The point of an Adaptive Workspace is to give every team what they actually need, not to add customization for its own sake. A few habits separate a genuinely useful layout from a cluttered one.
Design for the role, not for completeness. Don't add every card just because it exists. A researcher's workspace, a recruiter's, and an account manager's should look different, because their jobs are different.
Put your top 3 actions in the Left column. Since navigation and quick actions dominate real usage, the compact column should carry your most-repeated tasks.
Use Data Highlights deliberately. It's a card built to have your most important data visible and accessible, so treat its 4 field slots as precious — pick what genuinely changes a screening decision, not everything available.
Let recruiters build Personal views before locking in a Team view. Publishing with "Override personal views" checked can replace layouts people already rely on — check with your team before doing this broadly. Standardize at the Organization or Team level where it helps everyone; leave room for Individual adaptation where it doesn't.
Revisit the Standard view periodically. It's what new hires and unassigned users see first, so it should reflect your current best-practice layout, not the original default.