The digital world we live in is effecting radical change in the habits and behaviors of all people, and all organizations of all types must learn to adapt quickly in order to provide experiences that are compelling and drive long-term engagement. Even amid tight budgets and small teams, certain approaches can help museums meet these expectations in the most effective ways. This requires having a long-term Digital Strategic Plan. This session discussed activities, tactics and outcomes of conducting Digital Strategy Planning within the museum content and was a panel session at the Museum Computer Network 2014 conference in Dallas, Nov. 22. On the Panel are Mike Osswald, VP of Experience Innovation at Hanson Inc., an Ohio-based full-service digital agency; Anne Bennett
, CIO, Toledo Museum of Art; Rich Cherry, 
Deputy Director, The Broad Art Foundation; and Douglas Hegley, 
Director of Media & Technology, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The video (audio) of this session can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6y_HET4DIs Thanks!

1. Strategic Planning for
Digital Success
How the Big Picture Guides
Successful Execution
#MCN2014 #MuseDigStrat
Mike Osswald mike.osswald@mikeosswald.com @mobial
think big start small create

2. Mike Osswald
VP of Experience Innovation, Hanson Inc.
Anne Bennett
CIO, Toledo Museum of Art
Rich Cherry
Deputy Director, The Broad Art Foundation
Douglas Hegley
Director of Media & Technology, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
#MCN2014 #MuseDigStrat

3. Digital Strategic Planning
#MCN2014 #MuseDigStrat

4. Robert Neubecker, WSJ

5. Hanson’s Methodology
Digital
Strategic
Planning
Gain full
understanding of
business goals and
audience desires to
evolve a long-term
digital strategy
Business
Requirements
Definition
Define and prioritize
business/audience
requirements
Translate them to the
functional and technical
solution designs
A three-step process to break a
complex project into “mini-projects” —
ensuring the most flexible and
adaptable project execution –
adaptable to your team
Solution Design
Final
Testing
&
Launch
Project Execution
Iterative Development
Plan & Design | Develop | Test
Overarching Strategy
Ongoing Measurement, Campaigns, Events, Exhibitions
FOUNDATIONS DAM COLLECTION MGMT EXHIBITIONS INTRANET

6. Hanson’s Methodology
Overarching Strategy
Digital
Strategic
Planning
Develop
• Graphic
production
• Application
coding
• Metric tagging
& integration
• Write test
scenarios/plans
Plan & Design
• Functional
Specifications,
Wireframes &
Prototypes
• Content
• Interaction Details
• Copy and SEO
Documents
• Visual Design Comps
• Design Templates
Test
• Internal &
client
testing
• Resolution
and
revisions
Business
Requirements
Definition
Requirements
Identification
and Prioritization
Solution Design
• Journey Mapping
• Content / Functionality
Assessment
• Usability Testing
• Metrics Planning
• Scope Identification &
Prioritization
• Marketing & Launch
Planning
• Process Design
• Stakeholder
Workshops
• Audience Research
• User Interviews
• Market Research
• Competitive
Benchmarking
• Digital Brand
Assessment
• Technology
Assessment
• Success Planning
• Governance, Workflow
and Resource Planning
Solution Design
Final
Testing
&
Launch
Project Execution
Iterative Development
Plan & Design | Develop | Test

7. Digital Strategic Planning
Overarching Strategy
Digital
Strategic
Planning
• Team, Project Alignment and Preparation
• Stakeholder Workshops
• Audience Research / User Interviews
• Persona Definition
• Market/Community Research
• Best Practices / Benchmarking
• Current Content and Functionality Inventory
• Digital Brand Assessment
• Technology and Internal Assessment
• Success Planning
• Governance, Workflow & Resource Planning
• Next Steps

8. Digital Strategic Planning
• Team, Project Alignment and Preparation
• Stakeholder Workshops
• Audience Research / User Interviews
• Persona Definition
• Market/Community Research
• Best Practices / Benchmarking
• Current Content and Functionality Inventory
• Digital Brand Assessment
• Technology and Internal Assessment
• Success Planning
• Governance, Workflow & Resource Planning
• Next Steps
How does Digital fit
into Strategy?
Who owns this?
Who do we serve?
How are we doing?
How do we get there?

9. How does Digital fit
into Strategy?

10. How does Digital fit into Strategy?
•Leadership
•Structure
•Strategic Alignment

11. Director of Technology?
Let’s conduct a comprehensive search to hire a
seasoned executive leader to head an initiative to
plan for a committee to oversee a task force
dedicated to the implementation of state-of-the-
art technological solutions based on industry
standards and implemented by a cross-disciplinary
team spear-headed by a dedicated manager and
augmented by a carefully-selected team of outside
experts who can create the synergy necessary to blah
blah blah and spend every last cent
until there is truly nothing
left at all
etc.

12. Technology: Strategic?
• Central (not peripheral)
• Essential (not preferable)
• Vital to the sustainability of the organization
from: The Strong National Museum of Play

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15. You Want Strategy?

16. TMA Strategic Objectives
• Expanding Access to the Collections
– Continue to expand access to the museum’s collection through by integrating new media
technologies, and art interpretation materials into our permanent displays and exhibitions.
• Teaching Visual Literacy
– All of our current strategic objectives aim toward this goal. Teaching Visual Literacy is
fundamental for shaping today's youth into tomorrow’s leaders.
• Increasing Visibility
– To increase awareness of the Toledo Museum of Art locally, nationally and internationally,
we have increased our use of social media, promoted the museum’s membership program,
and utilized focused marketing efforts around exhibitions and high profile events.
• Developing Museum Assets
– To promote the knowledge and expertise of our staff and foster improvements to our
physical plant and environment.
• Working with Artists
– In our continuous effort to expand and cultivate the museum’s relationships with artists we
have devised programs that work specifically with artists through artist-in-residence
programs, masters series lectures, and exhibitions featuring onsite instillations.
9

17. Who owns this?

18. Who owns this?
•Stakeholder Workshops
•Cross-organization teams

19. Who owns this?
• Stakeholder Workshops topics:
– Mission & Vision, Work Processes, and Technical Systems
• Major themes:
– Important Considerations and Primary Goals
– Physical/Digital Opportunities in the Museum
– Physical/Digital Opportunities outside the Museum
– Serving all Visitors
– Supporting Teaching and Learning
– Need for Feedback, Actionable Insight, Research
– Need for Internal Collaboration
– Technical Opportunities

20. KEY FINDINGS
WHAT WE HEARD
“Our overall goal is to create stronger educational opportunities
through richer, digital interaction with TMA’s collection.”
“We need to consider different cultures and how they respond to art and
exhibitions – this is a very high priority to serve our community.”
“We need to measure and have actionable insight – we want to support many audiences, types of
people and be inclusive, but we’re not exactly sure who our audience is.”
“We want do a better job of helping visitors make connections between objects
that are not obvious, or that we could never bring into the same space.”
“Our biggest asset is the collection and you can’t really access information very easily or very well.
It’s really hard to collect information to create learning experiences.”
“We want to provide interactive, exploratory activities ... use technology
to enhance the hands on, physical experiences for everyone.”
“We need to give guests the opportunity to customize and personalize their tours ... and
provide pre-made tours of different types and time allotments ... lead visitors to art in our
collection, provide guests with greater and unique object information.”
“We need an intranet. There’s a lot of information and we don’t know who has it, where it is located,
and what is current – it’s totally missing. We need process, workflow and capture priorities for
different departments and understand who does what.”
“All systems should be talking to each together, we need to coordinate data across many places.”

21. Who owns this?
•Stakeholder Workshops
•Cross-organization teams

22. Who do we serve?

23. Who do we serve?
•Audience Research / User Interviews
•Persona Definition
•Market/Community Research

24. Museums are Awesome!

25. Some Personas
Unstructured
Visitors
Structured
Visitors Socialites Art Insiders Educators
Driven
Learners
45+
Ambassadors
Donors
24-45
Self Directed
Motivated
Come for
themselves
Bring friends/
family/dates
Come
because of
something
Bring their
kids
Making/doing
(less looking)
Artists
Docents
Critics
Employees
Teachers
Parents/
Assistants

26. PARTICIPANTS
GENERAL PUBLIC
THE ENGAGED,
CURIOUS
NICHE
Surface
swimmers
Snorkelers
Scuba divers
Content: Layers of Information
CONTEXT
Introduction
What is this?
Why does it matter?
CONTENT
Narratives & stories
From surface to complex
Tell me more …
EXPERTISE
Deep, rich
Scholarly research
The foundation of details & facts
Invite,
welcome
Inspire,
delight
Inform
INFORMATION

27. Who do we serve?
•Audience Research / User Interviews
•Persona Definition
•Market/Community Research

28. How are we doing?

29. How are we doing?
•Best Practices / Benchmarking
•Current Content and Functionality Inventory
•Digital Brand Assessment
•Technology and Internal Assessment
•Success Planning

30. How do we keep going?

31. How do we keep going?
•Governance, Workflow & Resource Planning
•Next Steps

32. Thank You!
Mike Osswald mike.osswald@mikeosswald.com @mobial
#MCN2014 #MuseDigStrat
think big start small create