I have a few clients every year who don’t need (and often can’t afford) a big, robust evaluation project, but are looking for a little expert support and guidance to make sure they’re getting the information they need and can use.
Often these clients are nonprofit organizations with very small budgets for evaluation, or who are largely managing any data collection and use internally. They typically have most of what they need in place for ongoing evaluation of their programs to make continuous improvements, report to their funders, etc. But, they are relying on a survey (or several surveys) they just aren’t sure about anymore. Perhaps it has gotten a bit outdated, or isn’t quite capturing everything they need. They’re often worried about making changes that might make it harder to look at results over time, or they are worried about just adding more questions and making the tool too long.
Sometimes these clients are my fellow evaluators at foundations or evaluation firms, or solo practitioners, who need a bit of extra survey expertise for a particular project. They might want a bit of back up as they work through a change process with a client, or a thought partner who they can be confident is bringing the most recent and relevant survey design advice to the table. They might have a particularly tricky survey scenario, where they are less certain about approach, or are trying to juggle conflicting demands, or survey tool redesign that is more complex than expected when the project began.
Enter survey coaching. It is a joy to quickly get to know your information needs, desired survey respondents, and audiences, and help you make adjustments to existing tools, or support your development of new, improved tools, that help really maximize the value you’re getting out of them, while also being as respectful as possible to the folks you need to collect information from.
A tailored approach and a much lower price point. While all LRE projects are tailor-designed for clients, survey coaching is the most flexible, efficient way to get a little bit of help without breaking the budget. While each scenario is different, recent survey coaching projects have cost between $2,000 and $10,000. The lower end of this range covers a much simpler need–like a single survey tool that needs an update–and the higher range a more complex need–perhaps there are multiple tools, or more engagement is needed with staff or even clients in order to make the updates needed.
Sometimes, through working together, we also identify additional evaluation needs that I can help meet, and we end up adding additional tasks, like data analysis or reporting, to our agreement (and budget). This makes survey coaching a gentle entry point to more robust evaluation too.
What is the experience like?
- Typically we have an initial meeting or two to catch me up — to help me understand your needs and your concerns.
- Then I work up a simple plan and agreement, and closely review your survey tool(s) and recent reporting, so I can understand what and how you are using the resulting data.
- Then we get to work. I make recommendations by marking up a copy of your tool, or we work through the survey tool together. Either way, I am also sure to tell you WHY I’m making various suggestions, and ask you lots of questions to help us make sure we’re making changes aligned with your needs and that will make sense to whomever will be taking your survey.
- There is often a bit of back and forth at this stage, as we clarify things as needed and try out edits I’ve recommended. Often we get your teammates involved in reviewing a new survey draft, or things need to be approved by others before finalization.
- I’ll typically also recommend that you test the survey and can help you do that, even if informally with a group of those close to your program. This can be key to making sure we aren’t overlooking anything.
- Typically we can move through this process over the course of a few meetings over a handful of weeks, though I’ve had survey coaching projects that moved quite quickly and those that were on a much slower timeline–this depends on your capacity and needs as well as my availability.
Here’s what a recent client said after our work together:
Kim was a phenomenal source of expert advice, ideas, and thought-partnership in developing an all staff survey for an organisational health assessment. Kim provided all the support I expected, and more that I didn’t know I needed at the outset! I valued Kim’s big picture considerations and attention to the details of language and accessibility.
I typically only take on a few of these kinds of projects each year. If this sounds like something you might need or benefit from, let’s chat so we can get your project booked into my calendar!
