Situation / obstacle / action

Three cards. For when you're stuck on a specific project and need to move.

Most design problems don't announce themselves cleanly. You know something isn't working, but whether it's the brief, the approach, or you — that's harder to say. This spread pulls the question apart into three pieces you can work with.

How to draw

Shuffle the deck while holding your project in mind. Draw three cards and lay them left to right:

1. Situation — the practice the work is currently asking of you.
2. Obstacle — the practice that's getting in the way, or the one you're avoiding.
3. Action — the practice to take up next.

How to read

Read all three together before reading any one closely. The story is in the movement from card to card: what kind of work you're in, what's blocking you, what to do next.

The Obstacle card rewards a second look. It usually reads one of two ways: either it's a practice you've skipped and now need to go back for, or it's a practice you're over-relying on. Both are useful. Sit with which one it is before moving to Action.

Consider performing rituals related to the Action card this week.

When not to use this spread

If you're not actually stuck — if you're just tired, or it's Friday — this spread will manufacture a problem where there isn't one. Save it for when you feel the friction.

Phase check

Two cards. For when you suspect you're working out of phase.

A lot of design trouble comes not from doing the wrong thing but from doing the right thing at the wrong time — polishing before the shape is settled, deciding before you've diverged, testing before there's anything worth testing. This spread names the gap.

How to draw

Hold your current project in mind. Draw two cards.

Where the work is — the practice this project is actually asking for right now.
Where you are — the practice you're in.

How to read

If the two cards are close neighbours in the deck, you're roughly in phase; read them as a confirmation and a nudge. If they're far apart — an early-phase card paired with a late-phase one, or vice versa — that's the reading. You're ahead of the work, or behind it.

Being ahead of the work often looks like eagerness: jumping to Execute when you should still be in Diagnose, reaching for Polish before you've earned it. Being behind looks like perfectionism: staying in Refine when the project needs you in Share.

Neither is a failure. Both are information.

When not to use this spread

At the very start of a project, before there's enough shape for "phase" to mean anything. Give it a week or two.

Before / during / after

Three cards. For a specific moment — a meeting, a review, a workshop, a kickoff, a send-off.

Design work is full of charged moments that most of us walk into unprepared and walk out of without closing. This spread gives you a practice for each threshold.

How to draw

Name the moment out loud or in writing. Be specific — not "the project" but "Thursday's stakeholder review." Draw three cards:

1. Before — how to prepare.
2. During — how to be in it.
3. After — how to close it.

How to read

Read each card as a practice to perform at that threshold. If you have time, do the ritual for Before in the hours leading up to the moment. During is a posture rather than a task — a card to hold in mind. After is often the one designers skip; do its ritual within a day or two, while the moment is still warm.

If the same card appears in two positions across different draws, pay attention. The deck is telling you something about how you habitually approach these moments.

When not to use this spread

For ongoing work without a clear event. This spread needs a threshold to organise itself around.

The unspoken brief

Three cards. For any project where what was asked and what's needed don't quite match.

Every brief is partly stated, partly implied, and partly missing. The missing part is usually the one that matters. This spread helps you name what's actually being asked for — and what you wish had been.

How to draw

Have the brief in front of you, or the version of it you'd write from memory. Draw three cards:

1. The stated brief — what you've been explicitly asked to do.
2. The unstated brief — what's actually needed underneath.
3. The wished-for brief — the project you wish this were.

How to read

The gap between the first and second cards is where most of the real work of the project lives. If they're similar, the brief is clean. If they diverge sharply, something is being avoided — by the client, by the organisation, or by you.

The third card is harder and more useful. It names the project you'd rather be doing. Sometimes this reveals a misalignment worth raising. Sometimes it reveals something about you — a pattern of wishing your way out of the work in front of you. Both readings are worth holding.

This spread is not an invitation to rewrite the brief. It's a diagnostic. What you do with it — push back, adapt, accept — is a separate decision.

When not to use this spread

Very early in a project, before you've sat with the brief long enough to feel its shape. And when you're frustrated with a client — the third card will tell you more about your mood than the work.