Tactics and Decision Making for Successful Museum Digital Projects
Click here to load reader
-
Upload
andrew-lewis -
Category
Business
-
view
2.229 -
download
2
Transcript of Tactics and Decision Making for Successful Museum Digital Projects
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