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, […]
Is the high reading level appropriate? Data UX Review
In this series of Data UX reviews I take real published reports and look for areas of improvement. The ultimate goal for these reviews is shared learning. This week, we discuss readability. Today’s Report is an Evaluation Synthesis Report (2022-2023) produced by the Evaluation Office of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). You can peruse the […]
Reporting Revolution – 2nd Edition
I’ve decided to build upon my report design book. So, for a limited time, I’m making the working version free again. Why the new edition? I started writing a new book (code name: Report Like This). But then I found myself repeating what was already written in The Reporting Revolution. Truth is, that book provides […]
Beyond Performative Dissemination
Your report is NOT the problem. This is probably not the argument you would expect to hear from someone who has spent the better part of a decade teaching people how to design better reports, tell better data stories, and create better charts. But here’s the thing, you can create the most interesting, visually stunning, […]
Logic Model and Theory of Change Cartoons.
One thing you should know about program evaluators is that they like their logic models and theories of change. Over last 13ish years I’ve drawn over 25 comics on the subject. And as long as I keep cartooning, I’ll likely create a bunch more. In today’s blog post I’ll share the top 5 crowd favorites. […]