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Program Design, Again

How do you know if your program idea is a good one? Admittedly, experience and some data collection (interviews in particular) could be all it takes to answer those questions.

This post is for the times when experience and a bit of research won't do the job. Consider the case of a part-time social activist, we'll call him Chet, who wants to start a nonprofit to educate people about how new renewable energy technologies can help them save money.

The right questions can lead to better ideas, or a new approach to a challenge, or a newer challenge that might be more important, or at least more tractable. After all, your first thoughts about the challenge (or problem) might not reflect the best way to address whatever problem you've been inspired to tackle. 

There is the "5 Why" technique for example. You start by asking why you want to address a specific challenge: How do I get people in my city to adapt innovative renewable energy technologies (never mind which ones for now)? Chet could ask himself why he wants to do that. Asking "why" one, two, or three more times may yield a new goal, or a better approach to the original challenge. 

Chet could also play reporter and ask the classic journalistic questions - Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? A number of generic questions come to mind:

Who is the audience for this program that doesn't exist yet?
What would those people want/need to know?
What specific action(s) do we hope people will take because of this program?
Why does this program idea address the want/need identified earlier?
How will we reach our audience?
Where will we reach our intended audience? Where will we carry out program activities?
When do we start the program? When is a particularly good or bad time to get started?
How will we know if the program is working?

How will Chet know if his idea is a good one? We would tell Chet to do some market research. What programs and policies already exist and have the same objective, or a similar objective? For the sake of illustration let's say there is nothing. Chet is venturing into new territory, at least in his city.
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