Frequently asked questions

Scaling Scan can be used to:

• facilitate discussion and develop capacities on scaling of a range of stakeholders;
• help formulate a realistic, context-specific and responsible scaling ambition for a selected
  innovation;
• rapidly scan for bottlenecks and opportunities of a scaling initiative and generate immediate information to adjust strategies or identify needs for new collaborations;
• check whether project proposals, implementation plans, and evaluations misses important scaling elements.

• Accessible
• Easy to understand
• Quick
• Perception-based (with the possibility to add additional evidence-based references).
• Possible self-assessment or group assessment
• Includes a responsibility check for both social and environmental considerations.
• Supports engagements with relevant stakeholders.
• Possible to use as part of a group work.
• Standardized data
• Direct visualization

Anyone interested in understanding if they can scale their technologies and projects, and if so, what they require for this.

The Scaling Scan is designed for anyone involved in pro-poor and sustainable development programs looking to scale impact. Project coordinators, managers and teams who manage project resources and priorities will be those most able to take advantage of the tool. It is specifically designed to develop capacity of nonscaling experts to recognize, and make sense of, scaling in their context. We highly recommend involving a diverse set of stakeholders for richer and more deliberate choices on what needs to be addressed and done to achieve the scaling ambition.

It can be applied between the stages of having a general idea of what should be scaled and having a detailed scaling strategy for implementation (Dror Wu, 2020).

The Scaling Scan was made so that it could be adapted to different groups needs. For this reason, you can use it in a digital or workbook format. You can use it as a self-assessment or as a group workshop. Finally, you can choose from the rapid or standard versions. If you want to select among these different Scaling Scan versions, click on the let’s scale tab.

Sometimes users have adapted the number of questions of the Scaling Scan or they have grouped ingredients of the Scaling Scan. We recommend to maintain the tool integrally as much as possible, as part of the assessment is to reflect on questions that you would not generally think of. 

However, we understand that each project and case is different. Thus, the most important adaptation is that it can serve your responsible needs to scale.