UK Evaluation Society 2026 · Sheffield

Programme contributions

We are joining up with colleagues and presenting Causal Map at UKES 2026.

Papers

1. From Interviews to Action: Outcome Harvesting with AI Interviewers: Oval Hall · Thursday 21 May, 11:10-11:35 · Steve Powell (Causal Map Ltd), Kornelia Rassmann (Freelance Consultant)

   Outcome Harvesting is powerful but hard to scale. We give an example of an evaluation which used an AI interviewer to conduct adaptive OH conversations. We discuss ethics, privacy and validation safeguards and the potential for scaling OH data collection.

2. Human-in-the-loop evaluations: myth-busting and setting realistic expectations on how AI can be used in evaluations: Roundtable · Oval Hall · Thursday 21 May, 11:40-12:05 & 12:10-12:35 · Paul Jasper (Oxford Policy Management), Steve Powell (Causal Map Ltd), Kecia Bertermann (Itad), Matthew McConnachie (NIRAS).

Posters

1. Causal mapping in action: evaluative visualisations
   Steve Powell (Causal Map Ltd), Alastair Spray (INTRAC), Dena Lomofsky (Southern Hemisphere)

   We present two evaluation case studies which show how AI-assisted causal coding can turn large volumes of interviews and reports into theory-driven or theory-free causal visuals with traceable evidence. We share workflows, accuracy checks and design choices to make the maps useful in evaluations.

2. Evaluation questions you can answer with causal mapping
   Steve Powell and Fiona Remnant

   The poster Evaluation questions you can answer with causal mapping is a walk-through guide aimed at evaluators curious about what the method can actually do for them. It opens with basic information on causal mapping and causal maps, then sets out when the method fits and when it doesn't, before working through a gallery of evaluation questions you can tackle with it. Each question gets its own panel with an example map.

Steve’s Highlights

We’re just back from UKES 2026 in Sheffield, and what a few days. The conference theme was “Bridging the gap: evaluation to action”, and the venue was Sheffield City Hall, which is quite something. I presented in the Oval Hall, which has a history of hosting everyone from the Rolling Stones to Ella Fitzgerald. Not a bad stage for talking about causal mapping!

We had a packed programme, starting with a presentation alongside Kornelia Rassmann, titles “From Interviews to Action”, exploring how AI interviewers can scale up Outcome Harvesting. Then I joined a roundtable on human-in-the-loop evaluations with Paul Jasper, Kecia Bertermann and Matthew McConnachie, which turned into a really good conversation about where AI genuinely helps evaluators and where the hype runs ahead of the practice. We had two posters up as well: one on evaluative visualisations with Alastair Spray and Dena Lomofsky, showing how AI-assisted causal coding turns large volumes of text into traceable causal maps, and another walking through the evaluation questions you can answer with causal mapping, with Fiona Remnant. And we had a stand, which turned out to be one of the best parts. Lots of people came over to see the app running, ask questions about how it works, and tell us about their own data. Those conversations are always where the interesting things happen.

It was great meeting so many people and putting faces to names. Thanks to everyone who came to find us. If we spoke and you’d like to follow up on anything, get in touch at hello@causalmap.app.