Course progress and additional readings
Course lessons · 1 of 5
You will make: A one-page question brief: who needs the answer, what they will do with it, and where the evidence lives.
Recorded walkthrough · the first two minutes
Unmesh opens on the same question this lesson asks you to write down — which members came to your events, earned a certification, and then left negative feedback — and explains why the answer exists in your records but not in any one system. Stop at 2:24, where the walkthrough moves on to collection; lesson 2 picks it up from there. Watch on YouTube ↗
Start with the work waiting on your desk
A board meeting is approaching. You have attendance totals, survey results and a membership report, but they do not explain why active members question the value of their dues. Or you coordinate a network of independent organizations: every team sends an update, yet combining the evidence and returning useful findings means another round of manual work.
Both are good reasons to take this course. Choose the version closest to your work. The first follows an individual member across events, certifications and feedback. The second follows a member organization across reporting periods while preserving its own useful view.
Two fictional practice questions
Individual members: Which 2026 conference attendees completed a certification and raised an unresolved concern about the value of membership?
Member organizations: What can we report across this quarter’s member returns, which gaps need clarification, and what can each organization take back to its own team?
Write the action beside the question. The membership team might arrange a conversation about a specific concern. A network team might resolve a definition mismatch and return an organization’s reviewed summary. A dashboard is an output; the action explains why it is worth producing.
You can start without replacing your member system
Your association management system (AMS) may already handle dues, registrations and renewals well. SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics and other survey tools may already support the collection or analysis you need. Start by testing the missing connection and the work required to maintain it. Tool capabilities depend on your setup, permissions and license.
For a first pilot, a permitted export can be enough. You do not need to commission every integration before finding out whether the records can answer the question. Decide later whether the next reporting cycle warrants a scheduled import, an integration or a different tool.
| Evidence you need | What it establishes | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Member register | Who the member is | Stable ID; person or organization; current owner |
| Event and learning records | Attendance and certification events | Dates, completion status and links to the member |
| Named feedback | What a respondent reported | Permitted use, source text and survey period |
| Member-organization return | What one organization reports for a period | Definitions, supporting material and its own returned report |
Do not fill a gap by guessing. Missing certification data means the complete opening question is unanswered. You can still review concerns among known attendees, provided you describe that narrower population.
Ask only for what the records cannot tell you
An attendance list does not explain whether the experience was useful. A satisfaction score does not establish an intention to renew. Ask about the specific value or difficulty you need to understand, and keep actual renewal decisions separate.
The member survey question guide provides a question-to-decision worksheet and distinguishes individual respondents from organizational representatives. Use it to choose three questions for your pilot. Return with the decision each question will inform; do not copy an entire questionnaire.
For a network, use what member organizations already collect where it fits the shared question. Their local forms can differ. Agree on the meaning of the few fields you need to combine, who checks them and what useful report goes back to the contributor.
Choose what your record represents
A person, a member organization and a representative are different things. A representative’s departure should not erase the organization’s history. An event attendance is an observation, not another member.
The record-mapping lesson shows both a person-over-time pattern and a network-of-organizations pattern. Read the pattern that matches your question, then sketch your member, the dated evidence connected to it, and the person responsible for corrections.
Put it into practice
Write your question brief
Use step 1 of the workbook. Complete only your chosen path.
Individual-member path: State the question, reader and action. List the attendance, certification and feedback sources, their owners and permitted links.
Member-organization path: State the network question, reporting period and the useful summary each organization will receive. Explain why 12 attendance occasions cannot fill a missing count of unique participants.
For either path, finish with what you can answer now and what needs clarification.
Check your reasoning before moving on
A usable brief names a decision and an owner, not just a report title. The individual example needs attendance, certification and permitted feedback linked to a stable member ID. The network example needs organization IDs, a reporting period, shared definitions and a return to each contributor. Missing people counts stay unknown; they do not become zero.
The practice pack includes a fuller answer key and source-row references.