Laura Freebairn-Smith & Leah Hancock, Measuring What Matters: Vital Signs for Museums, American Alliance of Museums, 17 October 2025
More numbers don’t equal more insight. If your dashboard feels more like a data dump than a decision-making tool, you’re probably measuring too much. And if you don’t have a dashboard, well, read on.
Museums are no strangers to measurement. From visitor counts to net promoter scores to revenue reports, there are many meaningful numbers to track. But in an era of tight resources, complex social challenges, and shifting public expectations, leaders we work with increasingly ask: Are we measuring what truly matters?