Andrew Lewis

Tactics and Decision Making for Successful Museum Digital ProjectsMuseums and the Web19 April 2013

linkd.in/andrewlewis@rosemarybeetle

Victoria and Albert Museum

Why we need tactics?

Person to blame (Insert your name here) ______________________________

What can you expect to take from this session…

Hmm…

What can you expect to take from this session…

Greater understanding of how to be tacticalMethods for developing effective tacticsThe importance of contextIdentifying barriers (and how to overcome them)Force Field Analysis as a project-planning toolSome examples to take away

Not tiny detail

What’s not in this presentation…

That’s in the full paper

bit.ly/musetactics

Where do tactics fit?

The reason we do all this

stuff

The specific things we aim to achieve to meet

the mission

The order of things…

The long-term direction,

approach and scope of our

work, that we believe will achieve our objectives

The down-and-dirty everyday

decision-making and planning

that really makes things

happenYou do have a mission, objectives & strategy, right?

Mission Objectives

Strategy

TacticsTacticsThe down-and-dirty everyday decision-making and planning that really make

things happen

But…

How do you develop tactics?

Understand your local conditions…

=William Morris Tea Room, V&A Freakybuttrue Peculiarium

versusMuseum Culture

DigitalChang

e

Change in museums and change in digital

All museums look like this All digital is well cool and cutting-edge

Technology changes fast and unpredictably

Museums versus DigitalRapidly changing, with a tendency to disrupt and change social behaviourCompetitive consumer- and business-driven impetus steering development and investmentCommunally-driven transient communication channelsServices over physical, web and mobile, increasingly by direct data connections

Conservative role of preserving culture and stabilityAuthority-led role as selective owners and disseminators of knowledgeTradition of top-down communication of informationHistorically location-focussed

Understand your organisation

Things to consider about technology in your organisation

Who initiates technical projects, and why?

What are the resources you will need, both

technology and expertise?

How does governance work and who has

formal and unofficial power?

Understanding official and informal

communication channels

What is the culture and how is it led?

What are the existing technical platforms and

integration issues?Understanding official and informal communication channels

Who initiates technical projects, and why?

Governance….

Technical platforms and integration issues

Resources - technology and staff expertise

Governance, power and your organisation

Types of power

Senior ManagementTeam

Trustees

Education teams

Press and

PR

IT Dept.

Donors

Developer

community

Grant Funding bodies

VisitorServices

Collections Dept.

IndividualSenior curator

IndividualSenior curator

IndividualSenior curator

Repeat for Other individuals

Finance/Procurement

Design

team

Your project,programme or

dept.

Legitimate power

Reward power?

Expert Power

UnpredictablePower

Coercive power?

Expert

Expert Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

Consider

How much power different groups or individuals hold

How qualified they are to make decisions affecting your project

How best to pitch communications with them

Who the gatekeepers are, who controls access to them

Official and informal communication channels

Staff newslettersDecree

Catching people in corridors

Pressing the flesh

Gossip

Press Releases

IntranetMeetings

Chat in the canteen

emailWeb Project spaces

Twitterphone

Issuing procedures

Understand how things get communicated

by different people or departments

(and what is most effective with them)

Organisational culture and how is it led

Everyone leads so…

make sure you are leading deliberately(See above for ideas how)

Forces – for you and against you

Project planning – Traditional approach

Current State New State

New Tech/ServicesBusiness SystemsHardware upgradesExpertiseManagement processes

Just add

Sorted!

Project planning – Force Field Analysis (after Kurt Lewin)

Force Field Analysis – Start with ideal outcome

Examples -Force Field Analysis

Only accept money that

supports your strategy

Define your technology governance process

Define and later defend your terms of

reference

Be clear about responsibiliti

es

Formalise sign off

Assess partnerships against strategy

Do a powerholder/gatekeeper review

Neigh-sayers

Executive override

Unrepresentativepersonal opinion

Brand control-freakery

SCOPE CREEP

Free money

Joint projects

Lack of agreement on aims

Unilateral tech decision making

Example: Tactics for managing governance

Objective:

Keeping true to your

technology strategy

Uncertainty of technological trends

Assuming current user behaviour will stay the same

Building technology not services

Focussing on backend efficiencies

Trying to copy success

Being tied to poor systems

Assuming your views represent your audiences’

Faster, smaller changes

Ask your audiences directly

Short planning cycles

Define service and system lifespans

Use betas and piloting

Require data to substantiate claims

Define success in advance

Example: Tactics for avoiding building irrelevant services

Objective:

Ensuring your

services are what

your audiences

want

Project phases

Consider tactics within the context of project phases

Identify NeedResearch options and select approach

Define the scope, remit and success criteriaCreate a project plan

Identify and allocate project resourcesExecute the project plan

Integrate systems and change operational processesTest outcomes and sign off

Launch and bed downEvaluate against criteria and document lessons

Close down project

Examples – The humble checklist

Example: Checklist for assessing risk in tech proposalsIs the project driven by external funding?

Are the users it is aimed at representative of your current priority audiences?

Does the proposal appear to be driven by an attempt to copy something a rival museum has launched?

Can proposers really demonstrate how the project supports your current organisational strategies (either digital or more generally)?

Apply a “would anyone actually use this and why?” test

Examples – Visualisation as a communication

tactic

“Having a responsive mobile site is important”

9.8

17.9

12.513.1

28.6

16.818.3

35.0

21.9

05

10152025303540

Whole site Visit Us Whats' On

Percentage growth in use of V&A website on mobile devices(phones and tablets)

Jan-12 Jul-12 Jan-13

“A multiple-feed blog delivers consistent content”

Blog A

Blog B

Blog CBlog D

Blog E

A+B+D+D+E

Learning

Research

Artist in Residence

Poster collection

Engraved ornament

V&A Network

The Network “A multiple-feed blog delivers consistent content”

Examples -Using evidence

18,961 visits from same header link on ALL pages(includes home page)

8,961 visits from here

21,089 visits from here

slidesha.re/ZoOiOr

Cross-promotion

How people really use navigation…12

3

5

4

Summary

Tactics

Are there to deliver the goods. To make stuff happen

Are pointless without mission, objectives and strategies

Are context-based. You have to understand the local environment

Don’t just happen, they need awareness and thought

Can be developed more effectively by applying simple methods

Andrew Lewis

Thank you

http://linkd.in/andrewlewishttp://twitter.com/rosemarybeetle

Victoria and Albert Museum

Access full MW2013 paper: bit.ly/musetacticsDownload this presentation:slideshare.net/AndrewLVandA