According to a 2018 study by the Novius agency, 58% of French people are equipped with smartphones and 78% are present on social networks. Cultural heritage institutions have also been investing in these platforms for a long time. Coupled with this historicity, our private uses of the web and social networks could lead us to consider that we are now experts in them, with these uses naturally contributing to our professionalization.
This is partly true. That doesn’t mean, however, that we shouldn’t consider some of the issues that may make training and awareness-raising essential. This article offers some food for thought on the key skills required for a digital innovation project.
1. Understanding changes in professional practices
Training in digital innovation means first and foremost grasping what’s changing in professional practices. A previous article published on Medium by {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] discusses the changes in skills driven by digital technology in the cultural and heritage field.
Very briefly, here are some of the findings shared in this article.
Numerous practices, tools and methodologies are already widely used by professionals in the sector: editorial expertise, project management, communication and change management skills.
Dealing with an innovation project can also turn the strategic and organizational models of a cultural establishment on its head, making it necessary to update the skills of these professionals.
In this article, we present a few approaches for tackling an innovative project with confidence (whether it involves a strong technological dimension, or breaks with the past or changes in usage).
2. Adapting to audiences’ cultural practices
Over the past thirty years or so, the museum sector has become increasingly interested in gaining a better understanding of its audiences, their behaviors, perceptions and cultural practices. This desire stems from the need to assess the effectiveness of the cultural democratization missions entrusted to cultural facilities. It also responds to the need for certain public cultural establishments to adopt management and marketing methodologies derived from the business world (for further information, read Camille Jutant’s excellent article in Culture et Recherche No. 134).
The deployment of digital devices online and within the walls of museum and heritage establishments does not fundamentally change the physical experiences of the collections to which audiences have access in these venues (cf. our previous article on Medium Has digital killed physical mediation?).
Nevertheless, these systems can help us to gain a better understanding of our audiences and their cultural practices. In addition to “classic” audience research methodologies (observations, interviews or surveys), we are also analyzing quantitative data derived from the digital uses of audiences.
Data from a wide range of tools (social networks, websites, digital visitors’ books, smartphone applications, tablets or tables made available in theatres) is now available on audience typologies, the content they consult both online and in situ, their interactions, and their perceptions of the messages conveyed to them.
On this subject, an article we wrote for the Ministère de la culture website looks at some key indicators to consult, for example, on social networks.
The desire to deploy a digital innovation project can therefore call on a multiplicity of these sources of information to better grasp the needs of the public and their uses. Analysis of usage data, observation, experimentation, interviews, monitoring and comparative studies are all tools that can be mobilized to better define the profiles of the audiences to be addressed and better understand their practices.
3. The need for experimentation and testing
The mobilization of design methodologies, such as the definition of profile-types (known as “personas”), can also help refine the materialization of the specific needs of certain audiences, and assist in the prototyping of solutions. This type of tool also has the advantage of enabling us to be more agile, so we can better experiment, iterate and adapt to potentially changing needs and technologies that are often rapidly obsolete.
By way of illustration, to raise awareness of the use of these methodologies among the teams in charge of mediation at Grenoble’s museums (museum and muséum), {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] has defined a 2-day workshop cycle for each of these establishments.
Participants in these workshops identified the target audience profiles their establishments would like to address, and then defined a typical itinerary to define more precisely the experience they could offer their visitors.
Based on the work carried out by the participants, a series of inspiring examples were then shared with them to help them fine-tune the most appropriate solutions to their challenges and constraints.
4Innovation also means learning and documenting.
Many professionals in the museum sector are regularly called upon to think “outside the box”, or to “start from scratch”, in order to break with practices that are sometimes, perhaps, too established. This is what Museomix, for example, proposes by organizing annual 3-day creative marathons that encourage “multidisciplinarity, the discovery of other ways of working and other methodologies”.
This breath of fresh air is therefore essential if we are to free ourselves from all the constraints and operational obstacles faced on a daily basis by professionals subjected to a frugality that is more submissive than chosen: lack of budget, time, hierarchical support…
The reality principle must not be overlooked, however, in order to anticipate the needs and constraints that will guarantee the choice of solutions that are operational, timely and easily transposable. Taking a digital cultural approach therefore requires a “documented” vision of practices, existing digital devices, and the organizational and strategic models to be implemented.
To meet this challenge, it seems particularly important to adopt a monitoring and benchmarking approach. Many years’ experience in consulting and the implementation of an effective monitoring system enable {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] to regularly add new news to its website. Over and above this involvement on the web, this work has enabled us to reinforce a monitoring methodology:
- Identify relevant sources of information,
- Optimization of data collection, analysis and enhancement.
This watch is also an opportunity to build up a body of up-to-date knowledge and expertise on projects, practices and implications linked to digital projects.
5. An operational and “situated” approach
To assess the operational feasibility of a digital innovation project, we can analyze similar projects carried out by other institutions in detail and in a “situated” way.
To support this instructional phase, an itinerant training approach can be favored. This is what {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] by organizing workshop visits (or “learning trips”) to various inspiring locations. These locations can be chosen as close as possible to the projects envisaged by the participants, or as far away as possible, to encourage the discovery of innovations that break with the practices of other classic cultural establishments. These discoveries provide an opportunity to draw inspiration from a wide range of projects developed in schools, companies, digital fabrication workshops, third places, coworking spaces and incubators.
For several years now, {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] has been offering learning trips to Ministry of Culture employees and ESSEC and CELSA students, to raise their awareness of innovation, identify potential projects and discuss their implications.
Trips were made to the BnF (meeting with the innovation department), to École 42 (a computer science school fervently defending project-based teaching), to the Centquatre incubator or to various digital fabrication workshops at the crossroads of design, innovation and craft (Volumes Coworking, les Arts codés, Villette Makerz)….
6. What training courses should you consider?
The methodological corpus proposed in this article can encourage innovation adapted to the practices of its audiences, and to the challenges, needs and constraints of its establishment.
To achieve this, various training courses can be envisaged in the form of courses or à la carte :
- Setting up an effective monitoring system. This module is based on the watch expertise developed by {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] for many years.
- Acquire a set of tools and practices to carry out effective comparative studies. With 13 years of consulting experience in various fields, {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES] has produced numerous benchmark studies which are shared as part of the training courses the agency runs. Recently, a training course of this type was carried out for the Centre-Val de Loire region’s public innovation laboratory.
- Innovative project design and management. This training course draws on tools and methodologies inspired by design and consulting assignments carried out over the past 13 years by {CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES]. Recent projects have included work for the Louvre, 11 Conti-Monnaie de Paris, the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme andInstitut du monde arabe.
- Evaluate a project to ensure continuous improvement. This module is the result of an evaluation protocol designed in collaboration with students and teaching staff from the Ecole du Louvre. Various training sessions of this type have been held for Ministère de la culture staff at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée du Louvre, 11 Conti-Monnaie de Paris.
