There are all sorts of purposeful goal-driven people and organizations. Intent on following a path towards a destination that is clear in their minds. They might have even put the destination down on paper, charting the course and knowing the way forward. But that is not all organizations, and certainly not all people. We don’t […]
The Evaluation Mindset: Not Your Data
In 2018, 87 years after it was completed, Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon was released to the public. Reading the book today the story of Cudjo Lewis feels completely relevant to our contemporary times. It is heartbreaking, illuminating, and honest. In the way she writes, Hurston allows Cudjo to tell his own story. They are his […]
The Evaluation Mindset: Methods and Frameworks
Methods and frameworks are how we turn our professional actions and philosophies into practical strategies. Once formed, they can be shared and shaped by other hands. They can evolve and grow. They can sometimes take on a life of their own. Methods and frameworks are two different things. I have a tendency of bundling them […]
The Evaluation Mindset: Evaluation in a Crisis
This post is a day late as recent events hit me with blogger’s block. I didn’t want to just write another post, seemingly oblivious to the very real global pandemic that is on everyone’s mind. But I didn’t just want to add to the COVID-19 noise. But the more I thought about it, the more […]
The Evaluation Mindset: The Role of the Evaluator
“Let’s take a shortcut back to the car.” I was 19 and hiking through the woods with one my best friends. We were both eagle scouts, and had spent much of our young lives wandering through the woods. The area we were exploring was one of our favorites and we had hiked it a dozen […]
The Evaluation Mindset: Charting a Course
Describing how a process works is valuable for two reasons. It forces you to make sure you know how it works. Then it forces you to take the reader through the same sequence of ideas and deductions that made the process clear to you. William Zinsser The whole point of having an evaluation mindset is […]
The Evaluation Mindset: Actions and Consequences
When I started getting into data visualization design, human centered design, and user experience design I had this hope that a better understanding of design methodologies would ultimately help me to become a better evaluator. But I had the causal direction flipped. What I have learned over a decade of being both an evaluator and […]
Content Strategy Spotlight – AEA365.org
There is not just one way to build a digital community, or rather, leverage the web to support an existing community. When many organization’s design communities of practice they tend to focus on hosting a series of webinars, developing a forum, or building a resource library. Their blog is often an afterthought. But it is […]
The Gig Economy Business Plan
An illustrated guide to business planning for freelancers, consultants, and other professionals hoping to trade hours for dollars. Inspired by my friend Kendra, who asked me to write down our conversation and share it with others. Not quite a business, not quite a job. I work in an open co-working space located in the middle […]
The Effective Philanthropy Resource Site Showdown – [a graphic novel data analysis]
The digital world is filled with underutilized data. I created this experimental data analysis as a way to show how datasets embraced by the SEO world can be valuable evaluation resources. If the analysis leaves you with more questions. At the end of the post you will find a link to a Tableau Public dashboard […]
Report Design as Magazine Design [Graphic Novel Blog Post]
So what if you created reports the same way publishers created magazines? That’s the question behind today’s post. Here is a link to Canva magazine templates. Things to keep in mind when using Canva for this kind of report writing. Magazine templates are shown as covers. But many have internal spreads as well (article templates). […]
Rejecting the Null [graphic novel blog post]
Being a change maker is hard. Consider today’s graphic novel post a quick theoretical action guide.