Audience Research: Uncovering Opportunities for Community Progress
Museum professionals often find themselves confronting the limitations of traditional audience research. Whether through evaluation or market research, familiar practices yield familiar challenges, including:
Demographic data that fails to illuminate why people truly engage with our institutions
Feedback primarily from current visitors, leaving potential audiences unheard
Research outcomes that don’t clearly inform strategic decision-making
A disconnect between the institution’s offerings and genuine community needs
These challenges aren’t just about data collection — they reflect a deeper question about how we approach understanding our communities and our role within them.
What if the key to overcoming these obstacles lies not in refining our current methods but in fundamentally reframing the questions we ask?
Are you asking the wrong questions about your audience?
At Museums as Progress, we reframe audience research to focus on community goals and progress. This approach allows you to:
Understand diverse motivations driving behaviors
Identify new opportunities for engagement and impact
Align offerings with genuine audience and community needs
Move beyond demographics to support meaningful progress
Progress-Space Research transforms how your museum creates value and drives community impact. By focusing on people’s goals rather than surface-level characteristics, you can uncover strategic opportunities that traditional research misses. This leads to deeper engagement, stronger relationships, and greater impact aligned with what truly matters to your community.
Before and After: Impact of Progress-Space Research
Progress-Space Research
Question: How do caregivers cultivate a child’s interest in nature?
Method: One-to-one listening sessions
Finding: Programs provide strong support for safety-minded caregivers; More can be done for caregivers focused on academic outcomes.
Action: Partner with local schools to align museum offerings with curriculum, emphasizing nature-based STEM activities.
Outcome: Increased school group visits, with teachers reporting improved student engagement in science classes.
Traditional Research
Question: Who visits our museum?
Method: Demographic survey
Finding: 60% of visitors are 50+
Action: Target marketing to people under 50
Outcome: Slight increase in visitors under 50
Comparison of Research Methods
Evaluation
Focus: Specific programs, exhibits, or visitor experiences
Timeframe: Often shorter-term and project-based; Resulting data is valid for a shorter period
Application: Improving existing offerings or formative ideas
Limitations: May miss broader context and non-users
Outcome: Improved offerings
Market Research
Focus: Audience or community demographics, preferences, and opinions
Timeframe: Current market conditions and near-future trends; Shorter lifespan for insights
Application: Targeting marketing efforts and program development
Limitations: Often misses underlying motivations; Can produce unreliable data based on how people wish to be perceived rather than actual behavior
Outcome: Targeted outreach
Progress-Space Research
Focus: Community goals, progress, and the museum’s role in supporting them
Timeframe: Longer-term community progress; Resulting data is valid for years or decades
Application: Informing overall museum strategy and community engagement
Limitations: Requires more internal alignment on which goals are most valuable to the museum (which to prioritize); requires different skill sets from researchers (e.g. Listening for interior cognition)
Outcome: Community-aligned impact
Each method can be valuable to cultural organizations, and we don’t suggest one is inherently better. Different objectives call for different approaches to learning, and the best approach is to consider each of these as part of a well-balanced learning toolkit.
Mapping the Path to Community Progress
Progress-Space Research isn’t just about asking different questions — it’s about seeing your community’s goals in a new light. Our approach to opportunity mapping is rooted in the work of Researcher Indi Young. This approach visually represents the complex landscape of thoughts, feelings, and actions that shape how people pursue their goals and reveals:
Hidden barriers and enablers influencing their choices
Unexpected connections between different aspects of their journeys
Areas where your museum already provides unique, meaningful support
Which mindsets and moments your museum is not currently supporting and may wish to invest in
Let’s explore an example Opportunity Map for the goal, “Cultivate a child's curiosity about living things and nature."
Above: An annotated opportunity map describing the goal, "Cultivate Child’s Curiosity About Nature". The map shows mental processes and how the museum supports two neighborhoods of mental attention: “Exploring Nature Together” and “Fostering Learning at Home”. Click the image to enlarge or visit the Miro board to view it in detail.
Understanding the Opportunity Map
The map illustrates caregivers’ experiences as they nurture a child’s interest in nature. Here’s how to interpret it:
Goal: The overarching objective at the top, chosen for its relevance to your institution’s purpose and current challenges.
Neighborhoods of Mental Attention: Sub-goals or focus areas that categorize the larger goal into manageable sections.
Towers of Mental Attention: Vertical stacks representing clusters of specific moments the institution can support.
Summaries (Windows of Attention): Distilled insights from listening sessions, reflecting actual past experiences rather than opinions or preferences.
Capabilities and Supports: Gray boxes below towers show how the organization currently supports different mindsets, revealing areas of strength and opportunity.
Understanding this landscape allows you to identify strategic ways to support your community’s goals beyond traditional exhibit design or program planning. Opportunities that emerge from this map include:
Developing resources that bridge museum visits with at-home exploration
Addressing common barriers, like concerns about mess or lack of outdoor access
Collaborating with schools or community organizations to reinforce learning
Creating experiences that cater to the diverse needs within the community
Opportunity Maps transform abstract data into actionable insights, helping you align your museum’s offerings with what truly matters to your community. They provide a foundation for innovation, strategic planning, and meaningful impact that other research methods often miss.
Projects, Workshops, and Services
Align Your Strategy: Prioritization Services
Focus your efforts and resources on the community goals that matter most to your institution.
Collaborate and Learn: The Opportunity Research Lab
Join a community of museums tackling shared challenges through collective research.
Tailored Insights: Custom Research Services
Get in-depth, personalized research to address your museum’s unique challenges and opportunities.
The Opportunity Research Lab
The Opportunity Research Lab
The Opportunity Research Lab is a collaborative initiative where MaP members and participating museums collaborate to conduct practical, community-focused research. These studies address real challenges cultural institutions face today, providing valuable insights to inform decision-making. By contributing data to these studies, Museum Members can access tailored insights, regular updates, and private briefings designed to help them make more informed, community-centered decisions.
Community Goals & the Purposes of Membership in Gardens and Arboreta
"Community Goals and the Purposes of Membership: Gardens and Arboreta" is a collaborative study by Museums as Progress (MaP) and FIVESEED, designed to help botanical gardens and arboreta understand the unique audience goals they can support. This research aims to describe fundamental member goals, uncover new benefit opportunities, and fuel creative solutions for increased participation. By surveying current members, the study will provide customized findings to enhance member engagement and retention. Open to nonprofit Public Gardens and Arboreta in the United States with membership programs, this project offers participants insights into their members' motivations and needs, informing strategic decisions for more effective community support.
Status: Underway
The Retention Puzzle: Membership Professionals’ Perspectives
Membership revenue, though small, provides outsized value to museums due to its unrestricted nature. Member retention is crucial, as acquiring new members costs 3-5 times more than retaining existing ones.
This exploratory study delves into the complex challenge of member retention in museums. Our research reveals how museums currently approach retention, from enhancing member experiences to surveying preferences and provides a foundation for future retention strategies that resonate with both institutions and members alike.
Status Underway
To contribute to a study or get access to lab insights, register your museum.
Prioritization
Prioritization
Effective community engagement starts with a clear understanding of who you’re trying to support and why. Our prioritization approach aligns your team on key community goals, preventing unfocused initiatives and driving meaningful impact.
The Prioritization Workshop
A series of focused, private sessions ideal for teams entering a strategic planning phase or those preferring intensive, expert-led guidance.
The Prioritization Collaborative
This peer-to-peer learning experience unfolds over several months and is best for teams seeking a more gradual, collaborative approach and the opportunity to learn from other institutions.
Custom Research
Custom Research
Uncover the goals driving your community and transform how your museum creates value. Our custom research services go beyond demographics and visitor preferences, revealing strategic opportunities to support genuine community progress.
Through Progress-Space Research, we help you:
Uncover hidden opportunities for meaningful engagement
Align your offerings with what truly matters to your audience
Drive deeper impact and strengthen community relationships
Contact us to find out how Progress-Space Research can drive your museum’s impact and relevance.
Where are you on the path to community progress?
Our quick self-assessment will help you identify where you are in your audience research journey. Answer six questions about your current practices to receive personalized suggestions about what steps you can take next.