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Direct ObservationReal World TrialFacilitated Group
Positive Deviance
A facilitator collaborates with a community to identify successful individuals or groups facing the same challenges, study their uncommon but effective practices, and co-design initiatives based on these insights. The process includes participatory evaluation to assess effectiveness.
When This Method Fits
Typical duration
Weeks – Months
Typical cost
Medium
Fidelity level
Talk Only, Live Limited
Stage
Discovery, Validation
Hypothesis type
Mechanism
Goal type
Deepen product-market fit, Maximize societal impact, Drive corporate innovation / R&D, Improve operational efficiency
Randomization
N/A
Study design
Between-subjects experiment, Cluster-randomized design
Minimum units needed
3
Causal rigor
Min 1 · Max 2 / 5
1Best Fit When
Best when some people in a community are already succeeding despite the same shared constraint everyone else faces, and you want to find and spread what they're doing differently.