Custom Spaces
Create a shared starting point for a team, client or area of work.
Bring relevant lists, documents and work entry points into a Space with a purpose your colleagues can understand.
A place is useful when people know why it exists.
A team can have many tools and still struggle to find where a particular piece of work begins. Custom Spaces organize daily entry points around meaningful units such as a customer or department. The Space provides orientation, not a promise that every linked item has the same permissions or that adding a shortcut automatically transfers ownership of the underlying record.
Define the working unit before adding material.
Choose a Space for a client engagement, internal team or business area with a clear purpose. Write down who maintains it and what belongs there. A customer Space may bring the brief and a material checklist together, while a department Space may orient colleagues around recurring operational work. Avoid grouping everything simply because the same person created it.
- Spaces organized by client, team or business purpose
Put useful work next to its explanation.
Bring lists and documents into the working area so people can move between instructions and records. A list can track missing inputs while a document explains the expected result. Keep the distinction clear: the document describes the process, and the records show actual work. A shortcut is an entry point, not a substitute for maintaining the source material.
- Lists and documents near one another
Review navigation and permissions separately.
A colleague may understand where a document belongs without being allowed to open all its contents. Check the relevant permissions when testing a Space with actual users. When people join or leave the working area, review their authority on the underlying lists, documents and records instead of assuming that a tidy navigation arrangement settles access.
- Clear navigation without implied access expansion
A concrete workflow
Choose purpose
Name the customer, team or business process the Space serves.
Gather entries
Add the useful lists and documents rather than every available item.
Test orientation
Ask a colleague where they would start the next piece of work.
Maintain
Review stale material, ownership and access as the work changes.
An illustrative working example
Illustrative scenario: a client workspace
A team creates a Space for a client launch. The brief, material checklist and meeting notes sit near each other. A colleague who joins later tests whether the Space explains what to read and where to update progress. The owner removes an outdated entry and checks the underlying document permissions. The pilot succeeds when the working path is understandable, not merely when the sidebar has more links.
Questions about this topic
Is a Space a separate tenant?
No separate tenant boundary is claimed here. It is a way to organize work entry points within the business environment.
Does adding a document share it with everyone?
Do not assume navigation grants content access. Check the document's actual sharing and user authority independently.
Can a Space combine lists and documents?
Yes. Use it to bring related work together, and keep source records and explanations maintained in their appropriate surfaces.
How many Spaces should we create initially?
Start with one clear working unit and test it with actual colleagues. Add more only when their purpose and maintenance responsibility are clear.
Explore connections around this workflow.
Ideas for intended connections. Check the actual availability, permissions and supported data for each app before using a scenario.
Notion
Application concept: Use the team's Notion navigation as an input to choosing a small set of purposeful working Spaces.
Confluence
Application concept: Review which Confluence team areas describe distinct working responsibilities before defining Space ownership.
Slack
Application concept: Plan a Slack announcement that explains the new Space's purpose and owner instead of implying access from channel membership.