We've been running an assessment with museum teams to gauge staff perceptions of the outcomes their institution provides to visitors, members, and donors. Staff rate how commonly they believe users achieve each of 24 outcomes drawn from our collaboration with John Falk, and the results surface differences in how staff understand their museum's impact.
We're learning that the cross-team disagreements and uncertainties are more useful than the consensus. One institution used the data to build a ranking exercise across education, visitor services, exhibits, communications, and IT - and found solid alignment in some areas but real gaps in others. Those results are now shaping visitor surveys they're designing to feed into their 2027 strategic planning - shifting the conversation from vague targets like "audience engagement" to specific outcomes that teams can design for across departments.
The aggregate data updates live as institutions participate and are available here.
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Kyle Bowen
Principal, Museums as Progress
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