Asking Better Questions: The Five Pathways of Evaluative Inquiry

Join us on Wednesday August 12th for an interactive workshop on evaluative inquiry with Asma Ali.

About the Workshop

Strong evaluation begins not with methods, but with questions. Before selecting an  instrument or designing an analysis, skilled evaluators ask what a program is truly trying to accomplish, who it serves, how it operates, and whether it is working. This interactive session introduces the Five Ps of evaluative inquiry, five pathways into a strong evaluation: Purpose, People, Process, Performance, and Principles. Together they form a diagnostic questioning framework that helps evaluators surface program strengths, expose blind spots, and design more meaningful evaluations. 

Drawing on Warren Berger’s work on the power of inquiry, presenters will frame evaluative thinking as a disciplined habit of asking better questions. Participants will move through a brief theory burst on each domain, then work in breakout groups to generate evaluation questions within an assigned Pathway. Groups will report back to identify themes and tensions that commonly emerge across real-world evaluation scenarios. A closing poll invites reflection on which domain is most often overlooked in evaluation design.

The session is designed for evaluators at all levels who want practical tools to sharpen their questioning before choosing a method.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the Five Ps (Purpose, People, Process, Performance, and Principles) as the pathways of evaluative inquiry that help evaluators diagnose program strengths and challenges.
2. Develop stronger evaluation questions that clarify program intent, stakeholder relationships, implementation processes, and program outcomes.
3. Apply a diagnostic questioning framework to analyze evaluation scenarios, accounting for the place and context in which a program operates, and identify areas where additional inquiry is needed.
4. Connect the Five Ps to values-based evaluation, using the Principles domain to surface the values and ethical commitments in evaluation design.

About the Presenter

Asma M. Ali, PhD is an evaluation, measurement, and assessment professional whose work spans the nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors. At AA & Associates LLC, her practice centers on community-based research, instrument design, and values-based evaluation that advances community perspectives in health, health professions education, and education. She brings a collaborative, stakeholder-centered approach to leading evaluation teams and building consensus across diverse contexts.