Creating a Shared Vision for Audience Impact at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum

Impact-Driven Strategy
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum | Location: Washington, DC

 
 

Through a series of visioning sessions, we brought together staff from across the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum (ACM) to articulate their shared vision for audiences.

OVERVIEW

We facilitated staff in a collaborative process to create a Framework that articulates a unique impact statement with supporting outcomes, four target audiences, and the museum’s distinct qualities and values. We created a decision tree and coached museum staff and advisory board to activate the Impact Framework.

Through coaching, we discussed with staff how to use the Impact Framework as a guide for making decisions internally about where to allocate time and resources as well as to tell a cohesive story to external stakeholders about the positive difference they make in the lives of their audiences and how they contribute to social change.

APPROACH

The process of developing the Impact Framework was highly collaborative.  Through a series of exercises and small and large group conversations, we:

  • Clarified and named the positive difference ACM make in the lives of their audiences, including five concrete, measurable outcomes

  • Prioritized four distinct audiences, giving each one a name and rich description 

  • Identified the museum’s distinct qualities and values that make impact possible

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

ACM applies the Framework and Decision Tree to their daily work. The shared language of the Framework gives them a consistent way to talk about their purpose with each other and with external stakeholders. They use the Framework to slow down and think critically about what they offer for audiences and where to allocate resources.

Cathy Sigmond

Cathy brings many years of experience in education and experience design to her role as Head of Strategy at Kera Collective. 

Having previously worked in a variety of educational settings, Cathy is driven by her constant fascination and delight at how people make discoveries about the familiar and the unfamiliar. 

Cathy loves helping to shape experiences that spark curiosity and make a difference in people’s lives. She particularly enjoys the rapid, iterative nature of design-based research and the deep insights that come from qualitative research, especially on projects exploring interactions with the digital and built environments. 

Cathy shares her passion for experience design research widely and regularly guest lectures for graduate programs, including the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Exhibition and Experience Design Program and the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. Cathy served as the co-chair of the Museum Computer Network’s Human-Centered Design special interest group from 2018-2021.

Outside of work, you can usually find Cathy playing soccer, thrifting, or making her way through her large cookbook collection. 

Cathy’s favorite museum experiences are immersive; she will always vividly remember walking through the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, being surrounded by birds at the Peabody Essex Museum, and hearing centuries-old instruments come to life at the Museum of Musical Instruments. 

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