freshspectrum

It’s late August, and are into another hot week here in North Carolina. So yet again I was outside with the hose watering our little vegetable garden. And in that meditative moment I thought about The Lorax.

I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.

The Lorax by Dr. Seusss

Even as a kid I really felt that story. And I think it connects with what we do when we report, but maybe not in the way you might think.

By now you might be sick about me talking about my book (The Reporting Revolution, now on Amazon). But honestly, even though it does have almost everything to do with my consulting work, the book was still a passion project. I believe that if we want our work to stay relevant we need a mindset change when it comes to reporting.

We don’t need to speak for the data.

When a lot of researchers and evaluators talk about reporting, they’re really talking about documenting.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a real need to document our work. To write down everything about our methods, our analyses, our findings, and our recommendations. This is why I don’t despise 100 pagers. They have a role to play, it’s just not as a report.

Reporting is different than documenting. Reporting is less about capturing and more about communicating. Communicating is about connecting with real life people.

When you spend a lot of time with your work you start to believe that it needs an advocate. For example, if you have dedicated your last few years to collecting data, you will likely feel a responsibility to advocate for that work.

But our data work is a means, not an end. Data is only valuable in so much that’s it’s useful. And useful requires a user.

We do need to advocate for the people.

Thinking about your audience as you are documenting your work is not enough. You need to be an advocate for the people who could use your work.

Unlike trees, people have tongues. But most potential data users do not have a seat at the table as you collect and analyze your data. So they don’t have a voice in the decisions you make when sharing your work.

Being an advocate for your audience means seeing your data through their eyes, not your own.

This is why a report can be 1 pager or an infographic. Because the goal for these designs is rarely to document a project but communicate something of value for a specific audience.

If you can, join me tomorrow.

It’s a launch party, it’s going to be informal and fun. It’s also free with door prizes!

The proof copy is on its way and if everything goes right, I will have The Reporting Revolution up on Amazon next week. So what now? It’s time for a party!

First, Thank You!

All told over 450 of you downloaded a free draft version of the book. I decided to share the book before it was finished because I knew it would help drive me to write, heighten my audience focus, and receive some good feedback.

I was not wrong.

The support and interest definitely helped me bring this book to market lightning fast.

Virtual Book Tour

This fall I want to have a modern virtual book tour and I could use your help.

I would like to virtually visit with:

• Local Association Groups
• Non-profits
• Evaluation Classrooms
• Evaluation Agencies
• Podcasts (as a guest)
• Blogs (as a guest poster)
• and anywhere else where I can talk to at least a handful of interested evaluators and researchers.

(I bring my own Zoom room but can also use your own meeting platforms)

If you’re interested please send me an email (chris @ freshspectrum.com), message me on LinkedIn, or DM me on Twitter (I have opened up access so you can DM me even if we don’t follow each other).

Launch Party

Next Wednesday I’m having a book launch party. We’ll have fun with a Q&A, games, cartoons, and course/consulting giveaways worth hundreds of dollars.

If you think you can make it, Please RSVP. You have to show up to win prizes.

I think the book is done. Depending on the response, there may be a second book to follow-up this one. But for now, I’m done writing.

In 5 days, on August 23, I will taking the free download offline as I prepare the book for publication. But until that day, you can download the book for free using the following link.

Click here to go to the download page.

Here is what’s inside currently as of August 18:

• Introduction – A Little Story
• Chapter 1. The Big Why
  • Why are we still reporting like it’s 1999?
  • Our reports tell everyone else a story about our profession.
  • Seeing our work through our audience’s eyes.
  • Unintentional gatekeepers.
  • Mindset change – Noun report to verb report.
  • Not just better, faster too.
  • Make it easy.
• Chapter 2. Finding Your Audience
  • Who is in your audience?
  • Activity: Naming your Audience
  • Your Big 3 Audiences
  • Activity: Three Bucket Audience
  • The Audience Growth Saturation Point
  • Audience Reach Splash Model
  • Measuring your Audience
  • Audience Building or Serving?
• Chapter 3. Developing YOUR Modern Reporting Strategy
  • Rule #1 – Everyone is overwhelmed.
  • Activity: The Overwhelmed Reader
  • The Default Reporting Strategy
  • Activity: What is Your Organization’s Reporting Strategy?
  • Towards a Practical Strategy
  • 1:3:25 Strategy
  • Flagship Report Strategy
  • Comprehensive Blog + Social + Email Strategy
  • Audience Borrowing Strategy
  • Email Newsletter Strategy
  • Webinar Series Strategy
  • Learning Community Strategy
  • Creating a YOU Strategy
• Chapter 4. Building YOUR Report Design Systems
  • The HiPPO Problem
  • Activity: Finding the HiPPO
  • Developing your Design Process
  • Reducing HiPPO Problems
  • The Status Quo Problem
  • The Power of Double Delivering
  • Choosing your Reporting Software Stack
  • Your Modern Software Stack
  • Creating a Simple Style Guide
  • Report Writing, Report Design, and Report Illustration are Three Different Steps
  • Developing an Asset Library
  • Building out Templates
• fin – A Call to Action
  • If Not You, Then Who?

I just relaunched my free resource library, here is what you’ll find inside.

Limited Time Downloads and Events

As of today you’ll only find one time limited download, my in-process book The Reporting Revolution.

This section will change often as some resources I share only stay free for short amount of time. I’ll try to always keep at least one thing in this section, it could be anything from a free course module to an upcoming webinar.

eBooks, Guides, and Cartoons

This is my catch all section for most of my resource downloads. Currently it includes the following:

• UX Evaluation [PDF]
• Virtual Community Building 101 [PDF]
• How to create a basic logic model [PDF]
• A Quick Guide to using Zoom [PDF]
• Evaluation Presentation Favorites [PowerPoint]
• Finish the Cartoon: Engaging Stakeholders [PowerPoint]
• Evaluation Illustrated Full Cartoon Collection [Dropbox Folder]

The Evaluation Illustrated Cartoon Collection is newly shared. Originally you would have had to buy the book to get full access. Now you can get access to downloadable copies of all 114 cartoons for free.

Free Courses

Right now I only have one free course but I do have a couple others in mind.

YouTube Channel & Tutorial Links

I have my recent tutorial posts listed out by category (i.e. Excel, Canva, Evaluation) you’ll also find a link to my YouTube channel which features videos not always shared on this site.

Enjoy!

Use this link to check it all out.

And please feel free to share with your friends!

So in case you haven’t been following, I am writing a book. And every couple of weeks I’m releasing a new chapter. When the book is all done, I’m going to self-publish on Amazon.

Until it’s ready for publication, you can download the current version for free. You’ll find the link at the bottom of this page.

In today’s release you’ll find a new introduction and chapter 3 which dives into modern reporting strategy. Reporting strategy is not about what we report but how we report. How we get our ideas from our work into the minds of the people in our audiences.

My goal isn’t to find my way onto the NY Times bestseller list. I just want to create a really useful guide on modern reporting. So please download the book, read it, and give me feedback. And if there are things you find unclear please let me know.

Here is what’s inside currently as of August 3:

• Introduction – A Little Story
• Chapter 1. The Big Why
  • Why are we still reporting like it’s 1999?
  • Our reports tell everyone else a story about our profession.
  • Seeing our work through our audience’s eyes.
  • Unintentional gatekeepers.
  • Mindset change – Noun report to verb report.
  • Not just better, faster too.
  • Make it easy.
• Chapter 2. Finding Your Audience
  • Who is in your audience?
  • Activity: Naming your Audience
  • Your Big 3 Audiences
  • Activity: Three Bucket Audience
  • The Audience Growth Saturation Point
  • Audience Reach Splash Model
  • Measuring your Audience
  • Audience Building or Serving?
• Chapter 3. Developing YOUR Modern Reporting Strategy
  • Rule #1 – Everyone is overwhelmed.
  • Activity: The Overwhelmed Reader
  • The Default Reporting Strategy
  • Activity: What is Your Organization’s Reporting Strategy?
  • Towards a Practical Strategy
  • 1:3:25 Strategy
  • Flagship Report Strategy
  • Comprehensive Blog + Social + Email Strategy
  • Audience Borrowing Strategy
  • Email Newsletter Strategy
  • Webinar Series Strategy
  • Learning Community Strategy
  • Creating a YOU Strategy

Click here to go to the download page.