Assemble Some Evidence

EIGHTFOLD PATH TO MORE EFFECTIVE PRBLEM SOLVING

 2. Assemble some evidence
This step is pretty straightforward. Find data and
information that can help you analyze the problem.
You will find articles and documents the easiest to
acquire, but data sets and interviews will greatly
help if you can access them.
All of your time doing a policy analysis is spent on two
activities:
THINKING - generally the more important.

HUSTLING DATA - takes much more time: reading documents, hunting in libraries, poring
over studies and statistics, interviewing people, traveling to interviews, waiting for
appointments, and so on.
The heart of assembling evidence is assembling data on the topic at
hand, which consists of learning facts relevant to the problem you
have defined. When data has meaning, we call it information,
because it informs our understanding of a problem. Information then
becomes evidence when it becomes valuable to people who are
trying to understand a problem.

Bardach urges analysts to think before you collect data.

Bardach also suggests analysts survey “best practices,” or
look at how policymakers in other jurisdictions have solved
this problem before.
Note that just because a policy is being used other places
does not mean it will work for your policymaker (or that it’s
working at all!). Despite this, policymakers have noted in
surveys that they highly value information about what other
jurisdictions are doing. This comparative information can
be valuable in a policy analysis on its own.
One way to deal with a unique problem is to use analogies.
Bardach talks about how a policy analysis on merit pay in
the public sector could use data from merit pay studies in
the private sector.
Requests for data can be difficult. If you want data that
has bureaucratic barriers, you may need time to get it. That
is why you should start early when searching for evidence.
The longer you wait, the less access to data you will have
for your analysis.
Assembling evidence can often have a political component
to it. People could be trying to protect a program or
change it while you are trying to understand it. An analyst
must touch base, gain credibility, broker consensus, and
work with people in order to get access to the data they
need and make it information and evidence that informs
the policymaking process.
Lastly, don’t commit yourself to answers at the start of the analysis.
Free the captive mind. Contact people you may disagree with and
get data from them because they might send you in directions you
don’t expect to go.
Assembling of data can be a fuzzy step and ultimately is
one of the most iterated steps in the Eightfold Path. But
doing it well means being critical, openminded, and
efficient with your time. A good analyst knows how to do
all these things, which is why assembly of evidence is so key
to good policy analysis.
Thank You!