This is one in a series of before and after designs. With this particular post I am sharing lessons from an actual client project. You can see other before and after posts in the series by following this link. How it Started – SECPI Resources I started working with SECPI (Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships Initiative) at […]
Dissemination Systems Change
How to shift your organization away from Report Factory and towards a strong Insight Ecosystem. I. Moving Beyond Performative Dissemination I believe that most evaluation teams write reports with the best of intentions. They work late nights cleaning data, discovering insights, drafting narrative, and obsessing over clarity. Most people don’t get into research or evaluation […]
Two-Step Templates for Everyday Reports
Most people design their everyday reports, briefs, and knowledge products the wrong way. Not because they’re bad at design. Because they’re trying to write and design at the same time. It’s a multitasking problem. Writing is hard. Design is hard. Doing both simultaneously — in the same document, on the same deadline — means you’re […]
How to Disseminate (in 2026)
Welcome person who wants to share something with others. I created this guide because I disliked pretty much every resource I could find about dissemination. I think they teach you the wrong way to do things simply because it sounds right. But sounding right and being right are not the same thing. Everybody is welcome […]
Theory of Use
Never before in history have we had so many tools and channels we could use to deliver research and evaluation insights directly to people who could actually use them. And yet, most organizations still rely on outdated and ineffective dissemination strategies. Now it’s easy to bash the organizations, but the truth is that our research […]
Systemic Report Failure: The Content Gap
Systemic report failure is when structures, formats, and habits consistently prevent reports and other resources from reaching the right people in ways they can actually use. In evaluation and research we treat this systemic failure as if it’s a skills issue. It’s not. Better charts, interesting stories, and well-designed PDFs are not enough to make […]
Broken Resource Theory
So I’m an information designer with a quantitative background who doesn’t care that much about charts and graphs. I used to to care a lot, and you will find some guidance on this site about chart design (this blog has been going since 2010 which is over half of my professional career). But over time […]
KIDS COUNT 2025 – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With each post I take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase the accessibility. You can see other before and after posts in the series by following this link. How it Started – […]
Qualitative Storytelling Dashboard – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With each post I take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase the accessibility. You can see other before and after posts in the series by following this link. How it Started – […]
Guiding Principles for Evaluators – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With each post I take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase the accessibility. You can see other before and after posts in the series by following this link. How it Started […]
My qualitative dataviz book is now live! (and free)
Compelling Qualitative Data Visualization, my latest free-to-read book, is now live. Here is a little synopsis. What’s the book about? In the book I talk about my approach to illustrating mixed-method and qualitative reports. It’s a very practical book. Wasn’t this a workshop? Yes, I’ve actually delivered the workshop live a couple of times. Since […]
CDC Evaluation Framework – Before and After
This is the second in a series of before and after designs. With each post I’ll take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase the accessibility. You can see the first post on adapting a UNICEF Strategic Plan by following this link. In […]