The shelf problem
Every experienced evaluator knows the feeling: a rigorous, well-evidenced report, delivered on time, that changes nothing. The findings are sound, the recommendations sensible — and six months later, nothing has moved. The evaluation sits on a shelf, its insights unused.
The problem is rarely the quality of the evidence. It is that the evaluation was designed to produce a report, not to produce a decision.
Designing for use
Utilisation-focused evaluation flips the starting question. Instead of 'what do we want to know?', it asks 'who will act on this, and what do they need in order to act?' That single shift changes everything downstream — which questions get prioritised, how findings are framed, and how recommendations are structured.
In practice, this means identifying the primary users early, involving them in shaping the evaluation questions, and delivering findings in formats matched to how decisions actually get made in that organisation — a two-page brief for a busy director, a workshop for a programme team, a dashboard for ongoing monitoring.
An evaluation's value is not in what it finds, but in what changes because of what it finds.
Recommendations that can be acted on
The final mile is recommendations. Too many are directionally correct but operationally useless — 'strengthen coordination', 'improve monitoring'. Actionable recommendations name who should do what, by when, and with what resources. They are specific enough that someone can pick them up and start.
PRIME designs every evaluation backward from use — so the findings land with the people who can act, in a form they can act on.