Planning Your Information Gathering Projects

Effective planning is the cornerstone of successful information gathering projects. Just like any other endeavour, careful thought and preparation are key to achieving your goals and avoiding disappointment down the road.

While asking the right questions is undoubtedly important, success depends on more than just that.

With help from our experts and your colleagues with special knowledge and experience, you can approach your information gathering projects with confidence.

Some have found it effective to start planning by thinking of the desired outcome first and then working back to questionnaire development. Others think of the reports first, some the questionnaire.  Regardless of how you approach it bear the following questions in mind:

1. What are the objectives? Use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) objectives to outline what you want to achieve.
   
   
2. How to engage the audience? Determine how you'll engage with the groups of people who will respond to your questions and those who will make use of the results.
   
   
3. How to produce and use the results? Plan the ways you'll analyse the data and use the results.
   
   
4. Do you intend to implement improvements? Identify who will be responsible for implementing improvements based on the collected data.
   
   
5. How will your project be evaluated? Establish a framework for evaluating your project's success.

YOUCANSAY PROJECT will help you streamline the planning process.

YOUCANSAY ANALYSIS provides tools to help you make the most of your findings.

YOUCANSAY SUPPORT will help you at each stage 

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