Login

SOAR Analysis

A strengths-based alternative to SWOT that keeps the conversation positive and ambitious. The team examines its strengths and opportunities, articulates its aspirations and defines the results that will show those goals were met. By focusing on potential rather than problems, SOAR is well suited to strategy sessions and teams setting a bold direction.
Strenghts

What do we excel at?

Roman

Roman

We ship several times a day without drama
Maria

Maria

Support and engineering triage together and it works
Opportunities

What niches and opportunities we can utilize?

Anna

Anna

Self-serve onboarding could open a segment we cannot serve today
Daria

Daria

Support tickets point at a gap competitors have not closed
Aspirations

What do we want to achieve?

Maria

Maria

Releases boring enough to run on a Friday
Kirill

Kirill

Two maintainers for every service by end of quarter
Results

How can we measure that the goals and aspirations were achieved?

Daria

Daria

Median review time under 4 hours
Roman

Roman

No service with a single maintainer on the on-call list
Try Template

What is the SOAR Analysis retrospective?

The SOAR Analysis retrospective is a strengths-based, forward-looking format often used as a positive alternative to SWOT. Instead of dwelling on weaknesses and threats, SOAR channels the team's energy into what it does well and where it wants to go. It is ideal for strategic planning, quarterly reviews, or any moment when a team needs both reflection and a clear sense of direction. The format uses four columns:

  • Strengths — what the team does well.
  • Opportunities — external possibilities to pursue.
  • Aspirations — what the team wants to become.
  • Results — the measurable outcomes that define success.

Strengths

The Strengths column captures the team's core capabilities, assets, and proven successes. Identifying strengths is not self-congratulation — it tells the team which foundations to build on and which advantages to lean into when pursuing opportunities.

Opportunities

The Opportunities column looks outward at favorable conditions: market openings, new technologies, partnerships, or unmet needs the team could address. Pairing opportunities with strengths reveals where the team can move with the most leverage.

Aspirations

The Aspirations column is about vision: what the team genuinely cares about and wants to achieve in the longer term. Aspirations give meaning to the work and help align day-to-day effort with a shared purpose.

Results

The Results column turns aspirations into concrete, measurable targets. What does success look like, and how will the team know it has arrived? Defining results keeps SOAR from becoming purely aspirational and connects it to real outcomes.

Benefits of the SOAR Analysis retrospective

  • Builds on strengths instead of dwelling on weaknesses.
  • Connects reflection to strategy and long-term vision.
  • Energizes the team with a positive, future focus.
  • Translates aspirations into measurable results.
  • Works well for planning and quarterly reviews.
  • Encourages buy-in by involving everyone in direction-setting.

How to run a SOAR Analysis retrospective

  1. Create a board in QRetro from the SOAR Analysis template and invite your team.
  2. Explain the SOAR framework and the scope you are analyzing.
  3. Give everyone time to add cards to Strengths and Opportunities first.
  4. Move on to Aspirations, encouraging bold, honest ambitions.
  5. Define Results together, tying each aspiration to a measurable target.
  6. Assign owners to the key results and save the board to track them.

Similar templates

Other formats teams pair with this one — open any of them as a board in one click.
Pre Mortem
A forward-looking format that imagines failure before it happens. The team pretends the project has already failed and asks why — what went wrong, what wasn't done, which problems remain and what other concerns linger. Surfacing risks at the start makes them far easier to prevent than to fix after the fact.
Went Well - To Improve - Action Items
A classic retrospective for reviewing the results of a sprint or stage of work. The team captures what worked well, where it lost momentum and which concrete steps will move things forward. The simple three-column structure keeps the focus balanced between celebrating successes and turning problems into action items that the team can actually take ownership of.
Start - Stop - Continue
An action-oriented format that pushes the team toward concrete decisions rather than abstract discussion. Participants name practices worth starting, those to stop because they get in the way, and the ones that already work and should continue. The result is a clear, immediately usable list of changes that supports a culture of continuous improvement.
4Ls Retrospective
A simple, popular method for Scrum Masters and their teams that captures both the positive and the negative sides of a sprint. Across four lenses — what people liked, what they learned, what they lacked and what they longed for — the team gathers honest feedback and turns it into ideas for improvement. The structure makes it easy for everyone to contribute, even in quieter teams.
Sailboat Retrospective
A metaphorical exercise that turns reflection into a picture of the team's journey. The wind represents what moves the team forward, the anchors what holds it back, the rocks the risks lurking ahead and the island the shared goal everyone is sailing toward. The visual framing makes it easier to talk openly about obstacles and align around where the team wants to go.
Mad Sad Glad
Mad, Sad, Glad helps a team explore how it felt about the past sprint before moving on to the next one. By naming what made people angry, what saddened them and what brought joy, the team surfaces emotional signals that plain metrics miss. Done well, it builds emotional awareness, strengthens team spirit and turns frustration into a constructive conversation.
Try Template