Ask your Audience: Helping cultural institutions understand their audiences better

I co-founded Ask Your Audience to make audience research more accessible for cultural institutions. Many organizations depend on public funding and have goals that differ from commercial companies, so they often need a different approach to understanding their visitors.

Through workshops and custom tools, I translated design thinking methods—such as personas, journey mapping, and assumption testing—into a format that fits the cultural field. Together with Kim van der Brink, I developed audience archetypes, journey maps, and templates that helped institutions connect their own goals with the real motivations of their visitors.

The project, supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, continues today under Kim’s leadership, supporting museums and other cultural organizations in building deeper connections with their audiences.