The first stage of the evaluation framework is to identify the users. Since the evaluation begins at the stage following the transmission of the output to the users, the users have already been defined by the people involved in the project. To initially focus the evaluation, the intended users of the output must be defined. Only through their identification can we progress to evaluating whether or not the users received the output and subsequently used it.

Because this stage of the evaluation is done "after the fact", it is necessary for the evaluation facilitator to communicate with the people who created and disseminated the outputs to determine who the intended user groups are. For some projects, it may be impossible to define and isolate the people or group of people responsible for creating outputs. Therefore, it may be necessary to review funding proposals, terms of reference, project objectives, goal statements, and overall agency mandates to determine who the intended "users" of outputs are. The terminology of users will vary from project to project. For example, IDRC, in their Worksheets for Evaluation Planning define users as "reach" or, more broadly, "the groups touched by the program in some way…..[including] clients, beneficiaries, co-funders, and other stakeholders, including those who may be negatively affected" (1994).