Consulting: Choice and the Business of Evaluation

Consulting: Choice and the Business of Evaluation

Attached is a link to an article about choice: http://sivers.org/jam

According to this article, Columbia professor Sheena Iyengar ran a test to see what the implications were when customers were given more choices. She set up a free tasting booth in a grocery store with six different jams available for tasting. 40% of the customers stopped to taste with 30% of those (12% total) buying one of the jams. A week later she set up the same booth in the same store, but this time with twenty-four different jams available for tasting. 60% of the customers stopped to taste, but only 3% of those (2% total) bought some.

The implications of her study clearly suggest that too much choice has a negative impact on customers buying habit. What does this mean for me, the independent consultant?

As I start my newest business venture (EvalWorks) it makes me think that I don’t want to provide too many services less there be a negative view about my ability to provide all of them equally well. So instead of showcasing myself as a jack-of-all-trades I’ve identified my two core competencies: Program Evaluation and Survey Research.

I have been conducting program evaluations at the local, state, and federal levels for over 10 years and have a rich background in statistical methods related to data analysis. Whereas I could highlight my ability to analyze data as a separate core competency, I can in no way compete against someone who has been trained as a statistician.

Although most program evaluation specialists conduct surveys as part of their program evaluation work, I have highlighted my survey research work because I have a Certificate in Survey Methodology from UNC and conduct workshops on survey best practices. Whereas some people come into surveying not knowing the research base, I use the research base to address potential errors such as sampling error, coverage error, measurement error, and non-response error (http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/education/polling_fundamentals_error.html). I’ve also represented this information at the AEA/CDC Evaluation Institute for the past three years and presented on survey reliability at the Australasian Evaluation Society annual conference in Canberra, Australia in September.

So as I start this new venture I’ll let you know how it goes, concentrating on my core competencies in hopes of not falling victim to scope creep. Sounds like a mold you would find in a bathtub. Yuck!