Using what you hear
Engagement is only worth the time if it changes something.
For most EFE grantees, that means concrete things: what goes into the implementation plan, which offerings do we create and how do we design them, which partners you work through, and how you message. This section covers how to get from conversations to those decisions, and back to the residents who helped you make them.
Make sense of the data before you act on it
Once you've had several conversations, get your team together to discuss. You don't need a formal method, but you do need to sit down with what you heard.
Use the categories in What to listen for to organize your notes: what did you hear about workarounds, friction, ease, surprises, contradictions, motivation, and emotion?
Look for themes.
A pattern is something that came up with several people, often in different words. Look for what came up again and again, including the things you expected to hear and didn't.
Pay attention to what surprised you.
The findings that change a plan are often the ones that contradicted an assumption.
Check who you didn't hear from.
Decide whether you need to find other people from your target audience before making decisions that affect them.
Use your findings to make decisions
Write each finding in three parts:
what you heard, in their words where possible
the implication for what you're building
the change, or the next thing to test
Residents told us they wouldn't keep photos of important documents on their phones because they're worried about getting hacked.
That means some of the residents who most need a backup won't keep a digital copy on their phone.
So instead of telling people to store documents on their phone, we will test a scanning day at a library branch, with staff on hand to ask people how they want their copies kept and help upload documents to a secure cloud service.
Expect some findings to be unwelcome.
The most useful finding is often that something won't work the way you hoped. Then you can find fixes and alternatives before launch.
Going deeper
For additional guidance on synthesizing what you hear, check out the digital.gov guide to synthesis.
Share what you learn
Share what you heard with colleagues, leadership, and partners, not just the team that ran the conversations. Residents' own words and stories can help make the case to decisionmakers.
Close the loop
When possible, tell participants, and the partners who helped you reach them, what you heard and what you're doing about it. Include what you decided not to do and why.
This can be simple: a short message, a one-page summary, or a return visit to the partner organization. It can also be an additional opportunity for feedback and input.
Engagement doesn't stop at launch
By continuing to get feedback and input from residents once a service is live, you can make sure it remains useful and continues to evolve to fit the needs of the people it serves. Doing this doesn't have to be elaborate.
- Add a question at intake and completion about what the participant is looking for and what they got. When possible, have a person ask them instead of a form so you get better answers.
- Debrief regularly with the staff who talk to residents, and write down what they're hearing.
- Track where people drop off. The step people abandon tells you something surveys don't.
- Go back to the people you talked with during design and show them what you built.
- Before launching improvements, undertake the resident engagement steps above, showing people drafts and getting feedback while there's still time to change them.