--- name: brainstorming-six-thinking-hats description: "Facilitate a Six Thinking Hats session to examine a project decision or proposal from six structured perspectives, preventing premature convergence and surfacing blind spots. Invoke when the team needs to evaluate a significant decision without collapsing into debate." --- > Adapted from bmad-method:bmad-brainstorming (MIT, © 2025 BMad Code, LLC). See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. ## When to use Use this skill when a team must evaluate a significant decision, proposal, or change where multiple conflicting viewpoints are likely and debate tends to crowd out one or more perspectives. Typical triggers include: - A go/no-go decision on a major scope change or architectural pivot - A retrospective action plan that needs to survive skeptical review before commitment - A stakeholder alignment session where optimists and risk managers routinely talk past each other - A product roadmap prioritization where emotional investment in one initiative is suppressing critical analysis Do not invoke when the primary need is to generate novel ideas without constraints; prefer Mind Mapping or Morphological Analysis for divergent generation. Do not invoke when a single root cause must be traced; prefer Five Whys. ## Summon the SME Before facilitating, load the canonical Six Thinking Hats reference to ground the session in established practice. **Reading the config.** Check `.pm-kit.config.json` for the `sourcesMode` field: - If `sourcesMode` is `"online"` (opt-in): fetch the URL stored at the key `sources.sixThinkingHats` in `vendor/pm-kit/sources-index.json` using your available web-fetch capability. Do not name a specific tool — use whatever your runtime provides. Ground the facilitation in what you read. Do not fabricate quotations or page numbers from any version of that page. - If `sourcesMode` is `"offline"` or the field is absent (the default): rely on your general knowledge of the Six Thinking Hats technique as developed by Edward de Bono. Cite the canonical URL from `vendor/pm-kit/sources-index.json` at key `sources.sixThinkingHats` in the output. Do not fabricate quotations or page numbers. In both cases, the URL to cite is `https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/`. ## Facilitation script Walk the user through these steps in sequence. Do not skip steps or combine them. **Step 1 — Focus statement.** Ask the user to state the proposal or decision under examination in one sentence. Confirm it is specific enough that each hat round will generate concrete outputs. **Step 2 — White Hat (facts).** Ask: "What do we know for certain? What data and information are available?" Capture only verifiable facts and data gaps — no opinions, no predictions. **Step 3 — Red Hat (emotions).** Ask: "What is your gut reaction? What emotions and intuitions does this proposal trigger?" Capture reactions without requiring justification. Both enthusiasm and unease are valid outputs. **Step 4 — Black Hat (caution).** Ask: "What could go wrong? What are the risks, weaknesses, and reasons this might fail?" Capture all critical concerns. This is the hat where pessimism is productive — do not prematurely counter concerns. **Step 5 — Yellow Hat (optimism).** Ask: "What are the benefits and reasons this could succeed?" Capture the genuine value and upside. If the Black Hat produced strong concerns, prompt the user to identify compensating benefits. **Step 6 — Green Hat (creativity).** Ask: "What alternatives, improvements, or creative options exist?" Capture new ideas and modifications — including ideas that mitigate Black Hat risks or amplify Yellow Hat benefits. **Step 7 — Blue Hat (process).** Ask the user to step back and reflect: "What have we learned from this session? What conclusions or next steps does the evidence support?" Synthesize outputs from all five preceding hats into a summary and recommended action. **Step 8 — Output.** Produce the completed analysis using the structure in `TEMPLATE.md` (sibling file). Fill every section. Leave no placeholder unfilled. **Step 9 — Save the artifact.** Save the filled artifact to `docs/pm-kit/outputs/brainstorming-six-thinking-hats/.md`. `` is a kebab-case ASCII slug (max 40 characters) derived from the focus statement (e.g., `migrate-to-microservices`). Confirm the final path with the user before writing. If the target file already exists, ask the user whether to overwrite, append a date suffix (e.g., `-2026-04-20`), or choose a different slug. The artifact must begin with the three-line provenance header below (preserved as HTML comments so they do not render): ``` ``` ## Languages The kit separates the language used for live agent–user dialogue from the language used in the saved artifact. Both values live in `.pm-kit.config.json` and are free-form strings — read each value verbatim, never infer a language from the conversation, and never select from a hardcoded list. **Facilitation dialogue.** Speak to the user during facilitation in the language at `language.communication`. Use the string verbatim. **Filled artifact (saved TEMPLATE.md output).** Produce the written artifact in the language at `language.output`. If `language.output` is absent or empty, fall back to `language.communication`. Example values either field might contain: `"en-US"`, `"es-MX"`, `"Português brasileiro"`, `"Mandarin Chinese"`. Accept any string as given. This bifurcation is the normative pattern for every skill in the kit. ## Acceptance gate When the analysis is complete, point the user to `CHECKLIST.md` (sibling file) and ask them to verify each item. Remind them that the output must be marked **PASS** or **FAIL**. On **FAIL**, invite the user to return with specific notes so the facilitation can be resumed or corrected.