The Economic Mobility Lab (EML) is a technical assistance initiative launched by MDRC to support sector-focused workforce training providers in improving training experiences and outcomes for participants. The initiative’s approach combines MDRC’s workforce expertise and evidence-based practices with human-centered design strategies. In an EML project, staff members from MDRC and the provider form a project team that works to identify a critical service delivery challenge for the provider, design potential participant-focused solutions, and implement and test those solutions. EML is made possible through the generous support of Ascendium Education Group and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

This publication outlines the four phases of EML’s framework for working with providers. Case studies examining how two providers applied this framework are forthcoming from MDRC.

I. Discovery Phase: Explore a Focal Area

In the discovery phase, the project team identifies and gains a deeper understanding of the focal area—that is, the operational challenge the provider wants to address. Additionally, MDRC staff members build relationships with program employees and gain an understanding of the program and operating context, local labor market, and equity considerations.

Focal area. By identifying a focal area, the project team focuses intently on dissecting and learning more about the problem before designing potential solutions. A strong focal area is:

• Important: Improvement will matter to the participants and the provider.
• Feasible: Improvement is plausible with available resources.
• Measurable: Improvement can be identified and measured.

Data analysis. Analyzing data is an essential part of identifying and examining a focal area. The project team explores the focal area using evidence from multiple sources such as program data, interviews with staff members and participants, focus groups, program materials, and application forms. These data provide information on how the program operates and whether the program can be improved.

Discovery activities. MDRC uses a mixed-methods approach to learn more about the challenge the provider is experiencing. In addition to the data analysis described above, discovery activities include reviewing program logic models, conducting site visits, reviewing process maps, and developing a customer journey map of the program flow. Discovery also involves speaking with participants and employees about their experiences.

II. Design Phase: Design and Plan

In the design phase, the project team 1) develops and refines potential solutions to address the focal area, 2) establishes outcomes for monitoring progress, and 3) identifies the data and tools that will be used to measure change.

Design activities. After reviewing the findings from the discovery phase, MDRC conducts a design sprint, leading provider staff members through a structured meeting to generate ideas on how to address the focal area. Then the project team selects several promising potential solutions to explore and creates prototypes and procedures required for implementation.

Measurement strategy. For each potential solution selected, the project team sets outcome benchmarks and creates plans to collect data necessary to identify improvement in the focal area. 

Making a plan. The project team documents the test to be piloted in an implementation plan.

III. Learning Cycle Phase: Test and Learn

In the learning cycle phase, the provider executes a test of a potential solution to determine whether it addresses the problem.

Learning cycles. Learning cycles are time-limited tests used to measure the progress of an intervention and determine whether it has addressed the focal area.

Learn-Do-Reflect. The EML initiative uses the Learn-Do-Reflect approach to learning cycles. The provider runs a test using the prototype, materials, and procedures developed and documented in the implementation plan during the design phase. The project team then collects data to monitor the test's implementation and gauge fidelity. At the end of a test, the team reviews the collected data, and the provider is asked to reflect on the test's implementation and the resulting outcomes. Based on this work, the project team identifies and implements changes to improve the intervention before launching an additional learning cycle. 

IV. Sustainability Phase: Sustain and Extend

After learning cycles are complete, the project team develops a plan to sustain the work. The goal of this final phase is to strategize about how the provider will apply the EML framework to other focal areas. 

Developing a sustainability plan. Working through the EML process with MDRC gives the provider tools that it can continue to use independently. In the sustainability phase, the provider develops a sustainability plan that identifies the following:

• A strategy to continue implementing and refining the solutions tested (such as conducting additional learning cycles)
• Ideas for potential new focal areas for future interventions
• Identification of the data the provider will collect to measure the outcomes of those future interventions

Creating a culture of evidence-based program improvement. The EML framework can be used to create a culture of continual organizational change. For the provider, sustaining and extending an intervention beyond the duration of MDRC’s involvement requires a culture that is receptive to evidence-based program improvement. The provider can help create this culture by:

• Continuing to use data to learn how to best support program participants; data can inform how the provider diagnoses and addresses challenges and be used to measure impact.
• Gaining support from staff members, thereby building buy-in for expanding what was learned in the previous phases of the change process.
• Including staff members who participated in implementing the intervention, creating credible messengers whose perspectives can help influence further acceptance of change.