# Team Six Hats Session
Date: YYYY-MM-DD
Facilitator: [Name]
Participants: [List names]
Topic: [Testing challenge or decision]
Duration: 90 minutes

---

## Pre-Session Checklist (10 minutes before)
- [ ] Define focus clearly and share with team
- [ ] Gather relevant data (White Hat prep)
- [ ] Set up timer (5-15 min per hat)
- [ ] Brief new participants on Six Hats rules
- [ ] Prepare whiteboard/Miro board
- [ ] Assign note-taker

---

## Rules Reminder
1. **Wear one hat at a time** - No mixing perspectives
2. **All ideas are valid** - No criticism during Green Hat
3. **Red Hat needs no justification** - Trust intuition
4. **Time is strict** - Move on when timer rings
5. **Blue Hat leads** - Facilitator guides process
6. **Everyone participates** - Round-robin sharing

---

## Session Agenda (60 minutes)

### 🔵 Blue Hat - Opening (5 minutes)
**Facilitator**: Explain the challenge and desired outcome

**Today's Focus**:

**Success Criteria**:

**Time Allocation**:
- White Hat: 10 min
- Red Hat: 5 min
- Black Hat: 12 min
- Yellow Hat: 8 min
- Green Hat: 15 min
- Blue Hat: 10 min

---

### 🤍 White Hat - Facts & Data (10 minutes)
**Format**: Round-robin, each person shares one fact until exhausted

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Keep opinions out ("I think" → stop them)
- Ask for sources ("Where's that data from?")
- Document everything

**Facts Collected**:
| Fact | Source | Date |
|------|--------|------|
|      |        |      |
|      |        |      |
|      |        |      |

**Data Summary**:
- Test coverage:
- Defect rate:
- Team capacity:
- Timeline:

**Missing Data** (to collect later):
-

---

### ❤️ Red Hat - Feelings & Intuition (5 minutes)
**Format**: 2 min silent reflection, 3 min sharing

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Make it safe to share
- No justification required
- No judgment or debate
- Capture exact words

**Individual Feelings**:
| Person | Confident About | Anxious About | Gut Instinct |
|--------|----------------|---------------|--------------|
|        |                |               |              |
|        |                |               |              |

**Team Sentiment Summary**:
- Overall confidence level: 1-10:
- Common anxieties:
- Shared intuitions:
- Red flags from instinct:

---

### 🖤 Black Hat - Risks & Critical Analysis (12 minutes)
**Format**: Brainstorm risks on whiteboard, then categorize

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Encourage pessimism (this is the time!)
- Ask "What else could go wrong?"
- Challenge all assumptions
- Group similar risks

**Risks Identified**:

#### High-Risk (Could cause production outage/data loss)
1.
2.
3.

#### Medium-Risk (Could impact users significantly)
1.
2.
3.

#### Low-Risk (Minor issues)
1.
2.

**Coverage Gaps**:
-

**Challenged Assumptions**:
- We assume: ___________. But what if: ___________?
- We assume: ___________. But what if: ___________?

**"What Could Go Wrong" Scenarios**:
- If [X] fails, then:
- If we get [Y] traffic, then:
- If [Z] edge case occurs, then:

---

### 💛 Yellow Hat - Benefits & Opportunities (8 minutes)
**Format**: Positive brainstorm, build on each other's ideas

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Balance the Black Hat pessimism
- Ask "What's working well?"
- Identify quick wins
- Find opportunities in challenges

**Strengths**:
- Testing capabilities:
- Team skills:
- Infrastructure:
- Stakeholder support:

**Opportunities**:
- Can leverage:
- Could reuse:
- Quick wins:
- Strategic advantages:

**Value Provided**:
- Our testing prevents:
- We excel at:
- ROI of testing:

---

### 💚 Green Hat - Creative Ideas (15 minutes)
**Format**: Rapid-fire ideation, no filtering, build on ideas

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Quantity over quality
- No idea too crazy
- Encourage wild combinations
- Build on others' ideas ("Yes, and...")

**Idea Generation**:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

**Crazy Ideas** (that might actually work):
-
-
-

**Alternative Approaches**:
- Instead of [current], we could:
- What if we completely:
- Opposite approach:

**Emerging Techniques to Explore**:
-

**Innovation Backlog** (for later):
-

---

### 🔵 Blue Hat - Process & Action Plan (10 minutes)
**Format**: Facilitator synthesizes, team validates

**Facilitator Notes**:
- Summarize key insights from each hat
- Identify patterns and conflicts
- Prioritize actions
- Assign owners and deadlines
- Get commitment

**Key Insights Summary**:

| Hat | Top Insight |
|-----|-------------|
| 🤍 White | |
| ❤️ Red | |
| 🖤 Black | |
| 💛 Yellow | |
| 💚 Green | |

**Patterns Identified**:
- Red Hat feelings align with Black Hat risks:
- Green Hat idea addresses Black Hat risk:
- White Hat gaps need:

**Action Plan**:

| Priority | Action | Owner | Deadline | Success Criteria |
|----------|--------|-------|----------|-----------------|
| P0 | | | | |
| P0 | | | | |
| P1 | | | | |
| P1 | | | | |
| P2 | | | | |

**Immediate Next Steps** (This Week):
1. [ ]
2. [ ]
3. [ ]

**Decision Required**:
- Decision:
- Decide by:
- Criteria:
- Decider:

**Follow-Up**:
- Next Six Hats session:
- Progress review:
- Stakeholder communication:

---

## Post-Session (20 minutes)

### Documentation
- [ ] Clean up notes
- [ ] Share summary with team
- [ ] Add actions to backlog/Jira
- [ ] Update test strategy doc
- [ ] Schedule follow-ups

### Retrospective on the Session

**What Worked Well**:
-

**What to Improve**:
-

**Facilitator Observations**:
- Hat that generated most value:
- Hat that was rushed:
- Team engagement level:
- Next session changes:

### Sharing

**Send to** (within 24 hours):
- Team: [Summary + Actions]
- Stakeholders: [Key decisions]
- Management: [High-level outcomes]

**Archive**:
- [ ] Save to shared drive
- [ ] Tag with project/sprint
- [ ] Link from test strategy

---

## Appendix: Hat Prompts (If Team Gets Stuck)

**White Hat Stuck?**
- What test metrics do we track?
- How many tests do we have?
- What's our defect rate?
- What data are we missing?

**Red Hat Stuck?**
- Rate confidence 1-10: Why that number?
- If you had to ship today, would you?
- Where do you feel uneasy?
- Trust your gut: What's wrong?

**Black Hat Stuck?**
- What keeps you up at night?
- What could cause a production incident?
- What are we NOT testing?
- Play devil's advocate: Why will this fail?

**Yellow Hat Stuck?**
- What are we proud of?
- What would we do again?
- What's our competitive advantage?
- What quick wins exist?

**Green Hat Stuck?**
- What would [competitor] do?
- What if we had unlimited budget?
- What's the opposite of our approach?
- What emerging tech could we use?

**Blue Hat Stuck?**
- What's the next step?
- How do we prioritize?
- What's our strategy?
- How do we measure success?

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**Template Version**: 1.0
**Last Updated**: 2025-11-13
**License**: MIT