Role Storming
Role Storming: Generate ideas in character as someone else β a competitor CEO, a historical innovator, your most demanding customer, or a fictional character. Role adoption removes the personal risk of proposing "crazy" ideas. As Steve Jobs, you'd never say "maybe we should just keep things the same." The role gives permission the person doesn't give themselves.
What Is Role Storming?β
Role Storming was developed by American consultant Rick Griggs in the 1980s as a structured way to overcome the principal barrier to productive brainstorming: self-censorship. Griggs observed that even in "no judgment" brainstorming sessions, participants heavily filtered their ideas based on personal risk β the fear of proposing something that would sound foolish or be rejected. The result was predictably safe, unimaginative ideas.
The solution was to remove personal ownership of ideas by having participants adopt a role. When you speak as "Steve Jobs" or "a 10-year-old child" or "a competitor trying to destroy our business," you're not proposing your own ideas β you're channelling a character. This psychological displacement dramatically reduces self-censorship. People propose much bolder, more unconventional ideas in character than they would under their own name.
The technique also functions as structured empathy: adopting the role of a customer, a frustrated user, or a market competitor forces genuine perspective-taking that produces insights inaccessible from the inside view. The combination of reduced inhibition and expanded perspective makes Role Storming consistently more generative than standard brainstorming.
How It Worksβ
Step 1: Define the problem
β Clear "How might we...?" question
Step 2: Choose roles
β Real people: competitors' CEOs, historical innovators, industry analysts
β Customer archetypes: the most demanding customer, the first-time user
β Fictional/archetypal: a Silicon Valley startup founder, a Michelin-starred chef
β Contrarian: a critic, a regulator, an investor who thinks you'll fail
Step 3: Assign or choose roles
β Each participant picks or is assigned a role
β 5β10 minute "character immersion" (research, brief biography, key traits)
Step 4: Brainstorm in character
β Generate ideas as that person would
β Use the character's known values, priorities, and style
β "As [character], I would..."
Step 5: Break character for synthesis
β Collect and review all ideas out of character
β Evaluate ideas on their merits, not their character source
β Often: the most extreme in-character ideas contain the most valuable kernel
Good role types:
- Competitors: "How would [direct competitor] attack this problem?"
- Historical innovators: "What would Henry Ford/Marie Curie/Steve Jobs do?"
- User extremes: "What would our most demanding customer demand?"
- Contrarian experts: "What would a regulator/journalist/critic think?"
- Fictional archetypes: "What would a Navy SEAL do? A Michelin chef? A NASA engineer?"
Three Real-World Examplesβ
Disney's "Three Rooms" Processβ
Disney's Imagineering group uses a variant of role storming with three clearly defined roles (which they literally move between three separate rooms to inhabit): the Dreamer (wild, expansive, no constraints), the Realist (practical implementation), and the Critic (rigorous challenge of what could go wrong). Each room has specific visual cues, furniture, and expectations that reinforce the role. By formally separating the imaginative, practical, and critical roles β rather than mixing them chaotically β Disney produces both more creative ideas and more rigorous evaluation.
Startup Competitive Strategy Sessionβ
A startup's leadership team was planning their go-to-market strategy. Rather than analysing competitor threats abstractly, the team assigned one leader to "become" each major competitor's CEO for 30 minutes. Each person researched their assigned competitor's public statements, strategy, and culture, then presented from the competitor's perspective: "As [Competitor A's CEO], my biggest concern about this startup is... my response would be..." The exercise surfaced four attack vectors the team had not been planning to defend against, directly shaping their product roadmap.
UX Research Replacementβ
A product team with no budget for user research used Role Storming to simulate user feedback. Team members adopted personas of specific user archetypes (the overwhelmed manager who only has 5 minutes, the power user who uses every feature, the reluctant adopter forced to use the product by their company) and reviewed the product in character. In-character observations β "as the reluctant adopter, I would quit the moment I saw this popup" β identified four critical UX friction points that were subsequently validated in real user testing.
When to Use Itβ
β Use Role Storming when:
- Team ideas are predictably safe and incremental
- You need genuine competitive intelligence without competitor access
- Empathy for user perspectives is missing from your ideation
- Team members are inhibited by hierarchy (role = permission to say things you wouldn't otherwise)
β Less useful when:
- The team lacks sufficient knowledge of the roles to inhabit them authentically
- Deep technical problem-solving where role perspectives add noise, not signal
- Very short sessions (role immersion requires some minimum investment)
| Pairs well with | Why |
|---|---|
| Six Thinking Hats | Six Hats assigns role-like perspectives (hats); Role Storming personalises them as specific characters |
| Jobs to Be Done | Role Storming as user personas connects directly to JTBD insights |
| Steel Manning | Role Storming as a competitor is a form of steel-manning their strategy |
| Design Thinking | Role Storming is a rapid empathy tool for the human-centred design phase |
Common Misuses and Limitationsβ
Superficial character adoption. Participants who stay in "themselves wearing a costume" rather than genuinely inhabiting the character's priorities produce mediocre output. The investment in character research and immersion is what separates productive role storming from dressed-up normal brainstorming.
Choosing too-safe roles. Selecting roles close to the team's own perspective (e.g., "a product manager at a similar company") produces limited perspective expansion. The best roles are genuinely different: a non-technical user, a competitor with opposite values, a historical figure from a different era.
Breaking character for ideas that seem too bold. The mechanism of role storming is that the character's boldness exceeds the participant's. When someone breaks character because the character's idea feels too extreme, they've undermined the technique. The character's extremism is the point.
Related Modelsβ
| Model | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Six Thinking Hats | Both use role assignment to structure perspective-taking |
| Empathy Mapping | Role Storming is structured empathy as ideation method |
| Brainwriting | Role Storming + Brainwriting: write in character silently, then share |
Frequently Asked Questionsβ
Which roles produce the most useful ideas?
Research and practitioner experience consistently identify three high-value role categories: (1) your most critical user β the person hardest to please, whose demands if met would delight everyone; (2) your most aggressive competitor β their attack strategy reveals your vulnerabilities; (3) a recognized innovator from a different domain β applying their principles cross-domain produces non-obvious ideas. Historical innovators (Jobs, Bezos, Ford) are popular because their thinking styles are well-documented and distinctive.
How much preparation is needed to inhabit a role productively?
Minimum: 5β10 minutes of character research (key quotes, known priorities, documented decisions). Optimal: 20β30 minutes that includes reading primary sources (interviews, speeches, writing) and identifying the character's core values and decision-making style. For competitor roles, review their public strategy statements, product decisions, and stated priorities. The more specific and accurate the character model, the more useful the in-character perspective.
Is Role Storming the same as customer persona brainstorming?
Customer persona brainstorming is a specific application of Role Storming where the roles are user personas. Role Storming is broader β roles can be competitors, historical figures, fictional characters, or regulators, not just users. The mechanism is the same (role adoption reduces inhibition and forces perspective-taking), but Role Storming's range of applicable roles makes it more versatile than persona-based methods alone.
Further Readingβ
- Griggs, R. (1985). "Rolestorming: The Power of Play in Problem-Solving." Training & Development Journal
- de Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats β the formalised role-based thinking framework
- Brown, T. (2009). Change by Design β empathy and role-taking in design thinking
Apply with AIβ
π Role storm your challenge with MindMax β
This page is part of the MindMax Mental Models Knowledge Base.