Evaluation and Research

I undertake audience and non-user research and consultation and front-end, formative and summative evaluation that provide insights and add value to organisations and projects.

For example, this can help you to understand your audiences and potential audiences; identify income growth streams; provide an unbiased assessment of your project; or identify lessons learned for the future.

Work can include a range of activities appropriate to the client’s needs, such as visitor surveys, creative methods such as button drops and graffiti walls, facilitating focus groups, creating evaluation frameworks, data analysis, facilitating staff reflections workshops, and producing reports and presentations on findings.

I’m passionate about generating insights that make a difference, lead to lightbulb moments and can embed or develop more effective ways of working.

Science Museum Group

I undertook an evaluation project for the research and advocacy team at the Science Museum Group.

It was an opportunity for staff teams from across the Science Museum Group’s organisations – the Science Museum, National Railway Museum, Museum of Science and Industry and the Science and Media Museum – to come together and reflect on recent group-wide learning projects.

I facilitated a series of three workshops to enable staff to identify the strengths and challenges of the project, reflect on key findings from the audience evaluation, consolidate best practice, and agree on lessons and best practice for similar future projects.

A meeting room with a large table and empty chairs, a flipchart and coloured cards on the wall.

The American Library logo, developed by The Click, Norwich

American Library

I carried out research and consultation to support the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library to feed into its redevelopment plans and rebranding. The Library is a living memorial to the nearly 7,000 American personnel from the 2nd Air Division who were based in East Anglia during World War II and were killed in action. It’s the only public war memorial library in the UK and the only public American Library in the UK.

The project involved user and non-user face-to-face interviews, community consultation, focus groups with university students and Americans living in Norfolk, and online surveys. The findings led to recommendations presented to the Trustees which included insights on the Library’s positioning, interpretation, programming and communication, to ensure the Library can appeal to a broader range of people and have a sustainable future. The Library was subsequently rebranded as American Library.

“Christina brought a really creative approach to the audience development and marketing communications work she has completed for American Library. Working to a short deadline initially she pulled together a really thorough engagement plan which identified our audiences for the first time in the almost 60 year history of the library. From the outset and throughout Christina understood the nuances of our organisation and the challenges and opportunities created by our governance structures as well as staff skill and capacity. She developed a great relationship with our professional team as well as our Trustees. Everything Christina created was on brand and on budget. She got to the core message of what we do and why we do it and packaged this for us in a way that connects with our diverse audiences in the UK and the USA.”

Orla Kennelly, trust librarian, American Library

de Havilland Aircraft Museum

I have undertaken several pieces of research for de Havilland Aircraft Museum, including analysing and comparing visitor survey data for the museum – both quantitative and qualitative data – to support their audience development activity; and analysing data from people pre-booking their visits due to Covid-19 restrictions to feed into their marketing planning.

“The de Havilland Aircraft Museum has worked with Christina Lister for several years. Christina is a marketing professional and her delivery of first-class analysis of our visitor surveys has been a key driver of the museum's marketing plans which have driven the success and development of the Museum. She is so easy to work with and adding much value to our research briefs ensuring that the Museum gains the maximum benefit from any project no matter how challenging.”

Mike Nevin, trustee & marketing director, de Havilland Aircraft Museum

#DigiRDG Project

I undertook summative evaluation for the Arts Council England-funded #DigiRDG project between Reading Museum and The Museum of English Rural Life which sought to transform how the museums operate in a fast-moving digital environment.

The evaluation involved analysing the project’s data; interviews with the project team and museum directors; facilitating an evaluation workshop with staff; writing the evaluation report; and presenting the findings to the teams.