Independent Consulting
Amy Myrbo, Ph.D.
Owner
Amiable Consulting, United States
Jenna Sethi, PhD (she/her/hers)
Founder, Principal
Informed Change
Roseville, Minnesota, United States
Clare Eisenberg, M.Ed. (she/her/hers)
Consultant
Informed Change/Clare Eisenberg Consulting, United States
Location: White River Ballroom D
Abstract Information: Creating a partnership between two independent consulting firms takes intentionality, transparency, and effective structures and processes. In this workshop, participants will hear the story of how two firms leveraged their unique strengths to grow their evaluation capacity and better serve clients. Participants will learn the strategies and skills they can employ in their own evaluation practice.
Relevance Statement: Evaluation-focused independent consultants often gravitate towards a specific area of expertise and sometimes invite other independent consultants to subcontract on a project when a specific skill set or content knowledge is required. These short term project-based partnerships can be fruitful because they build evaluation capacity and open up new avenues to clients and project work for consultants looking to grow their businesses. But how can consultants partner in a longer-term, sustainable, and ongoing way that supports clients in telling comprehensive stories of impact? Amiable Consulting, specializing in evaluation of Earth science programs funded by the National Science Foundation, and Informed Change, specializing in evaluation of youth-serving programs, partnered to provide mixed-methods evaluation services together on a set of nine multi-year projects. The two firms leveraged their respective skills, commitment to equity, and expertise to provide more to their clients than either firm could independently. Longer term partnerships that involve multi-year projects require a more in-depth approach that relies on transparency, clear communication, and effective structures. In this workshop participants will hear the story of what it took to build a partnership between two consulting firms with unique strengths and how they built processes to be effective partners serving multiple clients. Presenters will share helpful strategies and skills others can employ when considering a partnership to build evaluation capacity and provide a wider range of evaluation services to clients.