Become someone else for a while, and solve the problem through their eyes.
Role-play asks you to become someone else for a while (a customer, an expert, a child, a skeptic, even an animal) and think about the problem the way they would. You speak in their voice, react as they would react and suggest what they would suggest.
It works because stepping out of your own identity also steps you out of your usual habits of thought. A role gives you permission to say odd things and to notice what you normally overlook. Roles close to the problem bring realistic insight; distant roles bring surprising ideas.
Use it to generate ideas, or later to rehearse how real people might react to a plan before you launch it.
Use it when ideas feel stale, when the team has lost sight of the people it serves, or when you want to rehearse how customers, staff or critics might react to a plan before you roll it out.
Step into each role in turn, or give one role to each person, and tackle the problem in character.
Choose a part of the diagram or a tab to explore each role.
How does this problem feel to the person who lives with it?
What would someone with deep experience notice that others miss?
How would a curious child understand this, and what would they suggest?
What would someone who expects this to fail say, and what's true in it?
How would someone you admire tackle this, in their own style?
What would something completely unlike you notice or want?
Role-play looks like a game, and that's exactly why it works.
Imagining yourself as a specific person, with their day, their worries and their limits, surfaces needs you would never list from your own desk. The more concrete the role, the more useful the insight.
Saying a strange idea as “the seven-year-old” or “the grumpy neighbor” feels safer than saying it as yourself. The role absorbs the risk, so people offer bolder ideas and blunter criticism.
A role far from the problem, like a ringmaster, a cat or a medieval baker, brings patterns from a completely different world. Forcing those patterns onto your problem produces ideas ordinary brainstorming rarely finds.
Playing out how a customer, a staff member or a critic responds to a plan lets you hear objections early, while they're cheap to fix. It also builds empathy for the people who will live with the change.
State the challenge in one sentence everyone understands, such as “How might we bring more people into the shop on weekday afternoons?” Keep it open enough for very different roles to answer.
Pick 4–6 roles: someone who lives the problem, an expert, a child, a skeptic, a hero and one wild card. Make each specific: “a retired teacher who reads a book a week”, not just “a customer”.
Give people a moment to picture their role: how they move and talk, what they care about, what their day is like. A prop, a name badge or a change of chair helps people commit.
Have each role react to the problem and suggest ideas, in the first person. Try a conversation between roles, or a scene where the user meets your current solution. Capture ideas as they come.
Drop the roles out loud, then review the ideas as yourselves. Which insights ring true? Which wild ideas could be tamed? Shortlist the best with a quick NUF Test.
Role cards with a name and a one-line description, a few simple props or hats, a facilitator and 30 minutes. With AI, use the prompt below to play the roles with you.
Subject: an independent neighborhood bookshop. Goal: more visitors, and sales, between 1 and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Team: the owner, two staff and two regular customers, each playing a role.
“I need somewhere warm to go at 3 p.m. that isn't a café.” Idea: a weekday story hour, with a coffee cart for the grown-ups.
“Programs bring people in more than displays do.” Idea: a Tuesday book club for retirees, with a discount on the month's pick.
“Hide a treasure hunt in the shelves!” Idea: a weekly after-school clue trail that leads kids to a mystery book.
“Why pay staff to stand in an empty shop? Close on Tuesdays.” Idea: use the quiet hours for online orders and school book fairs.
“Something different every day!” Idea: a chalkboard of daily mini-events: poetry Monday, puzzle Wednesday, author video call Friday.
“I want sun, silence and a soft cushion.” Idea: a silent reading hour with cushions in the front window.
Role-play is natural territory for AI: it can play a customer, an expert, a child or a skeptic in seconds, and switch between them as often as you like. That makes it a great sparring partner when you can't gather a group. Remember it's improvising from patterns, not speaking for real people, so check its insights against the real thing.
Ask AI for specific characters, from close to the problem to far away from it.
Suggest 6 specific roles for exploring my bookshop problem, from a regular customer to a total outsider.
Question one character at a time, as you would in a real interview.
Be a retired teacher who reads a book a week. I'll interview you about weekday afternoons. Stay in role.
Put several roles in one room and let them argue about the problem.
Write a 6-line debate between the accountant, the nine-year-old and the ringmaster about my weekday plan.
Test a plan against the toughest character before it meets reality.
Play my most skeptical customer. I'll pitch my story hour; push back hard, then say what would win you over.
Describe your challenge, pick a mode, then copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. In coach mode the AI helps you cast the roles, then you take turns: it plays a character while you ask questions, or interviews you while you play one.
The “Open in” links put the prompt in the web address. If your challenge includes anything sensitive, copy and paste instead.
After the session, click one to copy it, then paste it into the same chat.