Building Staff’s Capacity for Impact at the Science History Institute

Impact-Driven Strategy
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: Science History Institute | Location: Philadelphia, PA  | Funding: Institute of Museum and Library Services

 
 

We embarked on a project with the Science History Institute to help staff articulate their intended impact on audiences and align current and future decision-making with that impact.

OVERVIEW

From 2020 to 2022, we partnered with the Institute to build staff’s capacity to use intended impact as a guidepost for future decision making.

Our work dovetailed with major transitions for the organization, including leadership and staffing changes as well as a change in the Institute’s internal organizational structure.

APPROACH

We designed a strategy and capacity building project that consisted of several interrelated parts:

  • A series of workshops with staff that led to the development of an Impact Framework

  • A series of trainings with staff on evaluation principles and methodologies 

  • Audience research studies for the Othmer Library and Public Engagement teams 

  • Development of evaluation tools (data collection instruments and reporting templates)

  • Alignment tools to ensure program design is aligned with impact

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

Institute staff emerged from the project with an Impact Framework that articulates the organization’s intended outcomes for three target audiences (the Broad Public, Educators and Students, and Researchers). The characteristics of each audience were defined in detail and, for each one, outcomes–or the intended results of the audience's interaction with the Institute–were defined along with indicators–the evidence showing that those outcomes have been achieved.

Using the Impact Framework as a guide, staff worked with us to design evaluation tools that would explore the characteristics of the Institute’s three primary audiences in the context of impact. Staff also helped us collect data using these tools, which we then analyzed and summarized in two audience research reports for the Library and Public Engagement departments. Our and the Institute’s intent is for staff to continue using the Impact Framework and evaluation training and tools to explore their impact and guide planning and decision making in the future. 

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. 

Previous

Telling the Story of a Long-Standing Community Science Partnership
Next

Testing Interpretive Strategies to Spark Youth’s Interest in Paleontology for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science