Clients

Our clients are much like us: solutions-oriented, strategically minded, and invested in the power of personal experience.

Those who benefit most from working with us are:

Empathic

Able to listen and see things from multiple perspectives.

Generous

Genuinely concerned with expanding access, impact, and opportunity.

Dedicated to Ending Systemic Racism

Aware of the influence of bias and privilege.

Practicing Equity

Co-creating spaces and climates of ownership and opportunity for all.

Respectful

Honoring the experience and inherent knowledge of individuals they seek to engage and uplift.

Into Teamwork and Collaboration

Ready to bring us in as allies.

Growth Oriented

Invested in self reflection, being adaptable and using feedback to evolve and improve.

Strategic

Critically-minded systems thinkers.

"I first hired Jessica to design a program assessment for a new first-year undergraduate program at Hampshire College. She did such a marvelous job that she has become my "go-to" consultant for the college's qualitative assessments projects, including evaluations of academic affairs, student culture, retention, and enrollment.

She comes through repeatedly by going beyond my expectations, so of all the consultants I have hired in over 15 years of administrative experience, I recommend Jessica Payne most highly."

Steven Weisler, Former Dean of Enrollment and Assessment, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Our engagements are customized according to our clients’ needs, stage of maturity, and goals.

Early

Early stage innovators piloting an experimental organization, program, model or platform

Task: Define how an early stage program, approach, or platform is working and why it matters.

Solution: Evaluation and assessment to clarify and track progress on visionary goals and measures of expected success.

Process: Conduct rigorous, respectful data collection with stakeholders to obtain candid feedback on met and unmet needs, improvement and achievement of outcomes.

Outcome:

Access data about stakeholders’ needs and the impact of your work
Learn directly from stakeholders about key user experiences and outcomes
Demonstrate respect for your stakeholders by engaging and validating them in your learning process
Understand what works well and what needs modification
Clarify next steps to test, refine, and improve
Save time, resources and effort by eliminating what isn’t effective and doing more of what works well
Generate accurate, compelling messaging and stories about what you’re up to, why, and with what benefits for whom.
Receive coaching from experts on evaluation and assessment processes, measures, and methods that you can integrate into future endeavors.

Case Studies:

Established

Mid-stage innovators with an established organization, program, model or platform

Task: Understand your process and your impact — develop an evidence base for your established organization, program, model, or platform, determining how to refine and propel your offer forward.

Solution: Use evaluation to clarify and track progress and integrate evaluation into operations by establishing systems and processes to track outcomes.

Process: Conduct rigorous, respectful data collection with stakeholders to obtain candid feedback on improvement and achievement of outcomes; design process and outcome measures and create systems to manage and analyze results; integrate evaluation as part of planning and implementation processes.

Outcome:

Learn directly from stakeholders about key user experiences and outcomes
Demonstrate respect for your stakeholders by engaging and validating them in your learning process
Understand what works well and what needs modification
Acquire strategies for integrating an evaluation mindset from early design and planning through implementation and discovery of findings.
Expand understanding and build capacity for evaluation in your team
Work evaluation into the very fabric of your offer
Understand how evaluation expands leverage for engaging potential investors and champions
Clarify next steps to test, refine, and improve
Generate accurate, compelling messaging and stories about what you’re up to, why, and with what benefits whom

Case Studies:

Advanced

Advanced stage innovators looking to scale an established organization, program, model or platform

Task: Scale your established organization, program, model, or platform so that others can replicate your pioneering work.

Solution: Conduct a comprehensive organizational review to capture a 360 degree view of key practices that define and differentiate your approach.

Process: Engage your team in a deep dive to identify crucial practices, processes, developmental steps, resources, partnerships, and operational components. Collect documentation of success and formulate a structured roadmap or guide to replicating that which you know works.

Outcome:

Clarify your purpose, operational components, and the full scope of your vision with your team
Develop a framework that presents the work as a structure of integrated, multifaceted practices and activities
Improve your capacity to inspire understanding among stakeholders about the difference the work makes
Generate accurate, compelling messaging and stories about what you’re up to, why, and with what benefits whom
Create a document that explains the value of the work and that can be widely and easily disseminated
Vet content for inclusion on your website, in presentations and trainings, and as a tool to inform adopting consultancies
Expand understanding and build capacity for evaluation in your team
Work evaluation into the very fabric of your offer
Understand how evaluation expands leverage for engaging potential investors and champions
Demonstrate respect for your stakeholders by engaging and validating them in your learning process
Understand what works well and what needs modification
Clarify next steps to test, refine, and improve

Case Studies: