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Reflections, opinions, explainers, related to evaluation.
You don’t have to know anything about evaluation to understand the content.
Have a cuppa, read an article, let me know what you think.
Being Carried By a Wave
In a busy Half Marathon, you set off in ‘waves’. As I was waiting for my race to start, I wondered: “Would being in a faster ‘wave’ also make me faster?”
This is “Regression Discontinuity” Explained Though a Half Marathon
5 Films that illustrate counterfactuals, but differently
Humans are obsessed with ‘what if’.
These 5 films, demonstrate 5 different ways to explore the counterfactuals, and 5 different evaluation methods that could be used to replicate them, when you don’t have a Delorean.
Did my swanky new shoes CAUSE my PB?
Last Saturday, I put on my new running shoes and ran my Parkrun PB #Humblebrag
The question is, was this down to the new shoes? Was it my ‘intervention’ that caused the success?
It’s your classic evaluation question.
Outputs vs outcomes… and driving through France
Organisations and businesses often make a key evaluation mistake: conflating outputs and outcomes.
And for organisations and businesses across multiple sectors, it is incredibly costly.
6 mistakes people make when designing survey scales
Creating your own survey question seems easy enough, but I’ve seen some absolute whoppers in my time.
Let me show you a bad example, with 6 mistakes I’ve seen in real life, and what to do to fix it.
Is this car ‘good’…?
Evaluation can be about assessing the value of something. But value isn’t just one thing. Understanding this has implications for what we evaluate, and the ethics behind it.
So, let me explain it simply, by asking “is this car good?”.
Evaluation and Theory of Change… why should I care?
Your focus is delivering your work, supporting those who need it, responding to what’s in front of you, and doing your best with limited time and resources.
Creating a Theory of Change… why should you care?
What is Simplifying?
“Good doesn’t necessarily mean complicated. It means done well”
When people hear the word simplifying, they often worry it means ‘making things basic’, ‘cutting corners’, or ‘not doing things properly’.
I’m proposing something different.