Summary: Evaluation maps really well to storytelling. Would it be easier if we just called ourselves story finders? I remember years ago sharing one of my evaluation cartoons with my mom. Her reaction was annoyance. Not with me, but with evaluation. She was a family literacy teacher for most of her career and the funded […]
Evaluation Resource Open Mic [Sep. 18]
Join me to help kick off the new EvalCentral Community of Practice series. About the session. Do you have a favorite free resource that you think other evaluators should know about? It could be a website, toolkit, journal article, tutorial, blog post, video, or course. It could be something that has helped you in the […]
Understanding AI: Intelligence versus Wisdom
Summary: This new series is a kind of travelogue. It’s a way for me to document my experiences with AI. Today’s question, can an AI tool be wise? Missing point of view. I think it’s important to find ways to differentiate how conversational AI works compared to human beings. Because there are times when it […]
Virtual Community of Practice: Quick Launch Guide
Summary: This guide will walk you through five steps for launching a simple but effective virtual community of practice. Running a successful Community of Practice can take a significant amount of time and effort. That is if you want actual connections to form between community members. But contrary to popular belief, the biggest challenge is […]
How to Create a Logic Model in Canva
Summary: You don’t need fancy tools to create basic logic models. In this post I’m going to walk you through the visual creation of a logic model. If you want to learn more about developing the content for a logic model, I suggest starting with this post: What is a Logic Model? Why Canva for […]
What is a Logic Model?
Summary: A logic model is an attempt to show how your program is supposed to work. Have you ever gone for a walk or a drive without a particular destination in mind? I think it’s one of my favorite things. Because there is absolutely no way to get lost. When you wander the only time […]
Formative vs Summative Evaluation: Which One Do You Need?
Summary: A formative evaluation is about improving your program, activity, or intervention. A summative evaluation is about showing proof that it works. Let’s say you run a non-profit food kitchen. You see your job as feeding the hungry people in your community. You have a pretty basic strategy that involves collecting food from the community […]
Behind the Scenes: Developing a FreshSpectrum Content Strategy
Where do I start? If you read my last blog post, you’ll know a little about my plans to turn FreshSpectrum from being my personal/consulting blog into a kind of evaluation forever conference. At this moment in time, early August of 2025, I have lots of ideas and zero funding. I have done a little […]
What’s Next: Building a FREE Forever Conference
I believe the evaluation world is underserved, let’s change that. I started this blog a little over 15 years ago as a hobby and creative outlet sharing my work with just a handful of people. A year and a half later, I started including cartoons in my posts and growing a following on Twitter. Flash […]
Does evaluation have a resource problem?
This post ended up being really long, with lots of data. If don’t feel like reading it, here is the TL/DR version. I wrote a bit about watching so many of our peers losing their jobs back in February. Unfortunately that was not just a temporary thing. This has been a hard year for lots […]
What is Data Illustration?
Summary: Data illustration is the process of improving the accessibility of a data product by systematically adding pictures. This post introduces the concept and gives you a practical data illustration framework. If you were to search for information about data illustration over Google, you’ll probably end up with a bunch of results about data visualization. […]
What is Benefits Realisation and how does it connect to evaluation?
Summary: While evaluation asks “did this work and why,” Benefits Realisation tracks whether specific organizational wins (like cost savings or better employee retention) actually happened as planned. This week’s post is a guest post by Liz Richardson who is a senior specialist in evaluation at Natural England. As per usual when I have guest post, […]