Step Inside
Step Inside is a perspective-taking routine in which participants imagine themselves as a person or thing connected to a topic and describe, from the inside, what it can perceive, what it might know or believe and what it might care about. It was published by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as part of its Artful Thinking project, adapted from the 2002 curriculum Art Works for Schools. In workshops it serves as a quick way to see a problem through the eyes of a stakeholder before generating ideas.
Facilitation script
- 1
Present the stimulus and the purpose of the exercise.
3 min - 2
List the people and things with a viewpoint on a flip chart.
4 min - 3
Everyone chooses a viewpoint. Check coverage of the important ones.
2 min - 4
Individual notes on the three questions: perceive, know or believe, care about.
6 min - 5
Monologues in pairs or in plenary, with partners asking in-role questions.
10 min - 6
Step out of role and debrief what the viewpoints showed.
5 min
Tips
Take the three questions in order; perception first keeps people concrete and stops them from jumping to stereotypes about what a stakeholder 'wants'.
Encourage non-human viewpoints such as the product, the budget or the building, because they often say what no person in the room will.
Mark the exit from the role clearly before the debrief so that comments are heard as the participant's own again.
Common pitfalls
Participants speak about the stakeholder ('she would probably think') instead of as the stakeholder, which keeps the distance the routine is meant to remove
Monologues turn into caricature or comedy, so the group laughs at the stakeholder and learns nothing about them
Everyone picks the easy or sympathetic viewpoint and the uncomfortable one, often the critic or the person who loses out, stays unvoiced
The group treats the imagined viewpoints as findings and skips checking them with real people, so decisions rest on projection
No debrief out of role, which leaves the exercise as a performance without a link back to the work
Variations
Written only: everyone writes a half-page monologue, which suits groups that dislike performing and works online in a shared document. Pairs variant: one partner speaks in role while the other interviews, then they swap. For remote sessions, list the viewpoints on a shared board, let people put their name next to one and run the monologues in breakout pairs. If you want each viewpoint also to raise a question, use the related Project Zero routine Circle of Viewpoints.
Where it fits
When to use it
A team is designing for people who are not in the room and talks about them only in the third person
A change plan has been written from the centre and you want the group to feel how it lands with those affected
Two departments blame each other and you want each side to voice the other's position before problem solving
You have 20 to 30 minutes for empathy work and a full Empathy Map or persona session is too heavy
A group needs a warm-up for imagination before ideation that still stays on the topic
When not to use it
You have real user research; build an Empathy Map or personas from the data instead of from imagination
The absent people could simply be invited or interviewed, which beats guessing at their view
The viewpoint to be voiced is that of a group that has experienced discrimination or harm and nobody in the room shares that experience; imagined monologues then slide into caricature
The conflict in the room is live and personal; speaking as the other party can be heard as mockery, and a mediated dialogue is the safer choice
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Step Inside?▾
Step Inside is a perspective-taking routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Participants pick a person or thing connected to a topic and describe from its point of view what it perceives, what it knows or believes and what it cares about. It is used to understand a situation from viewpoints other than one's own.
What are the three questions in Step Inside?▾
From inside the chosen viewpoint, participants consider what the person or thing can perceive, what it might know about or believe, and what it might care about. The answers are then turned into a short spoken or written monologue.
How is Step Inside different from an Empathy Map?▾
An Empathy Map is a canvas the team fills in about a user, ideally from research. Step Inside has each participant speak as one stakeholder for a few minutes, using only three questions. It is faster and more personal, but it produces hypotheses, not evidence.
Can you step inside an object or a system?▾
Yes. The routine explicitly covers things as well as people, and viewpoints such as the product, a shared inbox or the office building often surface practical constraints. The three questions work the same way.
How many people does Step Inside work for?▾
It works from a pair upwards. With more than about eight people, run the monologues in pairs or small groups and bring only the insights back to plenary, otherwise the listening time gets too long.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education (Artful Thinking); adapted from Art Works for Schools (2002).