Program Development and Evaluation

Launching a program can be one of the greatest feelings in the world. We watch all of our hard work and late nights culminate into something that can benefit people and communities – at least, we hope it does. In the early days it can be challenging to identify exactly what that impact is. To understand the effects of a program, and how to make sure that you get the results you want again and again, keep three things in mind at the start of development: your specific goals, good metrics, and the right data. 

Specific, Targeted Goals

When starting a program, defining your goals is the first step to determining how you’re going to get there. Your goals are also fundamental to measuring the success of your program. If you have an ongoing program, knowing when you need to hit certain benchmarks can help you understand if and what you need to change about your process. Having clear goals will help you better evaluate the effectiveness of your program. 

Good Metrics

Setting your goals allows you to then decide how you will measure success. Metrics can help you make your goals even more specific. Choosing the metrics that reflect the experience you’ve tried to create can ensure you are measuring success and evaluating your program in the most effective way possible. Metrics make success communicable to others and allows you to show off all you’ve done in a program. 

The Right Data

Once you set your goals and your metrics, collecting the right data is the next step. The best goals and metrics won’t mean anything if they don’t lead to solid data. Making a plan to gather relevant data based on your goals and metrics should happen before your program begins. Collecting and analyzing the right data will let you know how close you are to accomplishing your goals. The data also helps you identify what to change or  preserve and can lead to ideas for new offerings.

Specific goals, good metrics and the right data are vital to developing and evaluating effective programs. Here at Quire, we want to help you get it right. Quire can help you design a development and evaluation plan that will help you clarify your goals, assess potential, and develop purpose-built programs to create the impact you want.