Aleisha White

Thinking is a skill, the same as driving. Skilled drivers and thinkers navigate around obstacles more quickly and with greater finesse than their unskilled counterparts.

In either case, building agility, speed and accuracy required focused practice. The Six Thinking Hats technique offers a rich playground for the mind, enabling marketers to refine their thinking skills, drive innovation and yield higher-quality solutions. 

Here’s how to do it. 

Let’s Think About Thinking for a Minute

We use thinking for almost everything — especially when it comes to solving problems and making improvements. Yet, thinking itself can become an insidious problem, made all the worse by the fact that you can’t see it; you only witness its impacts. Just like knives, a blunt mind can be far more dangerous than a sharp one. 

While many societies sing high praises for logical thought and reason, there’s evidence to suggest that it’s not always the most valuable or reliable way forward — as we’ll explore below. 

And we have plenty of different types of thinking skills to lean on, including: 

  • Logical thinking: Step-by-step reasoning to reach a conclusion (often generating only a few “realistic” solutions and choosing the best option). For instance, figuring out the fastest way home.
  • Parallel thinking: Approaching a problem through multiple perspectives — for instance, weighing cost, convenience, health and mood into your meal planning. 
  • Systems thinking: Understanding how different parts connect within a whole. This is like hearing about a landslide in the news and deriving that traffic will be slow in the morning. 
  • Critical thinking: Systematically observing, analyzing and inferring to draw conclusions, such as weather predictions and self-reflection. 
  • Abstract thinking: Working with concepts and patterns beyond the literal — for example, connecting the dots to understand metaphors.
  • Lateral thinking: Finding an unexpected or indirect solution, such as repurposing a shoe as a door stop. 
  • Creative thinking: Combining imagination with practicality to create something novel, like inventing a new recipe with leftovers.

Imagine the gains in campaign impact if we start thinking beyond current trends and strategically break the mold at the click of a finger. The good news is that you can, and the Six Thinking Hats method is one effective way to achieve it. 

What Are the Six Thinking Hats? 

The Six Thinking Hats is a framework developed by Edward de Bono, affording structure to the thinking process and facilitating creative solutions. Each hat represents a lens through which you consider a problem and generate ideas to solve it. 

When discussing the problem, everyone wears an imaginary hat, collaboratively brainstorms ideas and then moves to a different hat. This process turns uninhibited idea generation into focused creative exploration. It translates “thinking about a problem” into an intentional process for mapping and refining solutions. 

Before we get started, here are some tips for using the Six Thinking Hats:

  1. The thinking hats method typically works best in a group brainstorming session, as it allows multiple perspectives to emerge. Often, individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences approach challenges and solutions in different ways, leading to far more impactful solutions in the long run. 
  2. All participants should wear the same color hat simultaneously (rather than each wearing only one hat throughout the discussion). Focus on generating ideas and allow space for the ‘bad’ ones — good ideas usually start flowing once everyone’s in the groove. Save analyzing and refining solutions for later. 
  3. Consider that the “problem” doesn’t have to be an actual problem. It’s a question, topic or idea that you want to explore, improve, change or innovate on. When framing the problem, ensure you’ve considered all factors and frame it objectively. 

Now, let’s explore what each colored hat has to teach us:

The White Hat: What Do We Know? 

The white thinking hat is all about the facts, objective information, data and evidence. You can use this hat at the beginning and end of your brainstorming session to ensure you have the data required to move forward. 

The white hat is concerned with questions such as: 

  • What information do we have? 
  • What does this information mean? 
  • What information is missing? 
  • How will we find the information we need? 
  • What questions do we need to ask? 

For a campaign, you may already be aware of current follower numbers, top-performing formats, CTR, campaign costs and other relevant metrics. You may need to gather new information about short-form hooks in the niche or a competitor’s campaign performance. 

Be discerning about facts: Differentiate between checked facts and unchecked facts. For instance, consider the difference between: “The ‘What if I told you…’ hook performs well on TikTok,” and “Last month we surveyed 300 TikTok followers about their favorite hook, and 67% chose the ‘What if I told you…’ format.”

The Yellow Hat: Where Are the Opportunities?

The color yellow is associated with positive thinking. When we wear the yellow metaphorical hat, we’re exploring the potential for positive outcomes, hidden opportunities and advantages. De Bono describes the yellow hat as the ‘positive-speculative’ hat, meaning it’s the opposite of skepticism. 

When the team wears the yellow hat, you may ask: 

  • What value can we see? 
  • How do we leverage that value?
  • Where can we create new value? 
  • What positive outcomes exist? 
  • In what ways could this succeed? 
  • What new opportunities does this create? 

It feels more natural to consider existing strengths when you’re wearing the yellow hat — but that’s not necessarily the most pragmatic approach to creative thinking. Let’s say your last campaign flopped or you ran out of chicken and had to temporarily close almost 600 stores in the UK, as KFC did back in 2018. They put on their yellow hats and took out a giant page in the paper, showing a bargain bucket with the ‘KFC’ replaced by an ‘FCK’ logo. Below it, they wrote, ‘We’re Sorry.’ 

This genius act instantly transformed a catastrophic situation into a relatable and humorous one, propelling the brand from poultry crisis into a marketing win. With the yellow hat, you seek value and opportunities in places you usually wouldn’t look. 

The Blue Hat: How Are We Thinking About the Problem?

Back to thinking about thinking. Pull out the blue hat when you need to talk timelines, next steps and run a vibe check to ensure you’re approaching the problem in the right way. The blue hat defines, manages, considers systems and approaches and engages in big-picture thinking. 

Here are some blue hat questions to ask: 

  • What are our assumptions? 
  • Are we focusing on the right thing? 
  • Where can we see patterns?
  • How can we improve our approach to thinking about the problem? 
  • How do we organize this information?

At the beginning of a discussion, the blue hat might outline the problem and shape the direction for the brainstorming session. During the conversation, it may consider what’s relevant and where to refocus. At the end, the blue hat summarizes, draws conclusions and delineates next steps.

The Black Hat: What Could Go Wrong?

The black hat focuses on risks, caution and judgment. While it can be wrongly associated with negative thinking, black is a powerful hat for considering potential roadblocks, like ethical issues,  and incorporating bypasses into the solution. 

Here are the questions the black hat asks: 

  • Does this idea actually work?
  • How could this possibly fail? 
  • What are the consequences?
  • Is this enough? 
  • Where are the risks? 

It’s imperative to separate ‘cautious’ thinking and judgment from ‘negative thinking.’ LEGO, back in 2021, employed black hat thinking when it began producing gender-neutral toys, following a consumer research commission. LEGO’s inclusive stance allowed it to preempt societal critique and position itself ahead of industry trend adoption.

The Red Hat: How Do We Feel?

In any discussion, there’s a place for feelings: my feelings, your feelings and Barbara from HR’s feelings. The red hat creates space for participants to consider the emotional impacts of the problem and integrate those into potential solutions. Intuition, hunches, feelings and emotions all get space to breathe here. 

Here’s what you might discuss when wearing the red hat: 

  • What’s my gut telling me?
  • How do I feel about this?
  • Which emotions does this trigger (for me, you or the audience)?
  • What are the potential emotional impacts?

Careful not to conflate the red hat with other hats. Consider these two statements: “Our product sucks because online sales dropped 13% last quarter,” and “Generating a script with ChatGPT is a terrible idea because it sounds unnatural.” 

Both of these statements could be confused with the white or black hat — but they’re red. As a general rule of thumb, if you can put “I feel like…” or “I get the impression that…” in front of a statement, it’s red. 

The Green Hat: What New Ideas Exist?

Step out of the box. Think of the most absurd solution possible. Now, take it up three notches. The green hat calls you to float up into blue-sky thinking, targeting innovation, possibilities (even unrealistic ones), alternatives and provocation. 

Here’s what to ask: 

  • What are the possible options? 
  • What new ideas exist? 
  • How can we improve this?
  • What if we dared…?
  • How can we flip this? 
  • How can we break the norms? 

In 2011, Patagonia placed a page-wide ad in The New York Times, challenging conventional marketing practices with a message reading ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket.’ What’s more, the ad was released on Black Friday, one of the most commercially active periods of the year. The strategy flipped the script, encouraging consumers to buy sustainably by purchasing less and investing in quality products. 

It proved effective. Patagonia reached a record $540 million in sales in 2012 — up from $333 million in 2010. Why? Because breaking the mold commands attention. It earned recognition and equity. It also demanded that consumers think differently.

Think Sharper and Improve Your Marketing

Adopting a structured approach to decision making and incorporating diverse perspectives — not just in marketing, but in relationships, parenting, lifestyle, goals — you name it — drives more innovative and creative solutions. 

On a final note, use these techniques to fix what isn’t working and build on what is. Stay fluid, stay respectful and, most importantly, stay curious.