NEXT16: Facebook’s Jason Cale on connected teams and connected work

Warning: Liveblogging. Prone to error, inaccuracy and terrible crimes against grammar and syntax. Post will be updated over the next 48 hours. Filling in the gaps is a process that brings about shared understanding between teams, to build products that meet reader needs.  When in your life and work have you enjoyed what you are doing? Have you felt a real sense of connection? Where you had enjoyment. Where you had values, and integrity. WHere you felt belonging – connection with what you were doing and who you were doing it with. And you grew in the process.  What’s…

Warning: Liveblogging. Prone to error, inaccuracy and terrible crimes against grammar and syntax. Post will be updated over the next 48 hours.

Filling in the gaps is a process that brings about shared understanding between teams, to build products that meet reader needs. 

When in your life and work have you enjoyed what you are doing? Have you felt a real sense of connection? Where you had enjoyment. Where you had values, and integrity. WHere you felt belonging – connection with what you were doing and who you were doing it with. And you grew in the process. 
What’s the opposite of that? Tension. Struggle. Hardship. Maybe there’s ignorance or confusion. Maybe you have no idea how to move forwards. The work is leading to disappointment. To chaos. There’s a general sense of disarray. Isolation. Resignation. 

We all have unique models of the world. Humans are model makers. We have believe, values. Our experiences have shaped them – and made them unique. But these views are a source of conflict.  If you ask everyone in the room to describe a dog, they’d all describe a different dog. The mind reaches for a personally relevant idea of a dog. 

When you’re working with others, often you have to present work. And the people fill in the blanks differently to the way you would have done. That creates a difference in understanding. When work is passed to other people, the likely interpretation is even more different. 


People working together form packs. These packs reinforce each other’s beliefs – this bond makes it harder to accept the work of others.  The “gaps” in understanding are painful to our brains. They fill them in. And the more that happens, the more the idea deviates from its original state. It’s like a game of chinese whispers. The result? The product suffers. 

Filling in the gaps

If we’re presented with an idea gap, and we fill it, we move on. To counter the gaps problem, we need to suspend the desire to fill in the gap. You can become a master of your own creativity, forcing the mind to come up wit more genius solutions. And we start to realize that there isn’t a single solution to the gap. We take control of the gap. We understand it. 

And then you can start doing this with others.

  1. Describe the problem. 
  2. They fill the gap.
  3. You ask them to describe how they filled it in.
  4. Do they understand the problem (if not, go back to 1. and add more details.)
  5. Describe each of your solutions until you are both satisfied.
  6. Makes a decision on how to proceed. 

If you jump to solutions, you don’t know if you’re all addressing the same problem. 

Products emerge as you fill in the gaps. Be intentional – document the process. That removes possible gaps that people will encounter as we show them the work. This is why prototyping and interactive development work. 

Can you describe your gaps?