Begin with the next useful conversation
The fictional Pathways program supports people over several months. Participant P-24 wants to take part more regularly, but their intake mentions transport difficulties. Staff record attendance, short check-ins and occasional notes. Another organization might use the same approach for coaching, afterschool support or an employment pathway; its measures and collection moments would differ.
Ask what the next practitioner needs to know before a conversation. A starting goal, recent participation, the person’s own account and any agreed follow-up may be enough. Collecting every possible field makes the record burdensome without necessarily making it more useful.
Write one question for each collection moment. Intake describes the starting situation. Attendance records participation. A check-in asks what has changed or needs attention. A later review examines the agreed goal. These records should connect without being treated as interchangeable evidence.
Choose contributors and sources deliberately
The participant’s voice, practitioner observations, family contributions and partner documents can all matter. Record who supplied each item and in what role. A family member’s explanation can inform a conversation without being silently presented as the participant’s own statement.
Use structured fields for information that needs consistent comparison and narrative for context that fixed options would lose. An uploaded document or transcript should have a date, purpose and source owner. Do not collect or copy sensitive material simply because a folder is available.
Agree initial access and relevant consent or permissions before collection. Distinguish a contact’s role from authority to see the entire record. Questions your team cannot resolve should go to the responsible privacy or program owner.
Agree the shared core; keep local collection useful
When schools or service locations collect information independently, imposing one questionnaire can remove the detail they need. Begin instead with the decisions you must make together. Agree the few shared fields those decisions require, then let each team collect useful local detail.
Separate the continuing record from each new observation. Collect stable registration or profile information once where appropriate, link later evidence to that record, and ask for confirmation or an update only when needed. A changing location, job or organizational role needs an effective date. An annual check may suit one field; another needs updating when the change occurs.
School A records mentoring visits; School B records coaching sessions. Both can use a participant identifier, service episode and dated observation. Compare a progress measure only when its definition and assessment method are compatible; local notes can remain different.
Write down the common field, its meaning, who supplies it and when it changes before launching collection. You will complete the comparison rules in the shared-definitions module. Governance starts here: collect only the fields needed for the stated purpose and decide who can view or correct them.
Make the baseline usable later
A baseline needs more than a label saying “before.” Record what was observed, when, by whom and using which question or method. If the intended follow-up asks a different question, plan how you will interpret that difference rather than assuming two scores form a pair.
Reuse relevant information already held where appropriate, but confirm what may have changed. Preserve the application or referral source and its date. A historic statement should not appear as a newly collected intake answer.
Pilot with one fictional record. Can a colleague identify the participant’s goal, the next collection moment and the source of each statement? In a connected workflow, that context continues with the record rather than being rebuilt from forms, notes and attachments before each review.
Work through the Pathways example
This is a fictional teaching example. Adapt the fields and rules to the question your own program needs to answer.
| Moment | Evidence | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | P-24’s stated goal and transport concern | Understand the starting situation |
| Session | Dated attendance and relevant observation | Know what participation occurred |
| Check-in | Participant account and agreed action | Understand current barriers and support |
| Later review | Comparable evidence and source context | Assess change without inventing a missing baseline |
Build this part of your plan in more detail
These lessons address the next practical questions in this module. Choose the detail your workflow needs, then return to complete the exercise.
- How Do You Design an Intake Form for a Baseline?
Decide which intake answers can serve as a baseline.
- How to Collect Feedback Offline and Keep Records Connected
Plan how field observations retain their identity, date and version.
More practical questions in this module (7)
- How to Build a Theory of Change with AI: Prompts and Examples
If the intended change is not yet clear, work through the practical theory-of-change exercise before choosing collection fields.
- Prepare data governance before using AI
Before using identified or restricted evidence, agree ownership, permitted uses and a small test plan.
- How to Build an Organization Evidence Model
For outcome reporting, agree what the organization means and what its evidence can support before accepting new measures.
- How to Build a Funder Context Profile: Research to Reporting
For a funded workflow, distinguish the actual award requirements from preferences and unanswered questions.
- Turn your theory of change into a data-collection plan
If you already have a theory of change, turn it into collection moments, sources and owners.
- How to Collect Clean Data Inside Your Workflow
Place evidence inside the work, with a source, owner, useful context and a later follow-up.
- What Is Impact Measurement and Reporting?
If you need the measurement context first, connect intended outcomes, evidence and reporting within your chosen workflow.
Add this part to your plan
On workbook page 2, map intake, sessions, check-ins and a later review. Give each a question, contributor, source and owner. Identify information you would deliberately not collect. Identify the few shared fields, the local fields and which profile details should be reused or updated.
Download workbook (fillable PDF)Compare with a suggested answer
P-24’s goal and transport concern establish context. Attendance records occasions, not progress by itself. A check-in asks what is making participation difficult and what support is wanted. A later review uses defined, dated evidence. Exclude unrelated personal details and record unresolved permissions before any real pilot.
Self-check: Can another practitioner explain what each source contributes and what should be collected next?
Questions you may have
Is intake enough for a continuing record?
No. Plan the later observations and relationships that will answer the ongoing question. Intake provides context but cannot stand in for follow-up.
Must all programs use the same measures?
No. Choose measures appropriate to your work and define them clearly. The shared method is how evidence is collected, connected, interpreted and governed.
Apply the method to your work
Use the five-part plan to assess the sources, analysis and permissions your team needs. The solution page shows where a connected platform can support that workflow.
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