Roles

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. 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, 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 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.