Prioritizing People Over Products: Rethinking Evaluation in Museums With Opportunity Mapping
Much of the learning that happens in museums prioritizes products over people. Evaluation comes in many forms, but it usually boils down to: How can we improve or develop x, so that people will y?
This can seem like a human-centered formula because people seem to be the beneficiaries of the resulting improvements, but it’s not. Or, more precisely, it is, but only if the people in question share our goal of improving x.
You’re probably thinking: But don’t people want a better experience? How is that not putting people first?
For some people, a better museum experience is a goal. They’re people like those who work in museums, and most people don’t work in museums. A better museum experience is not high on most people’s list of priorities. Their goals are things like:
“An afternoon with my family while they’re visiting this weekend where we don’t talk about the upcoming election.” A public garden might help with that, but the purpose isn’t to have a better experience of a public garden.
“A chance to rub elbows with an artist I admire.” A museum might facilitate that interaction, but the purpose isn’t to have a better members-only event.
“Watch my 4-year-old daughter’s expression when she sees a seal for the first time.” An aquarium might support that moment, but the purpose isn’t to have a better visit to the aquarium.
Improving visitor and member experience is self-serving. It addresses a challenge — engagement — that is important to the museum and museum-minded people.
There are many reasons why museums fall into this evaluative research trap, many of which can be beyond our control (looking at you, funders), but we can’t address it or bring more balance to the kind of learning (research) we do without first recognizing that the imbalance exists. We can appreciate evaluation for what it is: Just one side of a much bigger learning landscape.
Evaluation is challenge-based research.
Challenges are owned by us (the organization). Engaging visitors is an example of a challenge. It belongs to the museum, and it’s a mistake to think that anyone (other than a relative few who look, think, and feel a lot like ourselves) shares that goal.
Opportunities are the challenges owned by others that we (the organization) can support.
It’s relatively easy for us to identify challenges. We see and feel them every day in our work.
It’s harder to identify opportunities because they’re the challenges that are different from our own. When a museum wants to support different (more diverse) audiences, it has to set aside evaluating how it’s addressing its challenges and begin listening for opportunities.
We talk a lot about the how and why of listening for opportunities in MaP. We’ve spent less time on what comes after listening — how do we organize and prioritize the opportunities that emerge from progress-space listening?
That’s the topic of our next Research Office Hours meetup on August 8th. We’ll look at two approaches to opportunity mapping and invite participants to discuss how these practices can be incorporated into their museum practice. No prior knowledge or experience is needed to attend this event. Learn more and RSVP.
Kyle
