Six Ways of Thinking About a Problem and When to Use Each

When you are stuck, the usual advice is to come up with more ideas. But an empty page and a hard decision are different problems. More ideas won't help someone who already has a goal and can't start, and a plan won't help someone who doesn't yet know what they want. Different situations need different ways of thinking, not more of the same kind of thinking. Each way asks you to think about a different thing.

Below are six ways of thinking about a problem. Each one has a full guide. Here you get the short version: the situation it is for, how you think in it, and the roles in Ideation that fit it.

Think wide, then deep: solo brainstorming

When: you have a topic but no list yet, and nobody to think it through with.

Thinking move: go in two parts. First, write fast and don't judge: short lines, half-ideas, anything the topic brings up. The obvious answers come first, and the interesting ones often appear right after them. Then slow down, pick the line you most want to know more about, and work it out until it feels real.

Roles: Universal for the fast part, Critic for the slow part, Psychologist when one direction keeps pulling you and you want to know why. Read the guide on solo brainstorming.

Think in tasks: planning a goal

When: you know what you want, but it sits in your head as one big result.

Thinking move: ask one question again and again: what does this need? Each answer becomes a task, and the same question about each task gives you smaller ones. You stop when a line is an action you could finish in one sitting. Your real time and budget decide which tasks stay on the list.

Roles: Motivator, Perfectionist and Critic, with Minimalist when the list grows too long. See how to break a goal into tasks.

Think about your own reasons: motivation

When: the goal is clear, the plan exists, and you still don't start.

Thinking move: think about you, not the task. Ask why you want this, two or three times in a row. Name what really blocks you: fear, fog, size or plain tiredness, because each one needs a different fix. Then make the first step so small that it feels almost silly.

Roles: Motivator, Psychologist and Optimist. The guide on finding motivation walks through all three questions.

Think like a critic: honest feedback

When: you have an idea you like, and friends keep saying it sounds great.

Thinking move: run a pre-mortem. Imagine the idea has already failed and list the reasons. Explaining a failure feels easier than admitting a risk, so the weak spots come out faster. Check three places: customers, resources and yourself. Treat each critique as a claim to test, not a verdict.

Roles: Critic, Marketer and Toxic. Learn how to get honest feedback on your idea before you show it to people.

Think in questions: talking to yourself

When: a decision you keep circling, where every round ends with "I don't know".

Thinking move: turn a vague worry into small questions with short answers, then ask why a few levels down. The first answer is the one you already had ready. The real reason is usually two or three questions further.

Roles: Psychologist, Critic and Universal. The guide lists useful questions to ask yourself.

Think from a distance: advice

When: you want another view on a choice, but one confident answer doesn't fit your life.

Thinking move: start before you ask. Describe your goal, your limits and what you have already tried. Then gather several angles (what could go wrong, what could go right, what matters most) and think it over before you make the decision yourself. The value of other views is distance: they show the parts you stand too close to see.

Roles: Critic, Optimist and Minimalist. See how to ask for advice and still decide on your own.

How to choose between these ways of thinking

Before you think harder, ask yourself what is missing right now:

• No options yet: solo brainstorming
• A goal, but no steps: task planning
• Steps, but no start: motivation
• An idea you love a little too much: feedback
• A choice that feels heavy and unclear: questions to yourself
• A choice you can't see from the outside: advice

These ways of thinking often follow each other. Brainstorming gives you an idea, feedback tests it, planning breaks it into tasks, and motivation gets the first task done. In Ideation each way starts with how you phrase the topic, and on any board you can change the roles (up to three) and the Context as you move on. The roles give short nudges, and you do the thinking.

A stuck problem rarely needs more effort. It needs a different kind of thinking.