A primer has historically meant a book of first principles. That characterization fits this primer quite nicely. The principles presented here emerged from highly interactive workshops with a group of developmental evaluators representing premier Canadian organizations. Just as developmental evaluation (DE) is a dynamic, emergent process, those workshops, spanning two years, were highly dynamic and emergent. The principles and premises captured so well here by Jamie Gamble reflect the insights generated from the developmental process of experimenting with diverse applications of developmental evaluation in innovative organizations across Canada.