This tip is so easy you won’t believe you’re not doing it already.

I love to be creative about how we measure a target.

And what helps with that development?

Starting with the end in mind.

When I literally draw out what I’m hoping for my data to look like it helps so much to then work backwards from there & create the system from the result I want.

Here’s what I mean:

➡️You’re chatting with a teacher describing a challenging behavior a student has been exhibiting

➡️They’re describing it well but you’re still not sure what dimension will be best to track

➡️You sketch out your empty graph & chat together about what you all would like to see change

➡️Together you agree on the bx that you’d like to decrease - your line shows an overall decreasing trend (with hopeful low variability & a change from a high to low level!)📉

➡️Great! Now that leads into what aspect of it you guys want to see go ⬇️ and before you know it, there’s your y-axis label

➡️Next up is your time element so think about how you’re going to label that x-axis. Will you track across sessions, days, weeks, trials, etc.?⏰

➡️Think along the same lines for your replacement behavior (your data path would then be opposite to what you sketched earlier) & you’ve got a great start to your measurement plan📊

I hope you use this tip & start sketching everything out with the end in mind before you throw a data sheet into action!

I'd love to hear below if this simple tip is already in your toolbox or if it will be soon!