Slides from our workshop on digital strategy for museums delivered at the Museum Ideas conference in October 2017. Topics covered include: what is strategy; museums and digital; why might you need a digital strategy; how to develop a digital strategy.

1. Digital Strategy for Museums
Workshop @ Museum Ideas 2017
Alex Morrison, Managing Director
(alexm@cogapp.com and @Alex__Morrison)
3rd October 2017

2. Download from: www.cogapp.com/digital_strategy
© cogapp.com, 2017

3. Agenda
Let’s talk about strategy
Museums and digital
Why might you need a digital strategy?
How to develop a digital strategy
Summary
© cogapp.com, 2017

4. Let’s talk about strategy

5. © cogapp.com, 2017

6. What is Strategy?
There are many definitions of strategy.
What all definitions have in common is that strategy is the responsibility of
leadership.
‘Strategos’ is the Greek word for ‘general’.
© cogapp.com, 2017

7. What is Strategy?
“The term ‘strategy’ should mean
a cohesive response
to
an important challenge.”
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt page 6
© cogapp.com, 2017

8. What is Strategy?
“The kernel of a strategy contains three elements:
a diagnosis,
a guiding policy,
and coherent action.”
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt page 7
© cogapp.com, 2017

9. Two Golden Rules of Strategy
• Good strategy relies on good intelligence and insightful analysis.
• The only people whose strategy matters are the people in charge, the
generals.
© cogapp.com, 2017

10. Museums and digital

11. A Director’s View
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoEXeNnusFE © cogapp.com, 2017

12. Museums and digital
“Museums are being redefined for a digital age. The transformation, museum
officials say, promises to touch every aspect of what museums do, from how
art and objects are presented and experienced to what is defined as art.”
New York Times article, October 26, 2014
© cogapp.com, 2017

13. Exercise: Museums and digital
Someone asked me the other day: ‘what is distinctive about museums and
digital’?
What would your answer be?
Five minutes
© cogapp.com, 2017

14. What is distinctive about museums and digital?
Content-rich
Content that can only be made available digitally
On-site and online possibilities
Large public audiences
Non-standard business models
Non-commercial pay scales and limited resources
High ethical standards
Very good at core business - not so good at innovation
© cogapp.com, 2017

15. Why might you need a digital
strategy?

16. Overview
© cogapp.com, 2017

17. Why might you need a Digital Strategy?
Strategy is associated with the desire for change
“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than
the pain of change.” Tony Robbins
So.....
No pain (or not enough pain) => no desire for change => no strategy
© cogapp.com, 2017

18. Why might you need a Digital Strategy?
Senior leaders are likely to be less familiar and less comfortable with digital:
hence not able to assess the strategic context for themselves;
hence reluctant to engage.
For most museum directors getting involved with digital takes them into
areas where they are not comfortable.
Hence the pain of change associated with digital for museum directors is
likely to be great.
Hence the barrier to change in most museums is set high.
But the digital environment is incredibly dynamic - so change is unavoidable.
And this is why digital strategy is different to other forms of strategy.
© cogapp.com, 2017

19. Exercise: Challenges and Opportunities
You are the director of your organisation:
What are your top three pain points (the things that keep you awake at
night)?
Is digital on that list?
If digital is not painful, then can you credibly frame it as part of the solution
to something that is?
Five minutes
© cogapp.com, 2017

20. How to develop a digital
strategy

21. How to develop a Digital Strategy
Need to engage leadership (with the rest of the team).
Need to engage adjacent departments e.g. Marketing and IT.
Need to provide a way for leadership to review and understand the strategic
context...
... and then formulate a diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action.
© cogapp.com, 2017

22. How to develop a Digital Strategy
Facilitated process undertaken by a strategy team reporting to the Head of
Digital.
Strategy team begins with intelligence gathering:
Environment, organization, target audiences and digital programmes
Business plans, stakeholder interviews, customer research, analytics
review, peer review, industry trends, technology trends, review target
audiences, etc...
Turn the findings (and generous quantities of the data, lots of graphs, tables,
case studies and diagrams) into a giant slide deck.
© cogapp.com, 2017

23. How to develop a Digital Strategy
Organize a two-day workshop
Day One:
An Introduction to Digital Strategy
A review of the intelligence with exercises
e.g. What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Day Two:
Revisit Day One - what did we learn?
More exercises including sources of value
This workshop should involve: as many key members of the senior leadership
team as possible; managers of the digital programme and lower-level team
members; leaders from adjacent departments including marketing and IT.
© cogapp.com, 2017

24. How to develop a Digital Strategy
Write up the results of the workshop and fill in any remaining gaps with
additional research and analysis.
Submit to senior leadership for review
Send a revised draft to the workshop team for their comments
Submit a final draft to senior leadership for their sign-off
Initiate the next phase of work, set up monitoring and management review
functions.
© cogapp.com, 2017

25. How to write up a Digital Strategy
Three main sections:
Strategic Overview and Diagnosis
Guiding Policy
Actions
Add an introduction, executive summary and other front matter.
Add appendices with key exhibits from the research.
© cogapp.com, 2017

26. Digital Strategy: Summary

27. Digital Strategy: Summary
For the organization to be effective Leadership, Management and Operations
all have to play nicely together.
Strategy is the enabling contribution of Leadership.
Digital strategy is necessary and distinct from other kinds of strategy.
The goal of digital strategy is a diagnosis and guiding policy coupled with
coherent actions, based on intelligence and ‘owned’ by senior leadership.
The method we’ve described, based on systematic intelligence gathering and
facilitated workshops, allows leadership to engage and feel comfortable
formulating a digital strategy.
Armed with a signed-off strategy, Management can manage, Operations can
operate, and Leadership can be sure that things are going well. ;-)
© cogapp.com, 2017

28. Download from: www.cogapp.com/digital_strategy
© cogapp.com, 2017

29. Digital strategy and innovation reading list
General business strategy
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
Innovation and start-ups
The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz
Who do you want your customers to become? by Michael Schrage
Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur
Museums and culture specific
Understanding Museum Visitors’ Motivations and Learning by John Falk
© cogapp.com, 2017

30. Thank you!