Cornerstone Communities
This document gives a step by step overview of the process for creating Cornerstone Indicators for communities.
Last updated
This document gives a step by step overview of the process for creating Cornerstone Indicators for communities.
Last updated
The following steps are our suggested sequence for developing a set of indicators. Although the steps are listed in sequence you do not have to complete all of them. For example, if you have already engaged your community and gathered participatory data you can go straight to Module 2, Analysis. Or, if you would simply like to host conversational workshops there is no need to continue after Module 1.
We welcome feedback and suggestions for how to improve and strengthen these open source materials.
The following steps are our suggested sequence for developing a set of indicators. Although the steps are listed in sequence you do not have to complete all of them. For example, if you have already engaged your community and gathered participatory data you can go straight to Module 2, Analysis. Or, if you would simply like to host conversational workshops there is no need to continue after Module 1.
We welcome feedback and suggestions for how to improve and strengthen these open source materials.
Step one: think carefully about the need you are addressing or the outcome that you hope to measure. For example, are you most interested in exploring people’s views or is the need a more defined measure such as how to prioritise local investment? Spending some time thinking this through will help to direct the framing for the workshops. This will also inform who will later be responsible for monitoring the final indicators.
Step two: socialise the project with your community and invite potential participants to the first workshop. We have included some templates for an invitation and flyer that you can adapt.
Step three: invite people to complete a questionnaire. We used Typeform to collect responses in the existing case studies but we have also included a downloadable written version.
Step four: plan the conversational workshops using the Workshop Playbook. This is simply a suggestion for generative conversational workshops; we encourage you to adjust the framing to reflect your intended outcome from step 1. If you have existing workshop plans that you would prefer to use, that approach is welcomed. The important thing is to collate outputs from your community that represent their values, views and aspirations for the future.
Step five: run the first workshop. We have included some example facilitator prompts and slides that were used in workshops held in Montreal (workshop 1 prompts and workshop 1 slides.)
Step six: run the second workshop. Again we have included some example facilitator prompts and slides (workshop 2 prompts and workshop 2 slides.)
Step seven: use the Thematic Analysis Playbook and excel Data Analysis Template to pull out the headline themes, factors and associated metrics from the workshops and questionnaire. The playbook and template provide a step-by-step guide for how this can be done, but if you are familiar with thematic analysis then you are welcome to use your own methodology.
The outputs from this Module will form the inputs for Module 3 (Indicator Design).
Step eight: use the Indicator Design Playbook and Indicator Design Template to transform the data analysis outputs into relatable stories that represent multiple metrics. NB: The framework does not actually track these metrics. However, by using them to develop the narratives you can be confident that factors already being measured in your context are represented in the final indicators.
Step nine: use the Indicator Design Template to create your own visual indicators for the stories in step 8.
Step ten: test the indicators with your community and make any adjustments based on the community feedback.
Step 11: share your Indicators with the wider Cornerstone Community. We would be delighted to publish your indicators on the Cornerstone Indicators Website as part of building and sharing a global community. If you would like to do this then please email us at cornerstone@darkmatterlabs.org.
Step 12: share any feedback on the process.
