Welcome! This website serves as the blog for IMPACTS Experience, a firm leading cultural organizations in making data-informed decisions.
“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Hi! I’m Colleen.
I am the publisher of this website and Founder & Managing Member at IMPACTS Experience, a company providing data and analysis to visitor-serving organizations across the world. I work with executive decision-makers who are responsible for ensuring the long-term relevance and financial success of their mission-driven organizations. I’m a curious, camp counselor-type – and I’m glad you’re here.
What is Know Your Own Bone?
This website shares ongoing research and analysis about how potential visitors to museums and performing arts organizations think and behave.
KYOB began as an ordinary blog in 2009 that focused on audience engagement trends in museums. I was offered a position with a predictive technology and market research firm in 2011. In this role, I was able to work closely with executive leaders within cultural institutions, and was granted permission to continue to share some of the firm’s nonproprietary data on this site. Things grew from there. This website helped lead to the development of its own branch of the company, IMPACTS Experience.
KYOB takes a team
Don’t be fooled! This website is made possible by the hard work of many great people! There are over 80 mathematicians, strategists, and behavioral economists on the back-end of the firm supporting IMPACTS Experience – and a lot of computers. Every article on this website is edited and reviewed by at least two colleagues to ensure appropriate data analysis and that articles are not incomprehensibly nerdy. On the public-facing side, I work especially closely with Jim Hekkers (Chief Strategy Officer) and Bethany Corriveau Gotschall (Project Coordinator).
