Notes on spaceholding
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When we think of spaceholding, we normally resort to a personal context, where we console someone in crisis or grief. Or maybe we’re on a therapist’s couch, and they’re doing the work of spaceholding.
That is not what happens in design. When we speak of spaceholding at Draft, we specifically mean the process of managing the emotional & energetic tenor of others in order to get work shipped. It isn’t a whole lot different from what happens on the couch, but there’s a whole set of mostly-unspoken professional rules around it.
There is almost no literature on the concept of spaceholding in design, which is unfortunate, because it’s probably the single most important thing we do. I have spent 20 years watching experts get work across the line specifically by proposing work, managing what emotions come up, and making sure others feel comfortable shipping it. I have no idea how you practice design without doing this. Throw a comp into the void and just rawdog the consequences? In this economy, y’all?
Preparation for correct spaceholding
Most people don’t know how to critique work. We’re weird, feral animals who go off-piste when we see anything. This is why a few things will happen in order for value-based practitioners to ensure that their work is correctly shipped:
- Revisions will be closed, both in terms of quantity and contribution. This has always been the case here at Draft, but for others who have ceded the vital work of design to non-experts, it’s time for us to take control back of our work.
- Work will be presented live, either in person or on a call. Participants need to be present & attentive to the work, of course, so their notifications will need to be off. And it’s vitally important to make sure that everyone who needs to be in the room truly is – and nobody else.
- Critique will be focused. It’s important to prepare participants for the best way to critique new work. We personally love taking a few minutes to set up the room for best way to provide feedback, such that the work benefits and their views are incorporated most effectively. Remember that once work flashes onto the screen, you lose control over people will respond to it, so it’s vitally important to make sure you do this preparatory work.
- Meetings will be structured. Critique works best when it’s broken into two phases: questions, and then feedback, a few days later. That gives time for the ideas to marinate, so people don’t formalize their reflexive judgments.
The work of spaceholding
The moment the work is being received, spaceholding begins.
First, you must listen to the tenor of the room. Are others suspicious? Curious? Excited? Mad? If you’re presenting alongside someone else, you’re in luck, because your co-facilitator can take the lead while you make notes on who’s feeling what in the moment.
Next, leave space for questions. Again, presenting work is exclusively for questions, not reactions. People hate silence, so you should work hard to create enough of it for others to feel like they can fill it. Get as many questions out of the way as possible. Make note of what the questions are, so you can understand more deeply what motivates people.
Once you’ve moved into your separate feedback call, it’s time to go screen by screen and ask for suggestions. Before that happens, make sure you’re preparing feedback by inviting justifications for that feedback. Feedback is correctly framed as “I think we should do X because of Y business reason.” Personal preferences aren’t allowable during any critique, of course.
When someone offers suggestions that invite pushback, it’s important for you to start asking questions. Usually, people know I’m mad on a call when I start asking lots of open-ended questions of various team members, because being actually mad is a great way to get fired.
There is often feedback after the feedback call, so it’s important to create hard deadlines for feedback submission, as well as structured guidelines for feedback. MS Paint & Word annotations are not allowable into the field; use contemporary tools, instead. Reinforce the focus on business goals over personal preferences. And make sure you leave space for your own pushback & ongoing spaceholding work.
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