MetodicMETODIC | learn
Build a Session
Evaluation

Outcome Harvesting

Outcome Harvesting is an evaluation approach that collects evidence of what has changed, defined as changes in the behaviour, relationships, actions, policies or practices of people and organisations, and then works backwards to assess how an intervention contributed. It suits complex settings where outcomes cannot be planned in advance.

6 phasesEvaluation
When to Use This Framework

When you can't tell if your sessions are actually working

You need to measure impact beyond satisfaction surveys and understand if learning is actually being applied.

When outcomes are unpredictable, many actors influence change, and the aim is to learn how change happened rather than to check planned activities.

The 6 Steps
Follow this sequence to apply Outcome Harvesting
1

Design the harvest

With the people who will use the findings, agree the questions the harvest must answer and what information to collect from whom.

2

Gather data and draft outcome descriptions

Review reports and other documents for evidence of change and draft short outcome statements: who changed what, when, and how the programme contributed.

3

Engage with informants

Ask the people closest to the change to review, correct and add outcome descriptions.

4

Substantiate

Check a selection of outcomes with independent, knowledgeable sources to strengthen credibility.

5

Analyse and interpret

Group and interpret the outcomes to answer the harvest questions, looking for patterns in what changed and why.

6

Support use of findings

Help the users of the harvest discuss the findings and decide what to do with them.

What You'll Achieve

Shows real ROI and helps you continuously improve your sessions.

Use it after or during a programme to find out what participants and their organisations actually do differently. Workshops with participants can serve as the 'engage with informants' step.

Practical Tips
How to get the most out of this framework
  • 1
    Define success metrics before the session
  • 2
    Build in micro-assessments throughout
  • 3
    Follow up after to measure behavior change
  • 4
    Use data to iterate on your design
Best For
  • Advocacy, policy and network programmes
  • Capacity-building and leadership programmes
  • Complex or adaptive initiatives
  • Programmes without a fixed plan or theory of change
Key Principles
  • Outcomes are observable changes in behaviour or practice
  • Work backwards from change to contribution
  • Involve the people closest to the change
  • Design for the users of the findings
Watch Out For
  • Establishes contribution, not attribution; it does not prove a programme caused a change.
  • Relies on documents and recall, so can miss outcomes nobody recorded or remembered.
  • Not designed for use during programme planning.
Related Frameworks
Other Evaluation frameworks you might find useful
Brinkerhoff's Success CaseThe Success Case Method evaluates a training or change initiative by finding the participants who got the most and least value from it and studying why. It produces credible, story-based evidence of impact and shows which factors in the organisation help or block the use of learning.
Kirkpatrick ModelA four-level model for evaluating training: Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results. It is the most widely used evaluation framework in workplace learning and pushes designers to look beyond the end-of-day survey to behaviour change and business impact.
Phillips ROI MethodologyThe Phillips ROI Methodology is an evaluation process that extends the Kirkpatrick levels with a fifth level, return on investment, and a set of steps for isolating a programme's effects and converting them to money. It measures reaction, learning, application, impact, ROI and intangibles.