Four Steps to Designing Quality Programs
At Spark Group, we’ve been thinking and talking a lot lately about all things ‘new’: new school year, new starts, new processes … and new programs!
It’s the perfect time of year for designing new programs or initiatives, and we at Spark Group want to help make the process as easy and stream-lined as possible.
At Spark Group, we incorporate a 4 phase process into much of our work, including designing quality programs. These phases are Explore, Plan, Implement and Evaluate.
Following these steps throughout this four-phase process will help you design quality programs for your nonprofit.
Explore
In this phase, gather as much information and data as you can to inform the rest of the process. What are the community needs currently going unmet? What resources are available, or can be made available, to meet these needs? Are other organizations or individuals offering similar programs or services? What kind of information or research exists on existing best practices to meet the community’s needs?
In the program design process, it’s critical that much of information comes from the various stakeholders who will be involved in the program life cycle. This could include staff members, board members, and most importantly of all – the clients for whom the program is being designed.
Unfortunately, one of the essential components of developing quality programs for our communities is often overlooked. At the start of a program, excitement is high for the new client outcomes, and there is a tendency to neglect this critical step: VERIFYING the need, not assuming the need for the new program exists but proving the need by soliciting feedback from our clients.
Too many times, we make assumptions about the needs of our clients without asking for input. Soliciting our clients' feedback not only builds relationships and indicates that we value their experience, but it also helps to perfect our new programs so that they are as effective as possible.
How do you get this feedback from your clients? There’s no one right way to do it. Maybe you collect the information informally, through day-to-day interactions or conversations. Maybe you employ more formal methods, such as distributing surveys or running focus groups. If you have a program-planning board or committee, be sure to include clients as board or committee members – not as token representatives, instead as recognized and valued leaders.
Plan
In the planning phase, take what you’ve learned in phase one, and apply it as you establish the program’s goals and objectives, as well as the program ‘systems’ (the necessary inputs, processes, outputs, and outcomes).
A few questions to keep in mind as you plan your new program:
Do your program goals meet the need(s) identified in the ‘Explore’ phase? And do they align with your overall organizational mission?
Who will be the responsible individual(s) for different aspects of the new program? Do you plan on relying on current staff or volunteers to take on additional responsibilities related to this new program? Or will introducing a new program require new or additional staff members?
What kind of funding/budgetary needs will this new program require? Are there any grants available that could help potentially fund this new program? Remember as you pursue potential grant opportunities that you look for funding sources that align with your goals and objectives, and not the other way around. (In other words, don’t change the mission or goal of your programs in order to chase or align with a particular funding source. If it’s not a good match, look elsewhere.)
Implement
Once you have your basic plan in place – begin to implement your plan. This may seem like an obvious step, especially ‘on paper.’ But far too often, new programs stay stuck in the Design Phase – and not for the reasons you might think. It’s not for lack of funding, or lack of resources, or poor design. Oftentimes, new programs get stuck because the visionaries designing the new programs feel that the plan just isn’t ‘perfect,’ so the planning wheels continue to spin, until eventually the momentum around all the great potential just dies out.
Let me let you in on a secret. Your brand new program isn’t going to be perfect. You’re going to have to make some adjustments as you go. That’s normal. Don’t let the fear of imperfections, or even failure, stop you from implementing your program design.
But as you begin to implement your new program, make sure you are collecting good data that can help you make the necessary adjustments to learn from and move past any setbacks. This is what ultimately results in high quality programs.
Evaluate
Although Evaluation appears as ‘step four’ of the four-step process, the best strategy is to begin considering program evaluation even earlier – as part of the design stage of the process. Gathering data and information becomes so much easier throughout the program cycle if you’ve thought about what and how information will be gathered before you begin.
This is why during the Design Stage it’s important to set clear goals and objectives, and to consider the expected outputs and outcomes of your program.
With these goals established, you have a clear picture of what you will be measuring , clear criteria for evaluative success, and you have a pretty good indication that you can be successful, as you have identified the resources and processes needed to be successful.
You also have a clear timeline established to begin evaluating your program, so you will be on top of things right away if the initial results/outputs are different from what you were expecting.
Having SMART goals, in particular, that are set from the beginning of a program cycle make the evaluation process go smoother. Having these goals helps you collect good data, and gives you a good indication of success to communicate to your community and partners, funders, staff, etc. These things in turn can lead to greater success, and further growth, for your program in the future.
Need some help implementing the program design process? Contact us at Spark Group today!
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