baby with an external threat. This gives you a strategy that minimizes weakness and avoid threats.
Going further
To go further I recommend you read the article "TOWS Matrix Explained: How to Make Informed Business Decisions" (a 24-minute read written by Stefan F.Dieffenbacher) from where I took the graph above.
Inspiration from Zapier
The guys of Zapier take a bit of a different approach.
They're trying to show us how different teams can use the SWOT analysis for their own work.
So for example, a marketing team will take opportunities and strengths, and this might suggest to them product messaging elements.
Or a product team might take threats and weaknesses to then reveal what could be new project priorities.
A finance and leadership team could bundle together strengths and threats in order to improve the health of the company.
And last but not least an operations team could use weaknesses and opportunities in order to imagine new ways to improve internal workflows.
Going further
To go further I recommend you read the article titled "SWOT analysis: How-to guide and template (that won't bore you to tears)" by the Zapier team from where I took the graph.
The big idea
All of these ways of using the building blocks of a SWOT analysis, have one thing in common.
They take the SWOT analysis as the base of an ideation session.
You pick one element and another one from another category. Put them together and see what happens.
That's a pretty common way of brainstorming new ideas that you can use with many different frameworks.
You can do it with a SWOT analysis, but you could also do it with the Business Model Canvas, an Empathy Map. a Persona or anything else that has different categories in it.