Build formative evaluations into your plans. Rather than wait until the end of the year to test students or review how well the sales department is doing, make frequent checks. Calculate how often you want to do a formative evaluation, and note the dates in the project outline.
Implement case studies, a strategic cornerstone of formative evaluations. You can conduct case studies over a period of time and with different groups. This method allows improvements and suggestions from one study to be tested with another group to gauge their validity.
Use a variety of formative evaluation formats in addition to case studies to double-check your results. Start a formative evaluation process with a focus group, for instance, and follow it up with an email questionnaire a week later and then an interview at the end of the month. By using a wide range of data collecting instruments, you will get a more formative overview.
Involve stakeholders in the formative evaluations. Always keep your target group in mind -- be they 11th-grade math students or car-buying executives -- and remember it is what they say, not what you think, that counts most.
Develop an approach of using the rapid feedback of formative evaluations to help you plan the next step. Rather than be leery of using the documentation collected, embrace it as an opportunity to improve the final product.
Be prepared to go back to the drawing table. If your formative evaluation data indicates a flawed plan, design or product, you must be able to modify or abandon the original idea and start over again.