Each session has five roles. Everyone holds one. Roles rotate across sessions — playing Client is at least as developmental as playing Consultant, and the Scribe and Skeptic roles are often the most instructive for people who default to leading.
Print these cards, display them on screen, or read them aloud at the start of a session with new members. The goal is for everyone to know what they're accountable for before the Client begins their brief.
Client
Brings the problem. Evaluates the recommendation. Drives the debrief.
Your job: Present the problem clearly using the Client Brief Template, stay available to answer questions during team work, and receive the recommendation as if it matters — because it should.
Key behaviors: Give the team a real problem, not a sanitized exercise. Don't coach them toward your preferred answer during their work phase. Be candid in the debrief about what the recommendation got right and what it missed.
Watch-out: Holding back context that would change the analysis. If the team heads in the wrong direction, a clarifying question is fair game — but give it as a fact, not a steer.
Lead Consultant
Owns the team's process and the quality of the final recommendation.
Your job: Structure the team's work in the first five minutes, assign branches of the issue tree, keep one eye on the clock throughout, and stand up to deliver the recommendation at the end.
Key behaviors: Force an early hypothesis — don't let the team wander in data for 40 minutes. At minute 60, call synthesis: "What's our recommendation?" Make sure the final answer leads with a clear "so what."
Watch-out: Doing all the thinking yourself instead of running the room. The Lead Consultant's job is to integrate the team's work, not replace it. If you're the only one talking, something has gone wrong.
Analyst
Owns the analytical heavy lifting and the framework choices.
Your job: Choose and apply the right frameworks quickly. Build the evidence that tests the team's hypothesis. Know when to stop analyzing and start synthesizing.
Key behaviors: Reach for the most useful framework early — don't spend 20 minutes deciding which one to use. Develop findings that push the recommendation forward, not just interesting observations. At minute 50, you should be synthesizing, not still gathering.
Watch-out: Analysis paralysis. The team needs conclusions, not a comprehensive data set. When in doubt, produce something directional and let the Skeptic test it rather than waiting until the analysis feels complete.
Skeptic
Makes the team's thinking stronger by challenging it.
Your job: Ask "what are we assuming here?" and "what would have to be true for this to be wrong?" Surface what's being ignored. Test whether the recommendation actually holds before it's presented to the Client.
Key behaviors: Engage early (is this the right question?) and late (does this recommendation actually follow from the analysis?). The best Skeptic interventions happen at the problem framing stage and again in the final five minutes of synthesis.
Watch-out: Being contrary for its own sake. The Skeptic's goal is a stronger recommendation, not a stalled one. Challenge with purpose — every pushback should be in service of getting to a better answer, not demonstrating that you're smart.
Scribe
Captures the team's work in real time and keeps the group honest about time.
Your job: Build the issue tree and stakeholder map on the whiteboard as the team talks. Capture findings as they emerge so the team doesn't have to reconstruct them at synthesis time. Call time at the 45-minute midpoint and again at 70 minutes.
Key behaviors: Active participation, not passive transcription. If you see the team missing something, say so. The best Scribes are contributors who happen to be holding the pen.
Watch-out: Getting so focused on capturing that you stop thinking. The Scribe is still a consultant — the role adds a documentation function, it doesn't subtract the thinking function. Raise your hand when the board doesn't reflect what's being said.
Use the Agenda Card to track timing and the Debrief Scorecard to close each session.