# Roles > Say who someone is to you, even when the answer is more than one thing. Source: https://groupthink.com/docs/roles/ Last updated: 2026-10-03 A role answers a simple question about a person: who are they to you? People are often more than one thing. Ines Vargas can be a client at her company and also a friend. Theo Marchetti was your colleague for three years before he left. Groupthink lets a person hold several roles at once, and keeps the ones that have ended as history. ## Where to find roles Open any person's page. **Roles** is the first row in the **About** section on the right side of the page. The person's main role shows as a small chip next to their name at the top of the page. The **Roles** row lists their other roles, so the main one isn't shown twice. A role that has ended is listed with **Past:** in front of it. If the main role is the only one, the row says **No other roles**. If the person has no roles yet, it says **Not set**. Each role reads as one line: the role, then where, then the dates. For example, **Client · at Northwind · since Mar 2024**, or **Past: Colleague · at Acme · Jan 2021 – Dec 2023**. ## Add a role 1. Click the **Roles** row to open it. 2. Click **Add role**. 3. Pick a role from the **Role** list. 4. Fill in the rest if you want to: - **Where (optional):** a few words of context, such as "at Acme" or "from the climbing gym". - **Since** and **Until:** when the role started and ended. Leave **Until** empty for a role that still applies. - **Main role (shown at the top):** tick this to make it the role shown next to their name. 5. Click **Add**, then **Done** when you've finished. The first role you give someone becomes their main role automatically. ## The roles you can choose The **Role** list is grouped into **Personal** and **Work**, in this order: | Role | Group | Who it's for | | --------------------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | **Significant other** | Personal | A spouse or partner | | **Family** | Personal | Parents, siblings, children, extended family | | **Friend** | Personal | A real friendship, not a professional acquaintance | | **Acquaintance** | Personal | Someone you know but aren't close to, like a neighbor | | **Client** | Work | A customer, client, or founder you're serving | | **Colleague** | Work | A collaborator at roughly your level | | **Direct report** | Work | Someone you manage | | **External contact** | Work | A vendor, advisor, investor, or outside contact | A role is separate from a job title. Someone can be an engineer and also your significant other, and Groupthink shows both. ## Change or remove a role Click the **Roles** row to open it. Every role is listed, including the main one, which has a **Main** tag. - **Change a role:** click the pencil next to it, edit any field, and click **Save**. - **Remove a role:** click the **x** next to it. Click **Done** to close the list. When someone's role ends, you don't have to remove it. Set an **Until** date instead and it stays on their page as a past role. When Theo moves to a new company, set **Until** on **Colleague · at Acme** and the history is kept. ## The main role The main role is the one shown next to the person's name and on their prep card in [Today](/docs/today). It's optional, and a person has at most one. - Only a role that applies today can be the main one. If you set an **Until** date in the past on the main role, it stops being the main role. - If you remove the main role, the person has no main role until you pick one. Groupthink doesn't choose a new one for you. - To switch, open the role you want, tick **Main role (shown at the top)**, and click **Save**. The old main role stays on the list as an ordinary role. ## A few rules - A person can't hold the same current role twice in the same place. Ines can be a **Client** at Northwind and a **Client** at Fabrikam, but not a **Client** at Northwind twice. Groupthink tells you **This person already has that role.** - The same role can repeat as history. Someone can have been your colleague at two different companies. - A role can't end before it starts. If **Until** is earlier than **Since**, Groupthink asks you to fix the dates before saving. ## How roles change your prep Groupthink writes a short talking point for each person you're meeting, the kind of line that helps you open a conversation. That talking point is written for a work setting, and Groupthink can't tell from your calendar whether Saturday's farmers market is with a colleague or with your spouse. If any of a person's current roles is personal (**Significant other**, **Family**, **Friend**, or **Acquaintance**), Groupthink turns the talking point off for them. It doesn't matter which role is the main one. If Ines is a **Client** and also a **Friend**, she gets no work talking point. - On [Today](/docs/today), their prep card leaves the talking point out and shows a short line saying there's no talking point because this one is personal. - The [Daily Brief email](/docs/daily_brief) leaves it out too. - The talking point still appears on the person's own page, under **What we know**. Only the meeting prep drops it. People with only work roles, and people with no roles, keep their talking point. A personal role that has ended doesn't turn it off. ## How roles change drafts When you use **Draft outreach**, the main role nudges the tone of the draft. **Significant other**, **Family**, and **Friend** lean casual and warm, **Acquaintance** and **Direct report** lean warm, and **Client** and **External contact** lean professional. **Colleague** doesn't change the tone, and neither does having no main role. These are light defaults: any tone you've set for that person yourself takes priority. ## Older contacts marked "Personal" Before the personal choices were split into four, there was a single **Personal** role. Contacts that still have it keep it, and it still counts as personal, so their talking point stays off. You can't pick **Personal** for anyone new. To be more specific, click the pencil next to it and choose one of the four personal roles.