MaP Academy
Professional Development
MaP Academy trains cultural professionals in progress-space research methods and conducts research to advance the cultural sector.
MaP Labs
Labs are research projects chosen by MaP Community members and completed by MaP Academy researchers.
The MaP Community is, in a sense, a long conversation—or series of conversations—among cultural professionals. As we delve into the themes that members have chosen, questions emerge. Two examples:
What prevents museum professionals from using data to make decisions? What triggers them to rely on data more? If a museum had a map that described people’s thinking around data-driven decision-making, could the organization devise solutions that encourage more data-supported decision-making?
There are training programs that museum professionals can take to advance their careers, but a lot of leadership development happens in an ad-hoc way. Can we classify the approaches and inner thinking of current leaders as they try to support the next generation of museum leaders?
These kinds of questions are consequential for museums’ success today and in the future, but they can’t easily be answered by any one museum. We surface these questions and invite MaP members to vote on which ones interest them. Academy workshop participants spend the next season researching the question that gets the most votes. This provides hands-on experience for trainees and graduates.
Organizations that contribute data to a lab are invited to private briefings to discuss how research findings relate to their institution’s mission and goals. Learn more about Museum Membership.
The value of a community-driven research model
Labs reflect our community values in that they are:
Accessible: The fee for an organization to be a full participant and sponsor of a lab is low relative to what would be spent on hiring a consultancy (see Museum Membership).
Open: Supporting and Museum members get early access to labs and Museum Members that contribute data to labs receive consultative briefings to explore the implications of research for their workplaces. However, lab findings are made available to everyone, including non-members, within one year of completion.
Democratic and Inclusive: All community members, including free members, have a vote in what labs we pursue.
Emergent: Labs come from the community. This reduces the chances of naval gazing and ensures we’re addressing questions of consequence to the sector.
Practical: Workshops and online courses can be powerful tools for museum professionals to develop skills around listening, data synthesis, and persuasive communication. But being able to develop these skills on a project that has an audience has a crystalizing effect on one’s learning.
Unique: Community-driven research is perhaps the only way some questions may ever be addressed for museums. It’s impractical, for example, for any one museum to tackle a question like “What prevents us from making data-driven decisions?” by hiring a consultancy to shed light on the question. Even if the museum had the time and resources to do so, the insights would relate only to their current work context. It wouldn’t be as useful to other museums. In theory, professional associations would be doing this work, but we don’t see much community-driven research happening in associations at the national or state levels.
Academy Training
MaP Academy helps community members develop new skills and understand the people their museums support through courses, workshops, labs, and live practice sessions. Academy training comes in two flavors: Solution-Space Research (SSR) Training and Progress-Space Research (PSR) Training.
SSR primarily focuses on optimizing existing museum practices today and in the near term. Members can participate in training related to seasonal themes like Visitor Heat Mapping and Wardley Mapping to develop solution-space research skills that can improve the work their museum is doing today.
PSR prioritizes innovation in museums by showing participants how to take a goal-oriented approach to strategic planning.
We offer both types of training in MaP, but progress-space research is our core focus.
Progress-Space Research Training
PSR training consists of six courses developed by Researcher Indi Young:
Listening Deeply
Part 1: Data Synthesis (Concepts & Summaries)
Part 2: Data Synthesis (Cultivate Emergent Patterns)
Thinking Styles
Using Opportunity Maps, Thinking Styles & Gap Analysis
Framing a Study
In addition to course material from Indi, MaP Academy participants attend live practice sessions every other week (up to seven sessions each season) to contextualize the methodology into their museum practice.
For those interested in contributing to MaP Labs, these courses provide foundational knowledge—Courses and live practice prepare members so they can host listening sessions, identify patterns in how people approach their goals, and create deliverables such as opportunity maps.
Certifications
Indi Young
Completing courses through MaP will count toward Indi Young’s certification program. (Please note that Indi’s certification also requires participants to complete live training with Indi. This means that you will not need to take the courses directly from Indi’s website, but you will need to participate in Indi’s practice sessions to be certified by Indi.)
MaP Academy
MaP’s certification lets participants receive partial certification as they complete courses. This is a bit different than Indi’s certification, which offers a single certification for satisfactory completion of all courses and practice sessions. Upon completion of a course, members are awarded badges that recognize their levels of experience:
🟡 Deep Listeners have satisfied the requirements for the Listening Deeply course
🟠 Data Synthesists have completed Listening Deeply course and courses 1 and 2 of Data Synthesis
🟢 Thinking Stylists: have completed all three previous courses, plus Thinking Styles
🔵 Analysts have completed all four previous courses, plus Using Opportunity Maps, Thinking Styles, and Gap Analysis.
🟤 Research Practitioners have satisfied the requirements for all of the previous courses and have completed Framing a Study.
Finally, ⚫️ Progress-Space Strategists have completed all six courses and have contributed to at least one Lab.
Pricing
$99 for Supporting Members and Museum Members)
Prices are per course; participants can register for one or all courses.
Eligibility
PSR Training participants must be MaP Community members employed in the cultural sector. This means you’ll need to either be employed by a museum or be an independent museum professional (i.e., someone whose work caters to cultural non-profits). If you work at a for-profit organization or are a freelancer/consultant who serves other sectors, these courses are available to you through Indi’s website.
If you have questions about your eligibility, email community(at)museumprogress.com.
Current information on training opportunities is available to community members through the MaP Community website: https://community.museumprogress.com. (Note: You’ll need to be logged in to your member account to view much of the training-related content.)