Innovation Advisory · Frameworks
The Canvas
A growing collection of printable, one-page frameworks built for development practitioners, programme designers, and anyone who commissions work that affects real people.
Just shipped · August 2026
The Aspiration Gap Framework
Six questions for measuring what people want alongside what they have — from the Badalte Khwaab methodology.
Open framework → 14The Rapid Civic Tech Canvas
Five questions before building a public tool at the speed of the news cycle that produced its need. Drawn from Democracy by Design.
Open framework → 15The Curriculum–Construct Fit
Five questions before you evaluate a curriculum — the pre-mortem for the eventual report.
Open framework →What this is
Each canvas is a structured set of questions designed to slow you down at the moments when speed costs the most — before the proposal is written, before the budget is signed, before the study is commissioned. They are not checklists to tick off. They are prompts to sit with, argue over, and answer honestly before you move on.
How to use them
Print one out. Fill it in with a pen — not a keyboard. Put it in front of the team, the funder, or the person who has to live with the decision. The frameworks work best when the answers make you uncomfortable. If every box fills in easily, you are either very prepared or not being honest enough.
When to reach for one
Before you hire the consultant. Before you write the terms of reference. Before you say yes to the grant. Before you scale the pilot. The right time is always earlier than it feels — when the idea is still soft enough to reshape, and the sunk costs have not yet hardened into stubbornness.
Why they exist
Twenty years of advisory work taught us that the most expensive mistakes happen not in execution but in framing. The wrong question, measured precisely, still gives you the wrong answer. These frameworks come from that lesson — from watching good money follow bad assumptions, and from wanting a simple tool that forces the honest conversation before the budget meeting.
Which canvas, when?
Fifteen frameworks, read in lifecycle order. Most projects do not need all of them — pick the canvas that matches the moment.
- Before the idea has a name The Venture Readiness Canvas →
Six questions to sit with before the deck, the budget, or the URL.
- Before you commission MEL The Measurement Checklist →
Twelve questions to refuse the easy indicators with. Pair with a cup of coffee and an honest colleague.
- Before you decide what counts as proof The Evidence Canvas →
Eight questions on epistemic standards before they get inherited from a previous study by accident.
- Before you grow The Scale Decision →
Eight questions about when growing is the right move and when it eats the thing that made the work matter.
- Before the venture has run too long The Kill Criteria →
Eight questions to write while you can still retire the project with thanks.
- When the Theory of Change is on the wall The Causal Pathway Review (CLEAR) →
Five questions to stress-test the boxes-and-arrows before the logframe is signed.
- When the indicators are proposed The Indicator Test (VALID) →
Five questions to apply to every metric that wants a row in the logframe. Run after CLEAR.
- When you suspect a blind spot The Knowledge Map (Rumsfeld) →
A 2×2 for the tacit knowledge, suppressed findings, and pre-mortem zone the other seven do not catch directly.
- Before you deploy the survey The Survey Bias Audit →
Six checks on frame, wording, response options, enumerator, social desirability, and the language of the room.
- Before you claim you listened The Feedback Loop →
Five questions on who the loop is for, how it opens, who reads it, what changed, and what got refused.
- Before the baseline is fielded The Baseline Design Test →
Six questions on the comparison, power, frame drift, instrument continuity, prior knowledge, and multiple-comparison corrections.
- Before the programme changes hands The Handover Canvas →
Five questions on the receiver, the staff, the budget line, the learning, and the exit.
- Before you measure what people want The Aspiration Gap Framework →
Six questions on wanting and having, separately — plus life-stage and intersectional reads that a national average would flatten.
- Before you ship a tool at news-cycle speed The Rapid Civic Tech Canvas →
Five questions on the disappearing artefact, the safety guardrails, the refusal, the verification chain, and the two-hour test.
- Before you evaluate a curriculum The Curriculum–Construct Fit →
Five questions on the construct, the instrument, leakage, floor and ceiling, and the qualitative panel most trials do without.
Available frameworks
The Venture Readiness Canvas
Six questions to sit with before your idea earns a name, a budget, or a website.
Open frameworkThe Measurement Checklist
Twelve questions to ask before you commission, design, or fund a piece of MEL work.
Open frameworkThe Evidence Canvas
Eight questions about what counts as proof and for whom.
Open frameworkThe Scale Decision
Eight questions about when to grow and when to stay small.
Open frameworkThe Kill Criteria
Eight questions about how to know when it is time to stop.
Open frameworkThe Causal Pathway Review
Five questions (CLEAR) for reviewing a Theory of Change or pathway diagram.
Open frameworkThe Indicator Test
Five questions (VALID) to stress-test a programme indicator before it goes into the logframe.
Open frameworkThe Knowledge Map
A 2×2 Rumsfeld matrix for the things a programme knows, does not know, and is not looking at.
Open frameworkThe Survey Bias Audit
Six questions to stress-test a survey instrument for biases that survive the pilot.
Open frameworkThe Feedback Loop
Five questions to check whether your programme’s feedback loop actually closes.
Open frameworkThe Handover Canvas
Five questions to sit with before a programme changes hands.
Open frameworkThe Baseline Design Test
Six questions to check whether your baseline can carry the endline it feeds.
Open frameworkThe Aspiration Gap Framework
Six questions for measuring what people want alongside what they have — from the Badalte Khwaab methodology.
Open frameworkThe Rapid Civic Tech Canvas
Five questions before building a public tool at the speed of a news cycle.
Open frameworkThe Curriculum–Construct Fit
Five questions before evaluating a curriculum — the pre-mortem for the report.
Open framework