Playing Angel's Advocate
Flipping rote scripts, again
My first professional role, coming out of my Master’s degree in Design, was at a seminal consultancy called Cooper, named after the founders Sue and Alan Cooper. Alan Cooper (link to a short 2017-era bio here) is famous as the father of Visual BASIC, promoter of personas, and creator of Goal-Directed Design — truly one of the foundational figures of Interaction Design and software development. Alan’s also a wonderful person with many talents, one of those Renaissance people I’m fortunate to have learned from and know personally.
Sue and Alan led our small yet mighty band of designers with intelligence and style. And one thing Alan said back then has stuck with me for lo, these many years.
We practiced pair design at Cooper, so our teamwork often unfolded through intense conversations and dialog around a whiteboard. Alan would occasionally wander through the office and join in a design session, as he did with us one day. My design partner had just started out making a point by saying: “Just playing devil’s advocate here—” when Alan interrupted him forcefully. An impish smile on his face, he said: “Don’t advocate the devil’s position. Who wants to pursue a position held by the devil? Be an angel’s advocate instead!”
⚡️ A lightning bolt went off in my mind, and I’ve agreed with him ever since. ⚡️
Let’s not be devils
When we use that stock phrase, “playing devil’s advocate,” we’re telegraphing that we’re exploring a contrarian stance. We’re probing in a fundamentally negative direction. Occasionally, there’s utility in this viewpoint, such as potentially identifying real risks and challenges to the solution or possibility under consideration. However, more often than not in my experience, this phrase announces that somebody is about to veer into doubting, nay-sayer territory. It’s a phrase that basically gives verbal cover for pissing on the proverbial parade.
Over time, I’ve come to enjoy sharing this semantic switch with people I work with. It’s a hoot to see the bemused shock on people’s faces when they critically examine their language and wonder why they were ever advocating a devil’s viewpoint. And it turns out, nobody has to advocate from the devil’s position to deeply examine the pros and cons of a potential direction.
Being an Angel’s Advocate
So what are some alternatives to using this figure of speech? Well, take your pick! “How might we…” remains a super useful phrase to introduce all sorts of concepts. For example, “How might we mitigate the potential for abuse of this feature?” is a perfectly well-formed expression of concern about risk. It meaningfully focuses the conversation on solution-finding.
Being an angel’s advocate goes deeper than simply eradicating the cliched phrase, too. While I’m not here promoting some belief in angels, we all know what the concept represents: our better nature, our higher selves, figures that operate with divine integrity and deep righteousness.1
With that in mind, being an angel’s advocate also means taking stances that are positive and affirming. Of course, we must critically examine ideas and actions and solutions. Quality, safety, and ethics depend on it!
As an angel’s advocate, when you see something working well, mention it. Celebrate insights and successes and answers in meaningful ways. You may be shocked by how powerfully valuable your compliment feels to the recipient.
When you see something that could work better, by all means look for ways to fix it and improve matters. First, though, acknowledge what is working, and then keep exploring the situation to define and develop further improvements.
When you’re discussing a concept or solution that isn’t fully formed yet has promise that can be built upon, you can move the conversation forward in positive ways with the powerful "yes, and…" habit of speech touted by improvisation experts. We’re never negating the other — rather, we’re collaboratively ideating and building towards a fully-formed solution.
Some helpful phrases for being an angel’s advocate include:
"I think we can!”
“Yes, and what might that look like?"
"Let's try that!"
"Good idea! Let’s play it out with a real-world example…."
Our language is so important to how we think and operate. Instead of devil horns, let’s put on a set of wings. Invoke inspiration from your angelic side, and see what kinds of creative goodness manifest.
Lizz at Devise is a publication exploring the space of design and product management through the lens of heart-centered values and teamwork. You rock for reading! Lizz is writing a book about the art of building great solutions, which involves (among other things!) operating with positive heartsets that sustain our souls. Her firm Devise Consulting is available for engagements ranging from hands-on UX research, strategy, design, and product management services, as well as advising and mentoring. Let’s get a conversation started!
Let me be clear: I’m not in any way proselytizing here! In our postmodern world, angel and devil figures transcend their religious origins. (And for the record, like most people who have played Dungeons & Dragons, I do find an over-righteous, Lawful Good Paladin a bit much to take.) Also, I don’t mean to imply that there’s zero value to the figure of the devil, which is a part of our shared cultural heritage. It’s important to acknowledge and have a reference pattern for forces that trick us, forces that promote wicked paths and choices. Like Alan Cooper, I simply don’t believe invoking a devil is as useful in professional contexts as invoking an angel.
Never really got into that d advocate expression