Create a Culture of Continuous Evidence Building
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define the elements of continuous evidence building.
- Explain the benefits and goals of continuous evidence building.
Collect Your Evidence
In the previous unit, you learned the importance of continuous evidence building in impact management. But before you get to evidence-based decision-making you have to, well, have evidence.
Continuous evidence building is an ongoing activity. Think of it as not just a task to do, but as a culture to develop. The culture has three primary elements: performance monitoring, program improvement, and impact measurement.
In this unit, you explore each of these elements, then discuss the benefits of continuous evidence building as a whole. As an example, this module applies the concepts to a workforce-development program that relies on classes and volunteer mentors to prepare participants for new careers and increase their household income.
Outcome Management helps you collect evidence in Salesforce. It connects outcomes and programs and provides tools like Dynamic Assessments that you use to collect data from participants. See the links in Resources for details.
Understand the Elements of Continuous Evidence Building
The three primary elements of continuous evidence building are performance monitoring, program improvement, and impact measurement. In this section, you learn about each.
Performance Monitoring
Performance monitoring is the early-warning system for your organization’s operations. To monitor performance, frequently collect and check data, maintain routine reporting, and use new insights to make better decisions.
In practice, carry out these activities to monitor performance.
- Set baseline and target values for indicators.
- Develop and use reports and dashboards to follow outputs.
- Verify program delivery and integrity through output indicators.
- Change programs based on what you learn.
- Assess the impact of changes.
Imagine that a workforce-development program aims to identify its most effective mentors. The program monitors performance to find what works well and what needs to change. In Outcome Management, you can connect programs and benefits to outcomes. See Define Outcomes and Outcome Activities in Salesforce Help for details.
Program Improvement
Performance monitoring is closely related to program improvement, which focuses on how program changes affect outcomes. Program improvement requires regularly running low-risk tests and making adjustments based on what you learn. As you make changes, remember to practice good change management. See the Trailhead module in Resources for change-management guidance.
The example workforce-development program uses program improvement to understand what class times—daytime or evening—increase participant engagement and results. With the right tests, the program can compare different factors and find which combinations work best.
Impact Measurement
Impact measurement estimates the effects of programs on participants by selecting ways of measuring impact and validating the relationship between activities and outcomes. Impact measurement relies on data science, statistics, and practices like econometrics to validate tests and decisions. You learn more about evaluation in the next unit.
Our example workforce-development program could measure if its program increases participants’ earnings over time. The goal is to connect the program to improvements in participant income.
Performance monitoring, program improvement, and impact measurement are the primary elements of continuous evidence building, but other foundational skills can help too.
- Data interpretation, visualization, policies, and systems
- Knowledge management
- Measurement tools
- Reporting
- Strategic evidence planning
These skills and your theory of change play significant roles in continuous evidence building. They prepare you to study the data you collect, assess its value, and share its insights throughout your organization.
Benefit of Continuous Evidence Building
If continuous evidence building sounds like a lot of work—well, it is. But that work is core to your organization’s success in achieving its mission and making a long-term impact.
Click each category in the interactivity to drill down and learn more.
That all sounds great, right?
But to achieve these goals, you must effectively evaluate the evidence you gather. In the next unit, learn the basics of how to evaluate your impact.