I've never tried it with other people, but I think I'll do it soon. It sounds interesting.
Doesn't this have a tendency to completely confuse people who don't know how spreads work?
I'm not the person you were asking this about, but for what it's worth, I've sometimes consulted with people I was reading for whether they wanted me to use certain spreads. I've done it in situations where they're problem had so many parts that I didn't want them to feel like I wasn't sufficiently addressing everything, or at least whichever part(s) they felt were more important.
I've just explained it in a way along the lines of, "I'm going to draw X cards and each will be about a certain thing, so this card about this, this card will be about that" and so on. An even easier way to put it is, "This reading is going to cover (insert the stuff ascribed to each card on the spread), is there anything you'd like me to add?".
I find that this works really well. In 99% of cases people are ok with it or it doesn't make much of a difference. However, there have also been a few cases where from the sitter's question I wouldn't have guessed that something was really that important, but it turned out that for them as a really big part of it. I've also sometimes discussed whether that was already covered by something in the spread or whether it should have its own separate place.
I find that things like that really help add a more personal touch to the reading, and it makes it easier for the sitter to understand what I'm talking about.
Take this with a grain of salt because I'm not a professional reader. I can see how this would be impractical in a professional setting.