Process Planner Search Tips

There are a number of things you can do to improve the results the process planner gives you.

Getting more methods

In general the more boxes you tick the fewer methods there are that will fit the criteria. Reducing the number of options you check (and skipping questions altogether) will tend to increase the number of methods recommended. In particular you might want to revise the following:

• Purpose: No method is able to achieve all outcomes. Restricting your search to your one or two most essential outcomes will help you get more results.

• Level of involvement: The database of methods contains relatively few that are good for the 'extreme' choices informing and empowering.

• Types of participants: Only few methods make use of a statistically representative selection of participants. If you are looking for such a method consider leaving other search field empty to increase the chance of the system returning results.

• Number of participants: Remember that this question refers to the number of participants per event, for example in the case of a citizens' jury 11-25 people. You could of course run multiple citizens' juries, involving hundreds of people but in order to get citizens' juries as a result you will still need to tick 11-25. Processes that can involve thousands of people in one setting are relatively rare so consider skipping other questions if this a key requirement for you. If you are unsure how many participants you want to involve at a go please leave this field blank.

• Money Required: Only a few methods can be delivered on a very low budget. Remember that this question is about the total budget including venue and facilitation so if you have access to volunteer facilitators and a free venue consider ticking a budget level higher than you would do otherwise to increase the results you get.

Getting more links

Unlike the methods database the chances of getting recommended links goes up the more options you select. Recommended links are only given based on your response to the following two questions so ticking more options here will tend to increase the links you are given:

• Suitable for
• Covered Policy Areas

Other places to look

If you want to search for methods based solely one one or two criteria consider using the Advanced Method Search. If you would like to ask a question about what do do in a particular case please post a question. Also you may wish to look at the Process Planner Help Page or the Using Your Results page.