Saga Services

If you are looking to understand the acceptability or impact of your activities, programs and services, or are deciding whether to scale, adapt, or stop a program, this is often the point where meaningful and rigorous evaluation and evidence are needed to support clear, confident decision-making.

Saga Systems works in partnership with organisations to help make sense of what is happening, why it is happening, and what that means for decisions about programs, services, and systems.

Saga Systems conducts all evaluations as per the Australian Evaluation Society's Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Evaluations.

1. Saga Sense-Making Session

2. Signature Workshop - Finding the Story Within the System

For when you’re not sure where to start — or what to do next.

A two-part Saga Sense-Making Session is a preliminary conversation for people working with programs or services who want to think more clearly about evaluation, evidence, and next steps.

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2. Signature Workshop - Finding the Story Within the System

A facilitated workshop for teams working in complex systems.

This signature workshop helps teams step back from day-to-day delivery and build confidence in thinking about what is really happening in their program or service — and what that means for decisions.

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3. Bespoke Advisory and Evaluation (Commissioned work)

2. Signature Workshop - Finding the Story Within the System

3. Bespoke Advisory and Evaluation (Commissioned work)

Saga Systems undertakes commissioned work with government, funders, and organisations working in complex policy and service environments.

Commissioned engagements are shaped around purpose, context, and decision-making needs, and may include evaluation, evidence synthesis, advisory support, or facilitated sense-making.

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Organisations come to us when they're asking questions like:

Are we confident this is working? Do we know what’s making a difference, and for whom?

This question sits at the heart of evaluation: understanding whether programs and services are making a difference, for whom, and under what conditions.

This question often comes up when organisations are asking things like:

Is our return-to-work service actually helping people stay at work, or are people cycling back through the system?
We’ve invested in a digital health tool — are people using it, and is it making any meaningful difference?
This program feels well-received, but are outcomes improving in ways that matter?
Why does this service seem to work well in one place, but not another?

We can help by:

Developing evaluation frameworks or plans
Delivering program evaluations (process, outcome, and impact)
Using mixed methods to assess effectiveness, equity, and variation
Examining contribution rather than simple attribution
Supporting proportionate evaluation approaches aligned to decision needs

This work focuses not only on whether something worked, but on what worked, for whom, under what conditions, and why

We have data, but not clarity. How do we make sense of what we’re seeing?

Many organisations collect large amounts of data but struggle to turn it into meaningful insights for decision-making.

This might look like:

Our monitoring data looks fine, but it doesn’t match what staff or clients are telling us.
Survey results are mixed, and we’re not sure how seriously to take them.
We’ve got numbers, stories, dashboards — but no clear picture of what’s going on.
Different stakeholders are reading the same evidence in very different ways.

We can help by:

Synthesising evidence from multiple sources (including large datasets)
Integrating quantitative data, qualitative insight, and lived experience
Identifying patterns, tensions, and gaps in the evidence
Supporting sense-making workshops and reflective discussions
Producing clear, decision-focused reports or graphs with predictions

This work places interpretation at the centre — recognising that evidence is most useful when it helps people understand what is happening and why.

We’re designing or refining something in a complex system. How do we account for context, culture, and real-world constraints?

Programs and services do not operate in isolation. Systems, relationships, and incentives shape design decisions and how people actually behave in practice.

This might look like:

Is this initiative acceptable and meaningful to the people it’s intended for?
Are we designing this around how people actually behave, or how we hope they behave?
Why is engagement lower than expected, even though the program makes sense on paper?
How do existing relationships, trust, history, or incentives shape what’s possible here?
How might this intervention interact with other services, policies, or community dynamics?

We can help by:

Developing and refining program logic and theory of change
Mapping systems, relationships, and problem spaces
Examining behavioural, cultural, and organisational influences
Supporting co-design and stakeholder workshops
Reviewing and adapting existing models for real-world delivery
Identifying leverage points for improvement or change

This work draws on systems thinking and behavioural insights to support design grounded in context, not ideal conditions.

We need to decide what to do next. How do we move from insight to action?

This might look like:

Do we scale this up, adapt it, or stop it altogether?
What parts of this are worth keeping, even if the overall program changes?
How confident do we need to be before making a call?
How do we explain and justify this decision to funders, partners, or communities?

We can help by:

Facilitating post-evaluation sense-making and planning sessions
Supporting evidence-to-action discussions with leaders and teams
Clarifying implications and options for decision-makers
Supporting learning and adaptation over time

This work focuses on helping organisations move from insight to action in ways that are responsible, transparent, and grounded in evidence.