Our approach
Proportionate rigour across design, delivery, and learning
Strata Insight works with heritage, cultural, and community organisations to support projects across their full lifecycle. We may be engaged at any stage — from early project development and funding applications, through live delivery, to evaluation, reflection, and reporting.
Our work is guided by a principle we describe as proportionate rigour: applying the right level of conceptual clarity, methodological care, and ethical attention for the scale, aims, and context of each project.
This approach recognises that strong evidence begins with thoughtful project design and supported delivery, not just post-hoc measurement.
1. Understanding your context
Starting with context, not templates
We begin by developing a clear understanding of your project environment. This includes your aims, delivery model, organisational capacity, participant groups, ethical considerations, and funder requirements.
Starting with context allows us to tailor our support to how your work actually operates, rather than applying generic frameworks or pre-set templates.
2. Designing projects that can realistically support wellbeing
Where we are involved early, we support organisations to translate wellbeing ambitions into deliverable project designs.
This includes:
- clarifying what kinds of change are plausible and meaningful
- aligning wellbeing concepts with project activities
- embedding learning and evidence-gathering in ways that are realistic for staff and participants
The aim is to design projects that support wellbeing in practice, not just in principle.
3. Supporting delivery through reflective practice
During live projects, we can work alongside delivery teams as a critical friend. This may involve supporting reflection, sense-checking emerging issues, or helping teams adapt their approach in response to participant needs and delivery realities.
This ensures that wellbeing is shaped through day-to-day practice and decision-making, rather than treated as a retrospective outcome.
4. Applying proportionate rigour to evaluation and evidence
Our evaluation approaches are designed to be credible, ethical, and defensible, without over-burdening projects or overstating what the data can show.
We focus on:
- alignment between project aims, wellbeing definitions, and methods
- proportionate data collection matched to scale and risk
- careful interpretation of evidence
Proportionate rigour means doing what is necessary and justifiable — and no more than that.
5. Prioritising learning and honest interpretation
Our outputs are designed to support learning as well as accountability. We provide clear guidance on what evidence can and cannot demonstrate, helping organisations communicate impact responsibly and strengthen future practice.
Where useful, this includes practical frameworks, reflective tools, or recommendations that can be carried forward into future projects.