Solutions Insights Lab

An initiative of the Solutions Journalism Network, Solutions Insights Lab combines a framework for investigating what's working with a proven methodology for shaping narratives and fostering learning communities.

The Lab's work is in a printed newspaper

Interviewing changemakers to find what's working

Organizations addressing complex global challenges partner with Solutions Insights Lab to break through to the next stage of their work. We uncover actionable insights through in-depth interviews across an ecosystem. On that foundation, we build what the work calls for next: convenings and events, searchable knowledge hubs, compelling op-eds, videos and systems maps.

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What we do

Organizations tackling complex problems often rely on knowledge that is dispersed across people, institutions and sectors, creating challenges for shared learning and collective action. Practitioners often hold deep knowledge and experience but have limited time and few opportunities to collaborate and share. Funders can't always see how individual investments connect across a wider system. Even the most effective solutions don't always spread beyond the organizations that pioneered them.

You're not alone in this — and it's where we can help.

At Solutions Insights Lab, we start with conversations. Through in-depth virtual and in-person interviews, we surface knowledge that exists only in the heads of the people doing the work, reveal patterns across organizations and identify what's actually working. Then we bring people together, creating communities of practice where isolated actors become collaborative ecosystems. We stay engaged to ensure insights translate into action: tracking implementation, facilitating peer learning and building shared narratives that shift how entire sectors operate.

Most partnerships draw on several of these building blocks at once, custom-built around your goals.

Research and intelligence gathering

We begin partnerships with in-depth interviews and analysis to surface patterns, gaps and opportunities across your field or portfolio. We use the solutions reporting framework. This is the foundation everything else builds on.

Peer learning and connection

We bring people doing similar work into relationship with each other, building the collaborative ecosystems and shared momentum that isolated organizations can't create alone.

Narrative strategy development and storytelling

We turn op-eds, framing and messaging into a story worth telling, built to move funders, policymakers and the public.

Event and workshop facilitation

We facilitate convenings, panels and hands-on workshops, including sessions on solutions storytelling and framing, that bring your ecosystem into the same room.

Websites, videos and media

We build systems maps, searchable knowledge hubs, videos and interactive tools that make complex findings usable and shareable.

The result

Across our partnerships, we aim for outcomes like:

‍Faster, clearer insight into what's worth scaling and what to avoid
Connected ecosystems, where collaboration replaces isolation
Sector-level change, including policy shifts and coordinated funding
Stronger investments, directed toward proven, high-return approaches
Greater visibility for effective solutions, helping organizations attract the resources and partnerships they need
Stronger strategies, grounded in evidence, practitioner knowledge and insights from across sectors

Why Solutions Insights Lab

We bridge the gap between lived experience and formal research, generating actionable insights that help organizations make sharper decisions, faster, with findings intended to be used. We're independent by design and direct by nature.

Most importantly, we don't just study your ecosystem — we help strengthen it, creating the conditions for connection and collective action. We help you learn from what’s working, surface patterns across a system and turn them into action, then carry those insights outward through insight-driven products and convenings that people want to be a part of.