Why Role Storming Helps You See a Problem From New Angles

You have looked at the same problem for a week, and every new idea looks like the last one. That is normal: you think from one place, with your own habits, fears and favorite answers. Role storming is a simple way out. You take a role and ask how that person would see the problem: a critic, a marketer, a friend who only wants you to be happy. Then you write down what that person would say.

The idea is old, and there is some research behind it. Here is why different perspectives help, and how brainstorming roles in Ideation turn this into a short daily practice.

Why one point of view runs out

Your own view of a problem comes with a fixed set of questions. If you are careful, you ask what could go wrong. If you are hopeful, you ask what could go right. Both questions are useful, and both stop at the same place every time. The ideas you miss are usually not hidden deep. They sit behind questions you never ask.

A new perspective brings new questions. A marketer asks who will pay for this. A psychologist asks why you want it in the first place. A minimalist asks what you can drop. A friend who loves you asks whether this will make you happy. None of these questions is hard, but each one is hard to remember when you are stuck in your usual frame. Roles are a shortcut: you don't have to remember the questions, the roles ask them for you.

What role storming is

Role storming is a brainstorming technique where you take on a role and suggest ideas as that person would. Typical roles are a colleague, a boss, a competitor or a famous person from history. Mind Tools credits it to Rick Griggs, who developed it in the early 1980s to help people speak up in group sessions. When an idea comes from "my character", it is easier to say it out loud, even if it sounds strange. The role takes the risk, not you.

A better-known method with the same move is Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono, first published in 1985. Each hat stands for one kind of thinking, such as facts, feelings, caution or new ideas. Hats are kinds of thinking rather than roles with a character, but the point is the same: you change the angle on purpose instead of waiting for it to change by chance.

What research says about other perspectives

One finding helps explain why stepping outside yourself works. In four studies published in 2011, Evan Polman and Kyle Emich found that people came up with more creative ideas when they worked on a problem for someone else than when they worked on it for themselves, and the effect was strongest for a distant stranger. The authors linked it to psychological distance: a problem that isn't yours feels lighter, so you think about it more freely.

This doesn't mean roles make you smarter. Perspective taking gives you a little distance from your own problem, and from a distance it is easier to see other options. A role is a quick way to get that distance: for a few minutes the problem belongs to someone else.

How brainstorming roles work in Ideation

In Ideation each of the roles is a different perspective on your topic. A role doesn't write the answer for you. It gives short nudges, and you do the thinking: you keep what clicks, delete the rest and write your own thoughts. Each role reacts to your topic, your Context and the thoughts you deleted, so its nudges change as the board grows.

You can put up to three roles on one board. More voices turn into noise, while two or three give enough contrast. Some role combinations to start with:

• To test an idea: Critic stress-tests it, Marketer thinks about people and value, Optimist sees what could go right.
• To get unstuck: Universal adapts to your train of thought, Motivator helps you get going, Psychologist helps uncover what's beneath.
• To argue with someone: Toxic pokes and provokes, Politician answers a different question, Crush cares more about you than your ideas. Arguing back often makes you say what you really think.
• To sharpen a plan: Minimalist keeps only what matters, Perfectionist puts everything in order, Geek looks through a tech fan's eyes.

Universal, Critic and Motivator are free, and the other roles are part of PRO. On your first board every role is open, so you can try them all.

Try role storming on your next board

1. Write a topic: a goal, a question or a doubt.
2. Pick two or three roles that would disagree with each other.
3. Read the thoughts and notice which role surprised you. Tap that thought to go deeper.
4. When the board starts to repeat itself, change the roles or add Context: your goal, your limits and what you have already tried. Both work on any board at any time.

The most useful role is often the one you would never pick yourself: the voice you don't usually listen to.