Many organizations will recognize it: you know you need a digital strategy to move forward, but in practice, it proves more challenging than expected. The Silver Museum was also in that boat for a long time. ‘Last summer, we started working on our new policy plan for the next four years,’ recalls Head of Marketing & Communication Ingeborg Dijkman. ‘We wanted to include our digital goals in it. But where do you start?’
Within the organization, there were already various ideas about working with digital. ‘For example, we have long cherished the wish to further digitize our collection and present it to the public in an attractive way. We also want to use more digital tools to present our collection to our physical visitors and bring it more to life. Silver is a fairly classic subject that can greatly benefit from such surprising ways of presentation.’
To execute all those plans, money and capacity are needed. ‘When we wanted to apply for a grant, we noticed that our underlying digital strategy was not yet in order,’ says Dijkman. ‘We needed a strong overarching narrative in which such interventions fit.’
For all of us
An in-company workshop at (the Academy of) DEN proved to be the solution. ‘I wanted to involve as many colleagues as possible in this process. After all, digital belongs to all of us: all our employees are working with online systems in their own way or might have good ideas about them.’
Activating colleagues began with the digital transformation scan that all participants had to complete beforehand, along with a short questionnaire about what they wanted to maintain, develop, or phase out in the digital domain. ‘It really got us thinking,’ Dijkman recalls. ‘Various ideas emerged, for example, about the design of our online knowledge base and ways to improve the audience experience in our galleries.’
The workshop helped bring different ideas together into one strategy. ‘Previously, we were working quite fragmented. Now we can better structure our plans. This allows us to set goals more easily and collaborate better with other parties. For example, to create a digital collection database, we can work with archives as well as other museums focused on crafts, such as pottery and ceramics. This also provides more context for silversmithing.’
‘We now think faster in digital solutions and can better structure our plans, making it easier to set goals and collaborate with other parties.’
Keeping up with the times
Not everyone within the organization immediately saw the added value of a digital strategy, Dijkman admits. ‘People mainly looked at how much work it would take and less at what it would yield. Thanks in part to the workshop, there is now more awareness that we need to keep up with the times. I have been given the mandate to work on this. As a result, we now think faster in digital solutions. For example, we are exploring whether we can show in our museum how silver is made, perhaps with a VR experience.’
The workshop also helped set priorities. ‘Not everything can be done at once. A digital strategy can sometimes feel like an enormous task. By celebrating small successes, we keep it manageable.’
Follow-up trajectory
For the follow-up trajectory, the Silver Museum is once again turning to DEN. ‘We have signed up for the program Digital Empowerment (opens in new tab), in which you execute your own project over eight months. During that time, we want to develop a project plan for further digitizing our collection, including a financial framework and potential collaboration partners. We also want to conduct more research into the needs of our users, both in the museum and online. We have all kinds of ideas, but maybe they want something completely different.’
Tips from the Silver Museum
- Make your digital strategy part of your overall strategy. A digital strategy is never entirely standalone: it should have a place within the strategy of the entire organization. For example, think about its connection with your organization’s marketing and communication: how does digital fit into that?
- Take shared responsibility. The digital strategy cannot be carried by just one person. That makes the process too vulnerable. Form a team of responsible individuals who jointly ensure even more support within the organization.
- Collaborate with other organizations. Many institutions grapple with the same questions but don’t know it about each other. Reach out and exchange knowledge. Everyone benefits from that.
- Keep digital on the agenda. Your digital strategy is never finished: digital issues will always demand attention. Continue to develop digitally as an organization. Only then will you stay up to date.
Author: Anne van den Dool
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