Using DoView Boards
(The 20 Questions They Answer)
PAGE STILL BEING BUILT
See DoView Boards for a high-level introduction and DoView Boards How To for screenshots of how to use, and this page for details of how you use a DoView Board to answer the key questions about any initiative
Quick Overview
DoView Boards are the faster, innovative way of doing (and proving you are doing) all aspects of outcomes-based planning, implementation, measurement and reporting. They can be used with organizations, strategies, policies, projects, joint ventures, collaborations, sectors and initiatives of any sort in any setting. They can be used for human organizations, human-AI collaborations and potentially for AI agents so they can report back to humans on what they are doing. This page provides details on how you can use DoView Boards.
There are 20 key questions that need to be answered for comprehensive planning, implementation, improvement and reporting on any initiative of any type, and DoView Boards are the lightweight way of answering all of these.
Note that the current implementation of DoView Boards created with the prompts available on this site is a prototype. Use it to pilot and test if the approach adds value, but at the moment, maintain your other planning and implementation documentation as a backup.
Below are the 20 questions that DoView Boards allow you to quickly answer about any initiative you are running or you want to have oversight of.
Challenge: Find any other lightweight app (no app install, runs in a browser window) that answers these 20 questions about any initiative in one place.
This long video shows how you can answer the 20 questions with a DoView Board. The static screenshots below provide a fast way to see how this is done.
The 20 Key Questions
SEE
1. What outcomes, for whom?
What outcomes are being sought, for whom, and what opportunities are there for input to ensure alignment with mandates, obligations and stakeholder intent?
2. How will change happen?
What steps are expected to lead to those outcomes, and is the intervention logic (theory of change) robust?
3. What evidence supports claims regarding change?
What evidence and best practice information supports the proposed approach, and where is evidence from the past weak or uncertain?
4. What could affect success?
What assumptions, risks, dependencies, constraints, and system factors affect success?
PLAN
5. What options and trade-offs were considered?
Why were particular options and trade-offs chosen, and what will not be done as a result?
6. Which priorities matter most next?
Which outcomes and steps are the priorities that will be focused on in the next planning period?
7. What specific action will be taken?
Which projects, services, or activities are going to be undertaken?
8. Is the action aligned with priority outcomes?
How can we know that each project or activity is tightly aligned to priority outcomes?
9. What capabilities, etc., are needed?
What people, systems, relationships, data, and competencies are required?
10. How will budget/funding be used?
How will budget and funding be allocated, and why is this the best use of these?
11. Who can make what decisions?
Who can approve changing, stopping, escalating, or reprioritizing the work, and what are the criteria for such changes?
12. Who is accountable/contracted for doing what?
Who is responsible for what delegated or contracted accountabilities, including staff, contractors, partners, and agencies?
13. What is the performance measurement/evaluation plan?
What is the plan for collecting, analyzing and disseminating performance management and evaluation information?
DO
14. How are parties coordinating?
How are the different parties coordinating, sharing information, and resolving conflicts?
15. How is progress on measures being shown (e.g. indicators, KPIs, OKRs)?
How is information on metrics, indicators, milestones, targets etc. being shown to measure progress?
16. How are answers to evaluation questions being shown?
What evaluation questions are being answered, and how are implementation and impact evaluation results being shown?
17. How is delivery being improved?
How is ongoing implementation of the work being improved as it progresses?
18. How are results being reported?
How is what is being done, its impact and results being comprehensively reported back to relevant parties?
19. How is knowledge management being handled?
How is knowledge and information about the initiative being handed on to others if staff or those delivering the work change?
20. How is the work being sustained?
How is the work being sustained, scaled, embedded, handed over to others, or ultimately exited?
1. What outcomes, for whom?
What outcomes are being sought, for whom, and what opportunities are there for input to ensure alignment with mandates, obligations and stakeholder intent?
Make This-Then pages within a DoView Board of the steps and outcomes (do this manually or put the provided prompt into ChatGPT or Claude and ask it to build a DoView Board and tell it what you want in the board).
If you have to show you are also focusing on other parties’ outcomes, create another DoView Board which contains their outcomes and your relevant How pages (copy the page(s) in from your main DoView Board. Manually, or with the help of AI map your How boxes (projects/activities) onto their This-Then outcome boxes. Send them this DoView Board to show your activity is aligned to their outcomes.
The other party to which you have to align your projects/activities could use the DoView Board you sent them to check for alignment, and they could integrate it into a DoView Board of their own. If there are other parties also doing work for them that also need to be aligned with their outcomes they could try to use AI to integrate all of the the DoView Boards they are sent by such parties into an integrated overall DoView Board for their work.
Use the DoView Board for all discussions about outcomes at all levels with decision-makers, management, staff, contracted parties, providers, stakeholders, and others.
Your this-then pages set out the high-level outcomes being sought and the steps that it is believed need to be taken to make them happen. These draft pages should be amended and agreed to by your organization or initiative as truly representing what is being attempted. These pages in the DoView Board can then be used as the basis for every discussion with governance, management, staff, partners, contractors, stakeholders, funders etc.
Note: If you are using the DoView Board prompt in ChatGPT or Claude, provide it with information, or tell it to get it from the internet and to build a DoView board about any organization, collaboration, policy, strategy or other initiative of any sort.
Tip: When you get AI to build your DoView Board, you can tell it what you want in the board. If you like first ask it what can be put into a DoView Board, you can then select what you want (e.g. links between boxes on This-Then pages, evidence, measures, evaluation questions etc.)
Tip: AI can put in a lot of information in a small board, but for a larger board you might want to get your AI to build the board initially and then, in a later run, get it to add further elements (e.g. evidence, documentation pages) into the board.
Tip: If you have to show how you are focusing on others outcomes (e.g. funders, or in a joint venture) create additional pages for the other parties’ outcomes and link your projects/activities (put on a How page) with up-and-down links to them. Get AI to build these additional pages if you wish. If the other organization’s outcomes are in a diferent DoView Board just copy the page(s) and paste them into your DoView Board.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
2. How will change happen?
What steps are expected to lead to those outcomes, and is the intervention logic (theory of change) robust?
Put in links between This-Then boxes showing which steps it is believed will make other steps and outcomes happen.
Use these links as the basis for showing your intervention logic (theory of change), the way that you believe you will get to higher level outcomes.
Show which boxes on the DoView Board’s This-Then pages make other boxes happen by putting links between boxes. Or get AI to create a draft set of links, have these amended and agreed to by your organization or initiative as accurately reflecting initial beliefs about which boxes will make which other boxes happen in order to achieve final outcomes. Get independent experts or an independent AI system to audit whether the initial This-Then links being claimed seem to be credible or not at face value. Use the DoView Board’s This-Then pages with underlying links to prove to anyone there is a robust logic underlying the approach which is being taken by your organization or initiative.
Note: People like to claim that they have a clear intervention logic or theory of change but almost no existing approach provides something similar to DoView Board’s fine-grained visual examination of the logic of all of the steps an organization or initiative thinks it needs to do to achieve its outcomes.
Tip: If you are a funding or contacting organization, then get those you are funding or contracting to provide a DoView Board of what they are planning. Discuss the board with them and click on the borders of any box to look at what other boxes it is linked to and assess if you, AI or independent experts think that their intervention logic seems sound.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
3. What evidence supports claims regarding change?
What evidence and best practice information supports the proposed approach, and where is evidence from the past weak or uncertain?
Put existing evidence or a sensible rationale the links between This-Then boxes.
Use the evidence or rationale to whoever you need to that what you are doing it evidence based.
In 2. above we have talked about showing the claims about your intevention logic (theory of change) regarding which This-Then boxes influence which other boxes. In other words, which steps do you believe will make higher-level outcomes occur? But some people (e.g. funders) might want to see evidence that the links you have visualized in your DoView Board This-Then pages are supported by evidence.
Tip: To do this you click on the border of any This-Then box to put in evidence. If the bos is linked to another box, a small arrow will appear in the boxes it is linked to. Click on this small arrow and you will be able to put evidence, or a sound rationale for why you believe people should accept the link between boxes you are claiming as credible.
Tip: Get AI to populate your DoView Board with draft evidence or rationale under This-Then links that. You can then check the evidence or rationale yourself, get an expert to do so, or someone else (e.g. a funder can get an independent AI to check the evidence or rationale.
Note: People like to claim that they are taking an evidence-based approach, but almost no existing approach provides something as efficient as DoView Board’s ability to allow a fine-grained visual examination of the evidence or rationale behind This-Then claims.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
4. What could affect success?
What assumptions, risks, dependencies, constraints, and system factors may affect success?
Incude risks, assumptions, dependencies and constraints in the boxes on This-Then pages.
These should all be included as boxes within This-Then pages of the DoView Board. The rules for drawing This-Then pages are that they should include boxes for all important risks (written in the positive) and ones for assumptions. Dependencies are shown in the relationships between boxes (discussed in 2), and constraints are, like risks, included on This-Then pages and written in the positive.
Note: The idea is that the This-Then pages of a DoView Board contain in one place everything about the outcomes and the ‘strategy space’ in which they are being sought that is needed for thinking about and discussing strategy with anyone. Other systems, have separate list of risks and assumptions for instance, this means that they do not have one integrated visualization of the key aspects of the strategy space in the way that DoView Boards do.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
5. What options and trade-offs were considered?
Why were particular options and trade-offs chosen, and what will not be done as a result?
Use the This-Then pages to discuss options. You can build a ‘What-If’ DoView Board that identifies different scenarios one to each This-Then page.
If you want to get into detail, you can put in negative links between This-Then boxes and examine what is working against achieving other boxes. You then decide which boxes you want to prioritize over which other ones.
Options and trade-offs analysis is actually very complex for humans to do. They often just talk about strategy. But attempting to just do it this way assumes that the people having the strategic discussion all have a similar mental model of what affects what. This is unlikely to be the case in most discussio it this way. The causal pathways and tradeoffs that are under discussion in many situations are complex. Therefore, it is useful to visualize them on a DoView Board.
Tip: You can put in negative links to show where This-Then boxes negatively influence or reduce other boxes. You do this by clicking on the border of a box this will show the connections between that box and other boxes when the other boxes go gray and a small black arrow appears. You make such connections by moving your mouse over the side of a box and when you see a small gray cicle appear you do a left mouse drag from there to the box you wan to make a connection to. If you click on the small black arrow you will open the link popup. You can ‘reverse the polarity’ of the box to make it negative and it will change the colour of the box to red.
Tip: Click on the Page View menu item and select Show This-Then link counts (just between boxes on This-Then pages). Where the links are negative the count of them will be in red. Where they are a mix of positive and negative, they will be half red and half black.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
6. Which priorities matter most next?
Which outcomes and steps are the priorities that will be focused on in the next planning period?
·Prioritize the boxes being focused on in the next planning period (click on the top left corner of a box to put in a priority).
Use the DoView Board to discuss these priorities with anyone.
Put priorities on either, or both This-Then and How page boxes. Or get an AI system to put in draft priorities and then amend and agree to them. Use the DoView Board to discuss these priorities with whoever they need to be discussed with (e.g. governance, managers, staff, contractors, funders, auditors, stakeholders etc.).
The video below will start at the relevant section.
7. What specific action will be taken?
What projects, services, or activities are going to be undertaken?
Put in a How page with boxes for the projects/activities that will be done to make the This-Then boxes happen (put hyperlinks out to the detailed planning pages within any project planning platform that is being used).
Put in more up-and-down How pages (Level 1, Level 2 etc) to show hierarchical relationships such as projects/teams/individuals/AI agents at different levels.
Link these up with up-and-down links (shown by the square counts on the top and bottom of boxes).
Get an AI system to create a How page with a box for each project (or activity if it is a DoView Board for a small-scale project). Put whatever details are needed under these project/activity boxes. If wanted, make the projects/activities page a Level 1 How page and then make a Level 2 How page. The Level 2 How page could, for instance, have boxes for each of the teams that will be working on one or more projects/activities. And if wanted, also make a Level 3 How page with team members who are in each team. Link these up-and-down pages with up-and-down links (the count shown at the top and bottom of boxes) so one can click up and down the structure.
Note: There can be up-and-down hierarchical How pages in addition to other How pages that do not have any ‘level’.
Note: That if the DoView Board is about a joint venture, collaboration between organizations, collaboration between humans and AI agents or just between AI agents, then the Level 2 How page can just show the different entities contributing to the different projects on the Level 1 How page.
Note: If using an existing project planning platform (e.g. Microsoft Project) put hyperlinks under the project/activity pages that click out to the relevant page for each project in the project management platform.
The video below will open at the right section.
8. Is the action aligned with priority outcomes?
How can we know that each project or activity is tightly aligned to priority outcomes?
Put in up-and-down links between This-Then boxes and project/activity or other boxes (click on the bottom squares of This-Then boxes or the top squares of How boxes to put these in).
Visually compare the number of up-and-down links from projects to priority This-Then boxes to make sure that there is alignment of effort with priorities.
Put in up-and-down links between This-Then boxes and How boxes such as projects/activities or get an AI system to do this and check and agree on these links. Visually check that there are an appropriate number of How (e.g. project/activity) boxes linked to priority This-Then boxes. And that there are not priority This-Then boxes without a sufficient number of projects/activities focused on them, or that there are low priority This-Then boxes with too many How boxes linked to them. Or get an AI system to do this analysis and put a red border around any This-Then box where there is not sufficient alignment of priority with effort.
Note: One can have perfect priorities and be delivering project outputs perfectly but still be wasting resources because there is not tight alignment between priorities and effort. Most people claim they are aligning their projects or activities with their priority outcomes, but without a DoView Board, they usually have no effective way of quickly proving that they have such alignment.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
9. What capabilities etc., are needed?
What people, systems, relationships, data, and competencies are required?
.Put in any other important elements in boxes on no-level How pages.
Link them with non-up-and-down links to other relevant boxes in the DoView Board (these links exist where the square on the right-hand border of a box has a dark fill).
Use these to show how other things will support the achievement of things like projects, steps and outcomes.
Get an AI system to suggest other ‘no-level’ How pages that could be included in the DoView Board (e.g. resources, competencies). Put boxes on these pages or get the AI system to populate these and just check that they are right. Make non-up-and-down links between boxes on these pages or get an AI system to put in these links and just check them. Note: The existence of such non-up-and-down links will be shown by the square on the right-hand side of any box having a dark fill.
The video below will start at the relevant section.
10. How will budget/funding be used?
How will budget and funding and be allocated, and why is this the best use of these?
Put in information under each relevant How page box (e.g. project boxes) showing how much of the budget is being allocated to it (by putting this in one of the notes fields in the details window by selecting the particular box).
Use this in discussions with anyone to show where the budget is being allocated.
Use the up-and-down visual alignment between projects and This-Then steps and outcomes (8 above) to show the steps and outcomes on which the budget is being focused.
It is useful to be able to show how the budget is being allocated to How page boxes such as projects, and using visual alignment (8 above) between This-Then boxes and How boxes, to the extent possible, show budget allocations in relation to priority steps and outcomes.
Note: Because an individual How box (e.g. a project) can influence a number of This-Then steps and outcomes, it is often not possible to accurately apportion how much is being spent on each step or outcome.
The video below will open at the relevant section.
11. Who can make what decisions?
Who can approve changing, stopping, escalating, or reprioritizing the work, and what are the criteria for such changes?
Put in information about who can approve, change, stop, escalate, or reprioritize work. You can also put in criteria for when this happens.
Put this in as DOC pages, or as boxes that can be linked to other boxes in the DoView Board.
12. Who is accountable/contracted for doing what?
Who is responsible for what delegated or contracted accountabilities, including staff, contractors, partners, and agencies?
Identify which measures (with targets included) particular parties will be held accountable for.
Use these for contract documentation and attach a read-only version of the DoView Board with contracts or delegation documentation.
Link organizations, teams or individuals to outcomes or steps. Put in measures with targets and associate them with organizations or individuals as accountabilities and deliverables. Or get an AI system to populate a DoView Board with these and then just check and agree with them.
Note: Once a DoView Board is fully populated and agreed to, it serves as the ‘single source of truth’ regarding the organization or initiative. It can then be used with any AI system to create specific documentation. For instance, contract documents for particular providers. Also, a read-only version of the relevant DoView Board can be included with the contract to ensure providers are clear about what they are being contracted to do.
Note: Those being contracted or delegated to produce particular deliverables should also be able to quickly see how their deliverables fit into the wider picture of outcomes and the steps that are being used to achieve them.
13. What is the performance measurement/evaluation plan? What is the plan for collecting, analyzing and disseminating performance management and evaluation information?
Write up a detailed performance management and/or evaluation plan (on its own Documentation page).
Include performance management or evaluation projects as boxes (on their own How page).
Associate these with the measures or evaluation questions they will be focused on.
Include elements from the DoView Board (page names, boxes, measures, evaluation questions) in the performance management and/or evaluation plan as clones, so if they are edited elsewhere, they will be updated in the plan (you can insert clones of DoView Board elements onto any Documentation page by selecting ‘clone’ on the editing bar)..
Write up a full performance management plan directly within your DoView Board using a Documentation page. It is a time saver to be able to clone elements (e.g. measures, evaluation plans) onto a Documentation page because it means that it is much easier to keep such documentation up to date. Create an additional How page with boxes for performance management or evaluation projects, and attach to each of these boxes the measures or evaluation questions they will be measuring.
Note: Currently organizations and initiatives have a number of different sets of documentation for strategy, performance measurement, evaluation, contracting etc. With DoView Boards all this information can be kept within the one DoView Board and by doing so the different pieces of documentation can be fully aligned with each other and be easily kept up to date.
14. How are parties coordinating?
How are the different parties coordinating, sharing information, and resolving conflicts?
Map organizations, teams or individuals onto the outcomes or steps they will be focusing on.
Use this mapping to discuss and coordinate between themselves who will be doing what.
Link organizations, teams or individuals on How pages to the outcomes or steps on This-Then pages they will be focusing on. Or get an AI system to populate a DoView Board with these and then just check them. Use visual alignment (8 above) to see if there are any gaps or overlaps in who is doing what. Use this visualization to help the parties discuss how they will coordinate their work to avoid gaps and overlaps.
15. How is progress on measures (e.g., indicators, KPIs, OKRs) being shown?
How is information on metrics, indicators, milestones, targets etc. being shown to measure progress?
Put measures (metrics/indicators/KPIs/OKRs etc.) where these are available, under each step, outcome, How elements (e.g. projects) and link (by selecting the measures in the details window underneath any selected box).
Use this to discuss and review the extent to which the measures being used are measuring things that are important.
Measures can be inserted below many boxes on a DoView Board. An AI system can be asked to populate the DoView Board with key measures. Use the View menu for pages to make measures visible under boxes on DoView Board pages. A full list of measures is also available by clicking on the Measures item in the top bar. The same measure can be associated with more than one box in a DoView Board.
Note: Measurement should always follow strategy. There needs to be a way of articulating outcomes and steps independently of whether they are currently able to be measured or not. Because a DoView Board is designed to facilitate this, it means that one is immediately aware of what measures are actually telling you in terms of which steps and outcomes are being achieved. If you just attempt to track performance from just a list of measures, without having them mapped onto the underlying steps and outcomes you can make the serious mistake of just doing the measurable rather than the strategically important.
16. How are answers to evaluation questions being shown?
What evaluation questions are being answered, and how are implementation and impact evaluation results being shown?
Put evaluation questions under the steps and outcomes that they are focused on examining.
Use these to discuss exactly the level of boxes on the This-Then pages that evaluation will be focused on.
Evaluation questions can be inserted below many boxes on a DoView Board. An AI system can be asked to populate the DoView Board with key evaluation questions. Use the View menu for pages to make evaluation questions visible under boxes on DoView Board pages. A full list of evaluation questions is also available by clicking on the Evaluation Questions item in the top bar. The same evaluation question can be associated with more than one box in a DoView Board.
Note: In evaluation planning, it is often difficult to quickly understand the level at which evaluation questions are focusing. This means stakeholders can get a mistaken impression of what an evaluation will actually be able to show. In addition, sometimes in evaluation plans, the same evaluation question can be written in different ways. When using a DoView Board, always mapping evaluation questions onto the step or outcome they are focused on examining means that one can quickly identify if two differently worded evaluation questions are actually attempting to answer the same thing.
17. How is delivery being improved?
How is ongoing implementation of the work being improved as it progresses?
Traffic light the extent to which outcomes, steps and other boxes are being achieved.
Use the traffic-lit DoView to discuss progress and work out what to do next.
Use the DoView Board for rich discussions regarding what progress has been made and what needs to be done to better achieve outcomes.
Traffic light how much progress is being made on steps, outcomes and other boxes in the DoView Board. Or get an AI system (e.g. from information it can find on the internet, internal documentation such as dashboards, performance management reports, evaluations etc.) to traffic light progress on boxes and check these. Use the traffic-lit DoView to discuss progress and work out what to do next.
Note: If you have traffic-lighted before you have a priority setting discussion as in 2. above the traffic lights will give you guidance as to what should be priorities going forward.Have all discussions about how to improve what is being done in an organization or initiative against the DoView Board. This means that all of the information that is necessary for improvement is immediately available. If desired, show an AI system the DoView Board and ask it to make suggestions regarding what should be done to improve what is being done.
Note: People often attempt to have discussions about how to improve what is being done by relying on those involved being able to remember information from having read reports about progress, feedback and evaluation reports. They often do not remember everything that they need to remember to do this properly. In contrast, when using a DoView Board all of the relevant information is immediately available just a click away and it has been put onto the board associated with the elements on the board that it is most relevant to.
18. How are results being reported?
How is what is being done, its results and impacts being comprehensively reported back to relevant parties?
Use the DoView Board to report back to governance, management, funders, staff and stakeholders.
If they also want reports in other formats, just get an AI system to produce such reports from the DoView Board as the ‘single source of truth’ about the organization or initiative..
Use the DoView Board as the basis for any discussion with anyone about anything related to the organization or initiative. Doing this means that they will always have at their fingertips all of the information needed to drill down into any details about the work. At the same time, they can immediately see the helicopter view of the outcomes-based overview of what is being attempted in the work.
Note: There is a great deal of duplication and inefficiency arising from having to produce reports on organizations or initiatives in different formats. If governance, management, funders and stakeholders all get used to using a DoView Board for reporting back, this makes the process much more efficient. It also has the advantage that once someone learns to navigate a DoView Board, they can get a much more detailed and comprehensive picture of what is happening in an organization or initiative than they are able to get from the partial picture that traditional ways of reporting provide.
19. How is knowledge management being handled?
How is knowledge and information about the initiative being handed on to others if staff or those delivering the work change?
Those in organizations or initiatives hold a great deal of information about what is being attempted by the organization or initiative.
This information is often spread across multiple pieces of documentation and systems and held in people’s heads.
Having a DoView Board as the single source of truth and the system of record means that when staff change, they can be given the DoView Board to quickly come up to speed with what needs is being done and how it is being done.
Knowledge management is essential for organizations and initiatives of any type. You can use a DoView Board as the authoritative place where all of the key information about the organization or initiative is stored. This means that when new staff come on board, or if parts or all of the DoView Board needs to be handed off to another organization or group to do, they can just be given the DoView Board.
20. How is the work be sustained?
How is the work being sustained, scaled, embedded, handed over to others or ultimately exited?
At the moment, the answers to the 20 questions on this page for any organization, policy, strategy or other initiative are typically scattered over numerous documents and presentations.
It is much more efficient to have all of the key information answering these questions in one single DoView Board which means that it is at just a click away in discussion, meeting or when reporting back.
Having the DoView Board as the ‘single source of truth’ also means that you can use it as the authoritative source for AI to produce documentation in whatever format is required is demanded by governance, management, stakeholders or funders.
At the moment, the answers to the 20 questions on this page for most organizations and initiatives are typically scattered across many documents and presentations. This is an inefficient way of working. The ultimate vision of DoView Planning is that every organization, policy, strategy or other initiative will have a DoView Board which can be used to answer the 20 questions set out here.
Note: In contrast to accounting information, which needs to be supplied in a highly standardized format, outcomes-related information such as that captured in a DoView Board is currently presented in a wide range of varying formats. Once you have developed a DoView Board for an initiative, you can use it as the ‘single source of truth’ and the ‘system of record’ for your organization or initiative. You can then use it to produce whatever specific documentation in whatever format governance, management, stakeholders or funders require. However, over time, you may want to show those you have to report to how you could provide them with a version of your DoView Board as the centrepiece of your reporting to them. You could introduce them to this idea by using your DoView Board when you are doing presentations when reporting back to them. If they find that receiving a DoView Board from you when reporting is helpful, you could do this in the form of a read-only version of your DoView Board, that contains information that is useful to these groups when you are reporting to them.