Asking the Right Questions for Needs Assessment and Evaluation

Both needs assessment and evaluation are processes that are designed to ask, and answer, key questions necessary for improving performance. Unless useful, relevant questions are posed during these activities, the resulting data may not be either necessary or sufficient for closing gaps in performance.

There are two primary drivers for identifying useful questions:

1. What are the results and consequences the organization wants to achieve?
2. What types of decisions does the organization need to make?

In the first case, we want to make decisions about what our options are, so we need to ask questions that get at the heart of this issue. What results should we be targeting, and in turn, what types of programs, interventions, and solutions will help us get there? our evidence collection approach will take on a needs assessment perspective.

Sample Needs Assessment Questions

• What value-added results should we be targeting?
• What value-added results are we now getting?
• Who or what is the primary client of the results and their consequences; get from current results and consequences to desired ones?
• What en-route results must be accomplished and when?
• What are our options?
• What are the most effective and efficient ways for reaching our desired/required results?
• What will it cost us to reach those results?
• What will it cost us to ignore those results?
• How far do we have to go to reach those results?
• Which results take priority over others?
• Where do we have the most—and least—leverage?

In the second case, the focus is on decisions, and the data necessary to reach meaningful conclusions supported by evidence. For instance, if decisions have to be made about whether or which programs, interventions and solutions should we continue to support, and which have to be rethought or discontinued, then our data collection approach may take more of an evaluative perspective. That is, the data we collect will be used to compare program expectations, with what we actually achieved, in order to make decisions for the organization’s future direction.

Sample Evaluative Questions

• How much closer did we get to reaching our vision and mission: results?
• What value did we add for all internal and external stakeholders?
• Which objectives in our mission did we achieve?
• How are we doing in comparison to last quarter? Last year?
• Which internal results targets were reached? Not reached?
• What implemented projects, interventions, solutions were effective?
• How efficient are these implemented projects, interventions, and/or solutions?
• In which of these should we continue to invest?
• What results do we have to justify our continued projects?
• What should we discontinue?
• Which projects, interventions, and/or solutions could be successful with some modifications? Is it worth it?
• Did we add or subtract value from our external clients and our shared society?

Notice that in both cases, however, performance results are the ultimate driver of the questions we ask and the data we gather. For a needs assessment, we are identifying where the organization wants to go, while an evaluation helps us determine if we got there and, based on that, where to go next.

Both approaches to data collection should be systematic and designed to answer specific questions that can be used to improve performance. Though assessors and evaluators may share data collection techniques, the questions they seek to answer are different. In other words, needs assessment and evaluation differ in purpose, rather than importance and methods.