Evaluation Services by Saga Systems

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

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.

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.

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.