Beyond the promise - when digital falls short: Let's talk about failure

One of the joys of the last few months has been the diversity of conversations that I've been able to have.

I’ve spoken with so many people across the cultural sector and nearly everyone sees the potential of digital to strengthen our work. But too often, I've been told, the reality falls short.

The overwhelming feeling seems to be that the promise of digital has, thus far, outstripped the reality of the results.

Everyone I've spoken to has at least one difficult or disappointing story to share. It’s not just the occasional digital project that struggles. These stories of digital challenges are recent, frequent, and strikingly similar. Which raises a couple of key questions: what can we learn from them? And how can we stop repeating the same mistakes?

I’ve spoken to people working at cultural organisations, funders, suppliers, and consultants who have all seen projects that:

• Took longer than expected, impacting momentum and resources
• Were more complex than anticipated, stretching teams beyond capacity
• Didn’t fully achieve their goals, despite best efforts and good intentions

So with all these experiences, I think that there are probably lessons that can be learned, and shared, for the benefit of the entire sector when it comes to digital working. But that's only possible if we can have a frank conversation, one that we don't often have, about failure.

How can you help?

I’m running a short, anonymous survey to gather real experiences of digital projects that didn’t go as planned.

Early responses are already revealing some common themes:

• Tight and unrealistic timeframes leading to compromised outcomes
• Lots of opinions, but a lack of clear direction and ownership
• Strong buy-in and motivation at the start, but priorities shifted, and the project lost focus
• Recognition that trial projects could have helped teams develop their understanding before committing to a big, unsuccessful investment

Sound familiar? If you’ve been involved in a digital project that didn’t go to plan or fell short, then your experience is hugely valuable, please share it.

The aim isn’t to dwell on what went wrong, but to understand why so we can share lessons that help the whole sector make digital work better.

The survey is completely anonymous and open until mid-April 2025.

What's next?

I’ll analyse the responses and share key findings and lessons later this Spring so that we can have a better conversation about how we build a more realistic, informed, and effective approach to digital in our sector.