MetaMetrics Inc. – Planning, Evaluation, and Implementation

BEYOND MEASUREMENT

We apply proven, state-of-the-art methodologies to deliver effective project planning, evaluation, and implementation assistance.

MetaMetrics is a veteran-owned small business. For more than 40 years we’ve assisted clients in the U.S. and abroad define and achieve their program goals in political and economic expression, engagement, innovation, and fulfillment.

DOMAIN KNOWLEDGEABLE

MetaMetrics' staff and associates have deep and relevant subject matter expertise needed to address the issues facing our clients. These include emerging technologies, citizen-centered e-government, rule of law, economic reform, and democracy and governance.

Leo T. Surla, Jr.

President

Stacy Merrill Surla

Vice President

HUMAN + TECHNOLOGY

MetaMetrics’ human-centered, participatory approach puts people at the heart of each effort.

Client and user participation are integral to our process, engaging the most knowledgeable experts – the people doing the work, and the people who benefit from it.

By strengthening team capabilities and uncovering solutions to real program challenges and user needs, clients are able to deliver excellent outcomes for constituencies, counterparts, project staff, and other stakeholders.

PROJECTS

Performance Monitoring, Afghanistan Finance Ministry

MetaMetrics improved the Ministry's capacity to conduct effective program evaluation. An organizational assessment and training workshops with over 100 participants across government produced recommendations to support business units in reporting, analysis, and training.

Integrating UCD into Agile

MetaMetrics supported IT transformation for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through user-centered design coaching and delivery. For the MACPro project, we focused on integrating UX into the team's SAFe Agile framework in support of turning around a large-scale deployment for States to submit Medicaid State Plan Amendments.

Economic Growth for Women in Afghanistan

Supporting women's economic participation is part of the vision of the EGGI program. MetaMetrics developed a Program Management Plan for Afghanistan's economic development that included increasing women's roles in participating in and advancing economic growth and the rule of law.

Putting Access into the Hands of the Veterans

MetaMetrics' Vice President Stacy Surla defined and integrated UX strategy into Agile execution in eBenefits, a high-profile, citizen-facing transactional portal project. This ambitious effort laid the groundwork for the VA's Veteran-centric approach to the VA.gov website.

SERVICES

Evaluation

Research, evaluation, and analysis are our prime methodologies for helping clients make decisions and solve problems. Through systematic and targeted monitoring and evaluation, we enable our clients to uncover insights into the performance of their programs and projects, and improve them. Participatory Evaluation MetaMetrics is at the leading edge of developing and applying Participatory Evaluation. By leveraging design thinking and user-centered approaches, we help clients […]

Planning

Planning activities begin with an understanding of key program objectives and background, and include a strategic approach to digital technologies as components of program success. Drawing on inputs from our research, evaluation, and analysis activities, MetaMetrics develops plans in collaboration with stakeholders. Planning work is supported by strong staff recruitment and team building, work plan management, project direction, backstopping, procurement, and administration.

Implementation

We deliver technical services by standing up project teams and embedding staff in programs. Project implementation ranges from discrete assignments (fielding a team for a feasibility study), medium-scale tasks (development and launch of websites and IT systems), to comprehensive, large-scale efforts (designing and carrying out regional, multi-year projects). To work effectively with distributed teams across multiple time zones, MetaMetrics uses collaboration tools that leverage modern […]

USER EXPERIENCE

Our human-centered, participatory approach puts people at the heart of each project.

WE DO THIS THROUGH:

User Engagement • Information Architecture • Content Strategy • Customer Journey Mapping • Design Thinking

User Engagement

User research is practical, applied work. It takes the tools and methods of investigation common to all scientific disciplines and uses them for concrete purposes. We do user research to make products work better, guide leadership decision-making, and help teams make better decisions. The goal of user research is to devise ways to gain insights that will help solve problems. The keys to success are strong research planning, solid execution, and persuasive presentation.

Information Architecture

Information architecture (IA) is the discipline of designing information environments so they are understandable and usable, and solve people's information-related problems. The information architect sees the big picture and also deals with its parts, thinks strategically about client goals, technology constraints, and user needs, and produces artifacts to construct digital systems and other information environments. IA includes activities that support UNDERSTANDING, SOLUTIONING, and CONSTRUCTING).

Content Strategy

Content strategy focuses on planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. This includes Plain Language and other ways of crafting content appropriate for the channel. A content strategy considers all types of information and experiences expressed through a medium, including speech, writing, images, and other forms of art. One key deliverable is a content model, which helps deliver a consistent and continuous user experience within and across channels, enabling content reuse and recombination.

Customer Journey Mapping

Customer Journey Mapping is a research-based methodology for guiding program development and decision making. It aims to achieve a deep understanding of your customers' experience – from their point of view.

Design Thinking

Design thinking enables program teams to leverage a suite of creative tools and methods to find and solve the right problems. Starting with an hypothesis, through prototyping, testing, and refinement, the team converges from many possible solutions to the best one.

EVENTS

Customer Experience Innovation in the Public Sector

9/12/18, IBM Studios, Washington, D.C. Stacy Surla joins a panel of CX leaders in government and industry to share stories about new and innovative approaches in reaching citizens and delivering on Customer Experience and Voice-of-the-Customer programs. https://www.meetup.com/Digital-Exchange/events/253643912/

Ethics and IA: A Scenario Creation Tool for Ethical Design

9/20/18, UXDC, Washington, D.C. How can we know if we’re designing ethically? What unintended consequences could result from our decisions? What can we do to maximize good and minimize harm in digital product design? These urgent questions were addressed over 4 days at the Academics and Practioners Roundtable at the 2018 IA Summit. One result was the development of a prototype for guiding teams in […]

PLANNING, EVALUATION, AND IMPLEMENTATION