Museums are unlikely to have the digital staff or resources for large projects. What should they consider when hiring an external contractor?
Know what you want – not how you want it
“Focus on what you want the project to achieve,” says Simon Wakeman, the managing director of digital agency Deeson. “Work to gain consensus on what success looks like within the organisation and then tell us about that. What do you want to be better after the project has delivered? What measures will you use to track impact?
“Don’t try to solve the problem for us – agencies have strong experience and processes for solving complex problems. That’s why clients hire them, so don’t try to do their job for them by telling them what the solution should be.”
Give it time
Agencies will need time to plan a new project around the rest of their work. At Deeson projects can typically see lead times of between one and three months between approach and commencement.
Know your budget
Find the right people
“Mostly I get my work through word of mouth even if it ends up as a tender that I need to fill in,” says Audas. “You can Google it and you'll get some digital producers, but that doesn't tell you much about what you'd like to know about people. People usually just contact for an initial coffee.”
For the IWM, says Bodsworth, “a good cultural fit is important, and that's not quite the same as having loads of experience in the museums sector. There are some things that it's useful for an agency to demonstrate they understand, but there are things that aren't particular to us, like a deep appreciation of user experience and user journey.
“We've talked to agencies who can talk about how they worked on end-to-end digital development for bus services: how do users discover it, how do they book, can they use mobile while they're on the experience and what information do they get? Elements of that completely apply to museums as a day out for families and individuals.
“At a much smaller scale I'd probably change tack, and rely more on word-of-mouth. So the size of the organisation is probably critical to your approach.”
Starting out
“A potential client having a very good idea of what they can afford and how flexible they will be is really useful to me,” says Audas, “because that starts the conversation off on a really positive note: yes, you can employ me, yes you can afford me; and yes you can be flexible, because I tend to work part-time on a couple of projects.
“As a producer, I'd much rather be in on the shortlisting of the agencies who I'll eventually be working with. I think museums often work with people they've already worked with, but I like to throw in a new agency, some people from outside of London – to give them an opportunity to work with the big museums, if they should want to tender.”
Focus your resources
Lack of resources can be a problem for digital projects, says Bodsworth. “It might be that the organisation's got a blindspot – it doesn't understand what will be involved because of a lack of experience. We are not a sector with massive resources and you don't want to divert them from the physical experience or care of the collection, and that can lead to digital projects being under-resourced.
The museum and heritage sector is attractive for many employees because of their own interest and passion for its subject matter, but meeting the market rate can be difficult, particularly for technical roles. “We try to leverage that interest as much as we can, and if people are passionate about their work then obviously that can give them the edge – but it still depends on finding that person.
“The challenge is if you're working on code in technical role, you may never touch the museum's work in the way that a curator or even a digital content person would.
“One response to that is our hybrid approach – we don't have too many technical staff constantly employed and act more flexibly through agencies. Another benefit of that is that we expose our internal people to external tech teams and they can learn from them.”
Know what you want – not how you want it
“Focus on what you want the project to achieve,” says Simon Wakeman, the managing director of digital agency Deeson. “Work to gain consensus on what success looks like within the organisation and then tell us about that. What do you want to be better after the project has delivered? What measures will you use to track impact?
“Don’t try to solve the problem for us – agencies have strong experience and processes for solving complex problems. That’s why clients hire them, so don’t try to do their job for them by telling them what the solution should be.”
Give it time
The length of time a project takes depends on its scale and complexity, but remember the project is longer than the time it takes. Developing a new website for the Imperial War Museum (IWM) took 18 months, says Charles Bodsworth, IWM’s assistant director for digital transformation, but this was preceded by around six months of internal conversations to agree to undertake the project.
Freelancers are likely to be balancing several projects at a time, possibly of varying sizes. If they are in demand, that may be a good sign, but they might find it difficult to fit your project into their schedule.
“I'm working on a project that's about a year, but one or two days' maximum a week, says freelance digital producer Jane Audas. “So that's a big one, and I might do a smaller website for somebody, or write for some online exhibitions – and those can be just an afternoon or hours during the week.”
Know your budget
Deeson specialises in complex museum and heritage projects with budgets of £50,000-£750,000. “These typically involve systems integrations such as ticketing or collection management systems,” says Wakeman. “For simpler or smaller museum sites without complex integrations, we’d recommend a minimum budget of £20,000 to deliver an accessible site that has a good user experience.”
Audas recommends spending 10% of the project on a freelance producer. “That's negotiable, but if you can then pressure that producer to do lots of things you might have assumed they wouldn’t –you soon earn the money.” Find the right people
“Mostly I get my work through word of mouth even if it ends up as a tender that I need to fill in,” says Audas. “You can Google it and you'll get some digital producers, but that doesn't tell you much about what you'd like to know about people. People usually just contact for an initial coffee.”
For the IWM, says Bodsworth, “a good cultural fit is important, and that's not quite the same as having loads of experience in the museums sector. There are some things that it's useful for an agency to demonstrate they understand, but there are things that aren't particular to us, like a deep appreciation of user experience and user journey.
“We've talked to agencies who can talk about how they worked on end-to-end digital development for bus services: how do users discover it, how do they book, can they use mobile while they're on the experience and what information do they get? Elements of that completely apply to museums as a day out for families and individuals.
“At a much smaller scale I'd probably change tack, and rely more on word-of-mouth. So the size of the organisation is probably critical to your approach.”
Starting out
“A potential client having a very good idea of what they can afford and how flexible they will be is really useful to me,” says Audas, “because that starts the conversation off on a really positive note: yes, you can employ me, yes you can afford me; and yes you can be flexible, because I tend to work part-time on a couple of projects.
“As a producer, I'd much rather be in on the shortlisting of the agencies who I'll eventually be working with. I think museums often work with people they've already worked with, but I like to throw in a new agency, some people from outside of London – to give them an opportunity to work with the big museums, if they should want to tender.”
Focus your resources
Lack of resources can be a problem for digital projects, says Bodsworth. “It might be that the organisation's got a blindspot – it doesn't understand what will be involved because of a lack of experience. We are not a sector with massive resources and you don't want to divert them from the physical experience or care of the collection, and that can lead to digital projects being under-resourced.
The museum and heritage sector is attractive for many employees because of their own interest and passion for its subject matter, but meeting the market rate can be difficult, particularly for technical roles. “We try to leverage that interest as much as we can, and if people are passionate about their work then obviously that can give them the edge – but it still depends on finding that person.
“The challenge is if you're working on code in technical role, you may never touch the museum's work in the way that a curator or even a digital content person would.
“One response to that is our hybrid approach – we don't have too many technical staff constantly employed and act more flexibly through agencies. Another benefit of that is that we expose our internal people to external tech teams and they can learn from them.”
