Needs Assessment and Strategic Planning

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Needs Assessment and Strategic Planning

• Day 1

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• Presented by Eileen Flanagan Marcia Nedland
• On behalf of NYS Division of Housing Community
  Renewal

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Introductions

• At your table
• Introduce yourself
• Share ONE expectation for the workshop
• Each table will then share the TOP THREE
  expectations during report out

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Training Objectives

• Connections
• Six Steps
• Design a Needs Assessment plan
• Specific data sources, tools techniques
• Plan formats options
• Tools new ideas
• DHCR requirements

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Agenda

• Day 1
• Opening Session
• Overview DHCR Requirements
• Needs Assessment
• Designing approach
• Six steps
• Practice finding data and interpreting data
• Common Pitfalls

• Day 2
• Recap questions
• Strategic Planning
• Seven components
• Plan Critique
• DHCR Requirements

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Ground Rules

• Be on time
• Participate actively, dont monopolize
• Speak one at a time
• TURN OFF your Cell Phone
• No side orders, please
• Ask hard questions
• Have fun

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DHCR Requirements Needs Assessment

• Answer at least these major questions
• What housing is needed (based on conditions)?
• What customer services are needed?
• What community renewal activities are needed?

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DHCR Requirements Strategic Plan

• 3-year plan that includes
• Summary of needs assessment
• Mission
• Outcomes, measures of success and report on
  results since last application
• Strategic goals
• Programs and services
• Production goals
• Resources and potential partners

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Strategic Planning

• What are some attributes of a useful strategic
  plan?

• Write 2-3 thoughts, each on a separate index
  card.
• Each thought should be only a few words.
• Write BIG!
• Use marker if you have one.

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Strategic Planning

• What are some attributes of a useful strategic
  plan?

• Understandable
• Credible
• Explains what you are going to do and why
• Management tool
• Basis for measuring success
• Process develops clarity and alignment

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Strategic Planning

• What are some attributes of a useful strategic
  plan?

• Keeps you focused on outcomes
• Tests, affirms, corrects and codifies intuition
  and theory of change
• Keeps you attuned to market forces and customer
  attitudes

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Benefits

• Clarity future
• Limited resources
• Funders asking
• Unifying
• Collaborations

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Phases of Planningand Components of a Plan
Document
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Phases of Strategic Planning
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Components of the Plan Document
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How do they connect?

• Needs Assessment
• Strategic Plan
• Work Plan

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Strategic Planning

• Process Future
• Mission/Purpose/Outcomes
• Strength/Weakness
• Opportunity/Threat

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Work Plan

• Operationalizing strategies
• Programs, productivity, resources
• Capacity

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Overview

• Understanding the community
• Businesses
• People geography
• Fees to charge
• Competition allies
• Qualitative Quantitative

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Engaging stakeholders
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Needs Assessment
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Phases of Strategic Planning
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Needs Assessment

• Systematic
• Gap Analysis
• External Environment
• Opportunities Threats

Current State
Gap
Desired State
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Updating an Existing Plan

• Review existing plans
• Decide outcomes for next/new plan
• Decide what parts to update
• Customize your approach

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Outside Help?

• Help with what?
• Be clear about needs
• Look for resources internally, externally

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Timing

• In the BEGINNING.
• On-going

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Who to involve?

• Staff
• Board
• Volunteers
• Interns
• Consultants

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Organizing the Process

• Existing studies
• Budget time line
• Resources
• Assign tasks accountability

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Examples

• Needs Assessment Plan
• Needs Assessment Summary

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Six Steps to a Useful Needs Assessment
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Six Steps

• General Trends
• Intuition Questions
• Data Collection
• Refine Questions
• Data Analysis
• Data Interpretation use

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Tips before you get started

• Know your geography

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Tips before you get started

• Compared to what?

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Tips before you get started

• No data is perfect

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Tips before you get started

• Look at the whole picture

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Tips before you get started

• Dont get lost in the data

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Information scarcity
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Information Overload
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Step 1 General Trends

• Let other people work for you

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How do you stay informed?
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How do you stay informed?

• Knowledgeplex
• Enterprise Community Partners
• NeighborWorks America
• Planetizen.com
• Realtors Home Builders
• Government RSS feeds
• SONH

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Step 2 Intuition Questions

• Value what you think you know, test it.

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Use what you know, ask questions

• Use your knowledge to frame your questions.
• Customers Who? Needs? Where?
• Competition Who? What? Similarities/Differences
• Market size?
• Changes in market?
• TEST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS!

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Turn your intuition into research questions

• Write down 2-3 research questions that would test
  your assumptions page 34

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Tab 8 Resources

• Page 104 Common Research Questions

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Step 3 Data Collection

• Data is only useful if it answers your questions

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Data Sources

• Brain storm data source ideas
• Primary vs. Secondary data
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative
• In-house customer data

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What sources could answer your questions?
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• Page 35 A few Secondary Data Sources
• Tab 8 page 93, way too many secondary data
  sources
• Tab 8 pages 113 115, tip sheets on focus
  groups and interviews

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www.dataplace.org
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Step 4 Refine your questions

• Data collection often adds new questions

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Refining Questions

• Do data collection, dont over-do data collection
• Time frame for collection initial, review,
  revise needs, collect

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Step 5 Data Analysis

• Figure out what is meaningful about the data
  usually in relation to your questions

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Analysis gives context and meaning to data

• Comparisons geographic (peers, regions)
• Change over time
• Spread, range central tendencies
• Visual tools maps, charts, graphs
• Tab 8 Page 108

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SO WHAT? !
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Step 6 Data Interpretation Use

• This is the so what? phase

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Have we learned anything that changes what we
believed?

• Strengthen
• Program design
• Service/product mix
• Implementation
• Delivery techniques
• Marketing outreach

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Interpretation Exercise
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• 1

• Summary of Needs Assessment

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1 Summary of Needs Assessment

• The point of this component is to give the
  reader an understanding of the market forces that
  are influencing your decisions throughout the
  rest of the plan document.

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1 Options for Organization

• Lead with standard categories 1 2 3 4
• Lead with research questions ? ? ? ?
• Lead with findings ! ! ! !
• Lead with SWOT
• Lead with Stories

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1 Review
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1 Review
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1 Review
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Common Pitfalls of Needs Assessment

• Lots of data, no idea what to do with it
• Starting from scratch
• Done without linking efforts
• Surveysnot the only primary source
• Do it to prove it!
• Do it only for the funder
• Overwhelmed by data