What Are the Six Thinking Hats?
The Six Thinking Hats is a powerful parallel thinking and decision-making method developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, the pioneer of lateral thinking. The method uses six colored metaphorical hats to represent six distinct thinking modes, enabling individuals and groups to think more effectively by separating different types of thinking and approaching them systematically.
Traditional thinking is often confused and inefficient - people simultaneously try to be logical, creative, critical, and optimistic, resulting in muddled thinking and argumentative discussions. Six Thinking Hats eliminates this confusion by directing everyone to think in the same mode at the same time, creating parallel thinking that's far more productive than adversarial debate.
Throughout my 30+ year engineering career developing 100+ patents, I've used Six Thinking Hats extensively in design reviews, innovation sessions, and strategic planning. The method transforms contentious meetings into productive explorations by ensuring all perspectives are heard systematically rather than competing simultaneously.
The Six Hats Explained in Detail
White Hat: Facts and Information
Thinking Mode: Neutral, objective, focused on data and facts
Key Questions: What information do we have? What information do we need? What are the facts? What does the data tell us?
When to Use: Beginning of sessions to establish common understanding, when decisions require data, to counter unfounded assumptions
Real Example: Evaluating power tool battery capacity, White Hat thinking examines actual runtime data, charge cycle tests, temperature performance measurements, and market research on customer usage patterns. No opinions - just facts and information gaps that need filling.
Common Mistakes: Confusing opinions with facts, presenting biased interpretations as data, avoiding admitting information gaps
Red Hat: Emotions and Intuition
Thinking Mode: Emotional, intuitive, feeling-based without justification required
Key Questions: How do I feel about this? What does my intuition say? What are my gut reactions?
When to Use: Early to surface emotional reactions before they interfere with other thinking, when intuition signals problems logic hasn't identified, to understand user emotional responses
Real Example: Developing medical device designs, Red Hat thinking allows team members to express feelings: "This interface makes me anxious," "I love this color scheme," "Something feels off about the weight distribution." These intuitions often prove correct - humans detect problems subconsciously before logic identifies them.
Common Mistakes: Demanding justification for feelings (defeats the purpose), confusing Red Hat with Red Flag (criticism belongs in Black Hat), extended Red Hat sessions (brief emotional check-ins work best)
Black Hat: Critical Judgment
Thinking Mode: Critical, cautious, focused on risks, problems, and what could go wrong
Key Questions: What are the risks? What could fail? What are the weaknesses? Why might this not work?
When to Use: After Yellow Hat to balance optimism with realism, when evaluating risk, before final decisions, to identify problems worth solving
Real Example: Proposing a new cordless tool platform, Black Hat thinking identifies: battery compatibility risks with existing chargers, higher manufacturing costs requiring price increases, potential reliability issues with new cell chemistry, and market resistance to new battery format. Critical thinking prevents expensive mistakes.
Common Mistakes: Overusing Black Hat (creating perpetual negativity), confusing critical judgment with pessimism (Black Hat should be logical, not emotional), using Black Hat to attack people rather than ideas
Important Note: Black Hat is the most natural hat for many engineers and managers, who default to critical thinking constantly. Six Thinking Hats forces balance by limiting Black Hat to its designated time, preventing it from dominating discussions.
Yellow Hat: Optimistic Benefits
Thinking Mode: Optimistic, positive, focused on benefits, opportunities, and what could work
Key Questions: What are the benefits? What opportunities does this create? Why will this succeed? What's the best-case scenario?
When to Use: After White Hat to identify opportunities in the data, before Black Hat to ensure benefits are identified before criticism, when teams are stuck in negativity
Real Example: Evaluating brushless motor technology for power tools, Yellow Hat thinking identifies: 50% longer runtime, reduced maintenance (no brush replacement), quieter operation, longer motor life, potential for smart motor management, and competitive advantages. Optimistic thinking ensures benefits aren't overlooked.
Common Mistakes: Confusing Yellow Hat with wishful thinking (benefits should be logical, not fantasy), defensive Yellow Hat used to counter Black Hat criticism, insufficient Yellow Hat time (groups naturally skip to criticism)
Green Hat: Creative Thinking
Thinking Mode: Creative, generative, focused on alternatives, new ideas, and possibilities
Key Questions: What are alternatives? How else could we do this? What new approaches are possible? What if we tried something completely different?
When to Use: When current approaches seem inadequate, when stuck on problems, to generate options before evaluation, to explore unconventional solutions
Real Example: Addressing power tool overheating problems, Green Hat thinking generates alternatives: active liquid cooling, phase-change materials, heat-generating components separation, higher-temperature motors, thermal energy harvesting, forced-air cooling channels, heat spreading to handle surfaces. Creative thinking expands solution space before selecting approaches.
Common Mistakes: Criticizing ideas during Green Hat (kills creativity), insufficient wild ideas (too much self-censorship), premature evaluation (defeats creative exploration)
Green Hat Techniques: Brainstorming, provocation, random stimulus, questioning assumptions, deliberate rule-breaking, what-if scenarios
Blue Hat: Process Control
Thinking Mode: Organizational, controlling, focused on thinking about thinking
Key Questions: What thinking is needed? What's our agenda? What have we accomplished? What should we think about next? What's our conclusion?
When to Use: Beginning of sessions to plan hat sequence, during sessions to maintain discipline, at the end to summarize conclusions, when discussions drift off-topic
Real Example: Blue Hat at the session start: "We'll spend 10 minutes on White Hat establishing facts, 5 minutes Red Hat checking intuitions, 15 minutes Yellow Hat identifying opportunities, 15 minutes Black Hat examining risks, then 20 minutes Green Hat generating alternatives." Blue Hat maintains structure and ensures comprehensive coverage.
Common Mistakes: Skipping Blue Hat planning (leads to chaotic discussions), allowing Blue Hat to become authoritarian (should facilitate, not dictate), insufficient Blue Hat summarizing (losing conclusions)
Blue Hat as Facilitator: Typically one person wears Blue Hat throughout, facilitating the group through other hats. This prevents process confusion and ensures disciplined thinking.
How to Use Six Thinking Hats Effectively
Session Structure
Opening Blue Hat: Define the focus topic or decision. Plan which hats to use and in what sequence. Set time limits for each hat.
Typical Sequence:
- White Hat: Establish facts and information (10-15 minutes)
- Red Hat: Quick emotional check-in (2-5 minutes)
- Yellow Hat: Identify benefits and opportunities (10-15 minutes)
- Black Hat: Examine risks and problems (10-15 minutes)
- Green Hat: Generate creative alternatives (15-20 minutes)
- Closing Blue Hat: Summarize insights and determine next steps (10 minutes)
Important: Sequence isn't rigid. Adapt to your situation. When teams are naturally negative, start with Yellow Hat to identify benefits before criticism. When teams are overly optimistic, start with Black Hat to ground discussions in reality.
Parallel Thinking Discipline
The power of Six Thinking Hats comes from parallel thinking - everyone wearing the same hat simultaneously. When someone tries to wear a different hat (being critical during Yellow Hat, for example), the facilitator redirects: "That's Black Hat thinking - we'll capture that thought for later, but right now let's stay with Yellow Hat benefits."
Solo vs Group Use
Six Thinking Hats works for individual thinking and group decisions. Solo use: mentally work through each hat systematically. Group use: everyone wears the same hat together, preventing argument and ensuring comprehensive coverage.
Time Management
Set time limits for each hat. Without limits, comfortable hats (often Black Hat for engineers) dominate while uncomfortable hats get skipped. Enforced time limits ensure balanced thinking.
Real-World Applications
Product Development Decisions
At DeWalt and Black & Decker, we used Six Thinking Hats for major product decisions. White Hat: market data, competitive analysis, technical capabilities. Red Hat: team gut feelings about market readiness. Yellow Hat: competitive advantages, customer benefits, revenue opportunities. Black Hat: technical risks, cost concerns, market resistance. Green Hat: alternative approaches, innovative features, differentiation strategies. This systematic exploration prevented rushing into decisions based on incomplete thinking.
Design Reviews
Traditional design reviews often devolve into arguments - designers defending work while reviewers criticizing. Six Thinking Hats transforms reviews: Yellow Hat identifies what works well (builds on strengths), Black Hat identifies legitimate problems (criticism without defensiveness), Green Hat generates improvement ideas (solutions, not just problems). Structured thinking replaces contentious debate.
Strategic Planning
Business strategy benefits enormously from Six Thinking Hats. White Hat: market trends, financial data, competitive landscape. Yellow Hat: growth opportunities, strategic advantages, market positioning. Black Hat: competitive threats, resource limitations, execution risks. Green Hat: alternative strategies, unconventional approaches, differentiation. Comprehensive thinking prevents strategy based on incomplete analysis.
Problem Solving
Complex problems benefit from multi-perspective thinking. White Hat establishes problem facts, Red Hat surfaces emotional aspects often ignored, Black Hat identifies why current approaches fail, Yellow Hat finds value in partial solutions, Green Hat generates alternatives, Blue Hat organizes thinking and drives conclusions.
Combining Six Thinking Hats with Other Methods
Six Thinking Hats + TRIZ
Use White Hat to define technical contradictions, Green Hat to apply TRIZ principles creatively, Yellow Hat to identify benefits of TRIZ-generated solutions, Black Hat to evaluate feasibility. Six Thinking Hats provides structure for applying technical methods like TRIZ.
Six Thinking Hats + Design Thinking
During Design Thinking's Empathize stage, use White Hat for user research facts and Red Hat for emotional insights. During Define stage, use Yellow Hat to identify opportunities in user pain points. During Ideate stage, use Green Hat for creative solution generation. During Test stage, use Black Hat to identify prototype problems and Yellow Hat to recognize successes.
Six Thinking Hats + SCAMPER
Use Green Hat sessions with SCAMPER prompts to systematically generate creative alternatives. SCAMPER provides specific creative directions while Six Thinking Hats ensures disciplined creative exploration without premature criticism.
Six Thinking Hats + Morphological Analysis
Use White Hat to identify morphological dimensions, Green Hat to generate options for each dimension, Yellow Hat and Black Hat to evaluate combinations, Blue Hat to organize the analysis process.
Common Six Thinking Hats Challenges
Challenge: Black Hat Dominance
Engineers and managers often default to critical Black Hat thinking constantly. Counter by: starting with Yellow Hat to establish benefits before criticism, limiting Black Hat time strictly, reminding that criticism is valuable but must be balanced with other perspectives.
Challenge: Artificial Feeling
New users sometimes feel the method is artificial or forced. This passes with practice. The structure feels artificial initially but produces better thinking than unstructured discussion. Persist through initial discomfort - the value becomes clear with use.
Challenge: Skipping Uncomfortable Hats
Groups naturally gravitate toward comfortable hats. Optimistic cultures skip Black Hat; critical cultures skip Yellow Hat; logical cultures skip Red Hat. Enforce all hats even when uncomfortable - that's where new insights emerge.
Challenge: Hat Confusion
People mix hat modes - being critical during Yellow Hat or emotional during White Hat. Strong facilitation redirects mixed thinking: "That's Black Hat - let's capture it for later but stay in Yellow Hat now." Discipline improves with practice.
Six Thinking Hats for Innovation and Patents
Six Thinking Hats is valuable throughout the innovation and patent process:
Innovation Opportunity Identification
White Hat reveals market gaps and technical opportunities. Red Hat surfaces intuitions about unmet needs. Yellow Hat identifies potential benefits worth pursuing. Green Hat generates innovative approaches to addressing opportunities.
Patent Strategy Development
Yellow Hat identifies patenting benefits (competitive protection, licensing revenue, market position). Black Hat examines patenting risks (prior art, costs, enforceability challenges). Green Hat generates alternative patent strategies (continuation applications, design patents, trade secrets). Balanced thinking creates comprehensive patent strategies.
Prior Art Analysis
White Hat objectively reviews existing patents. Black Hat identifies how prior art blocks or challenges your patent. Green Hat generates ways to differentiate your invention from prior art. Systematic thinking strengthens patent applications.
Invention Evaluation
Yellow Hat identifies commercial benefits justifying patent costs. Black Hat evaluates novelty, non-obviousness, and enforceability risks. This balanced evaluation prevents wasting resources on weak patents or missing strong patent opportunities.
Tips for Six Thinking Hats Success
Start Simple
Begin with three hats: Yellow (benefits), Black (problems), Green (alternatives). Add other hats as you gain comfort with the method. Full six-hat sessions can overwhelm new users.
Use Visual Reminders
Display colored cards, slides, or actual colored objects representing each hat. Visual cues help maintain discipline and remind everyone which hat they're wearing.
Appoint Strong Blue Hat Facilitator
Success requires disciplined facilitation. The Blue Hat facilitator must redirect hat-mixing, enforce time limits, and keep the group on track. Weak facilitation leads to reverting to undisciplined discussion.
Capture All Thinking
Document insights from each hat systematically. White Hat facts, Red Hat feelings, Yellow Hat benefits, Black Hat risks, Green Hat alternatives all provide value. Don't lose insights by failing to record them.
Practice Regularly
Six Thinking Hats becomes natural with practice but feels awkward initially. Commit to using it regularly for several months before judging effectiveness. The method's value emerges through repeated use.
About the Six Thinking Hats Tool Creator
This Six Thinking Hats tool was created by Richard Jones, a design engineer with 100+ patents and 30+ years of professional product development experience. Throughout his career at DeWalt, Black & Decker, Stanley, and ResMed, Richard has used Six Thinking Hats extensively to facilitate design reviews, strategic planning sessions, and innovation workshops.
Richard's approach integrates Six Thinking Hats with other systematic innovation methods including TRIZ, SCAMPER, Design Thinking, and Morphological Analysis. This tool represents decades of experience applying structured thinking methodologies in real-world engineering and business environments where decisions must balance creativity with practicality, optimism with realism, and innovation with risk management.
All innovation tools on InventionPath are free to use with no subscriptions or registrations required, representing Richard's commitment to sharing professional-grade thinking and invention methodologies with aspiring inventors, engineers, and entrepreneurs worldwide.