Landing on your feet: organizing your policy analysis

5 important questions on Landing on your feet: organizing your policy analysis

Three heuristics concerning the piratical consequences of having a client:

  • You must address the issue that the client poses
  • It is almost aways better to answer with uncertainty the question that was asked than to answer with certainty an easier or less important question that was not asked.
  • Good analysis does not suppress uncertainty

The policy analysis process is simplified by dividing it into two major components:

  • Problem analysis
  • Solution analysis
-> both equally important: when you try to cram the complete analysis into the recommendations, you suffer from 'recommendationitis'

Problem analysis consist of three major steps:

  • Understanding the problem
  • Choosing and explaining goals and constraints
  • Choosing a solution method
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Keep in mind that an imperfect analysis delivered an hour before your client must make a decision will almost always be more valuable to your client than a perfect analysis an hour after the decision has been made. You can facilitate more effective communication with busy clients by following a few straightforward rules:

  • Provide an executive summary and a table of contents for your clients to see at glance where your analysis is going.
  • Headings and subheadings allow your client to move through an analysis much more quickly.
  • Diagrams, graphs and tables can be very useful for illustrating, summarizing and emphasizing information.
  • Keep the text focused on the logic of your analysis.
  • Try to write crisp text.

If you want your advice to be influential, then you must establish the credibility if your analysis:

  • Make sure that you cite your sources completely and accurately
  • Flag uncertainties and ambiguities in theories, data, evidence, and predictions
  • Be value overt: clearly set out the important goals and explain why you believe that they are important

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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