Museums in collaboration with companies: new opportunities, funded by ESR+, aims to discover innovative approaches to service development in the museum sector. Do you have a groundbreaking business idea or perhaps just the seed of one? Join our project, and we will help you turn your idea into reality! We welcome museum professionals from a wide range of roles and responsibility levels, and we encourage you to involve your entire museum organization in the project.

We support the development and implementation of individual ideas, but more broadly, the project aims to build skills that enable museums to generate revenue in the future. These competencies will continue to benefit museum professionals long after the project has ended. The project also seeks to introduce the business sector to the many value-creation opportunities offered by the museum field.

You can join by contacting our Project Coordinator Monika Keisala at monika.keisala@museoliitto.fi or by signing up for our upcoming training sessions. The training sessions will be held in Finnish.

More about the training:

The project’s training programme consists of six separate training sessions. We highly recommend participating in all sessions, but it is also possible to attend individual ones. The training is suitable for all Finnish speaking museum professionals, so feel free to involve your entire museum! The training programme supports the pilots launching at the end of the year, where museums will test their developed service concepts with corporate partners.

The trainer is Kati Mehtälä, an impact and service designer as well as a leadership development expert. In her work, Kati combines business understanding, productization, human-centered thinking, and practical development. Each training session also includes an expert presentation by a museum professional.

1st Training Session: Customer Insight, Service Design, and Concept Development

Location: Helsinki (Theatre Museum) / Teams

Date & Time: 8 September 2026, 10:00–16:00

Participation: On-site at the Theatre Museum or remotely via Teams.

During the first session we will explore the many revenue generation possibilities for museums. How can new ideas or old classics be delivered to customers? This training day will help you understand your customers’ real needs and build functional service concepts from them. We will cover the basics of customer insight, building a customer journey, and the core tools of service design. Special focus will be on the company as a customer: what do companies really look for, and why would cooperation with a museum interest them?

The training programme is free of charge. The event includes afternoon coffee (lunch is self-funded).

2nd Training Session: From Customer Insight to Revelations

Location: Teams

Date & Time: 23 September 2026, 9:00–12:00

Collected customer data is only valuable if you know how to draw the right conclusions from it. In this session, we will review how to interpret customer insight and turn it into concrete revelations. In the webinar, we will dive into identifying the customer’s true needs, which assumptions often prove to be wrong, and how to shape a clear service direction from observations. The content is suitable for all museum professionals who want to develop customer-oriented thinking in their work.

The training programme is free of charge.

3rd Training Session: Service Concept and Customer Value

Location: Teams

Date & Time: 30 September 2026, 9:00–12:00

A good idea is not yet a sellable service. In this session, we will go through what is needed to turn an idea into a clear, attractive, and easy-to-buy service. In the webinar, we will focus on building a value proposition, defining the core of the service, and exploring what the customer actually buys and why. We will cover how to communicate the service clearly and understandably, and how to condense the idea into a one-page service concept. In addition, we will touch upon productization, commercialization, and cooperation opportunities. The training is suitable for all museum professionals who want to develop their services and learn how to make them attractive to corporate clients as well.

The training programme is free of charge.

4th Training Session: From Service to a Purchase-Ready Package

Location: Tampere (The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas) / Teams

Date & Time: 22 October 2026, 10:00–16:00

Participation: On-site in Tampere at the Labour Museum Werstas or remotely via Teams.

A good service must be made easy to buy. This training day focuses on how to build a clear, attractive, and profitable package out of a museum service that companies want to buy. During the day, we will go through the psychology of buying and what the customer needs for decision-making. We will dive into the basics of productization: how to standardize a service, what can be replicated, and how to make expert work visible. We will also cover the dynamics of corporate cooperation: how companies make buying decisions, what they really want from museums, and how to build mutual benefit. At the end of the day, we will practice communicating about the service in the customer’s language—for example, how to spark interest without it feeling like selling. The training day is suitable for all museum professionals who want to develop their services and learn how to make them attractive to corporate clients. The training also includes an expert presentation by a museum professional.

The training programme is free of charge. The event includes afternoon coffee (lunch is self-funded).

5th Training Session: Validation and Development

Location: Teams

Date & Time: 3 November 2026, 9:00–12:00

In this webinar, we will go through how to test, evaluate, and further develop a service based on feedback from the market and customers. We will dive into what sparks interest in a service concept and what does not, what factors prevent buying, and how to simplify and sharpen the service. We will also cover what must be boldly let go of to make the service work better. The training is suitable for all museum professionals who want to learn how to develop their services systematically and in a customer-oriented manner. The webinar also includes an expert presentation by a museum professional.

The training programme is free of charge.

6th Training Session: Next Steps and Continuous Development

Location: Teams

Date & Time: 17 November 2026, 9:00–12:00

Service development is a continuous process, not a one-time project. In this webinar, we will go through how to develop a service with a long-term approach and how to build a culture where experimentation and learning are part of everyday life. In the webinar, we will dive into how to keep the customer involved in the development even after the launch, what should be measured and monitored, and how to build a continuous culture of experimentation in the organization. The webinar brings together the lessons of the training programme and helps outline concrete next steps. The training is suitable for all Finnish speaking museum professionals who want to build sustainable and evolving service operations.

The training programme is free of charge.

Sign up for the trainings here. The events will be held in Finnish.

Upcoming Networking event

A networking event for museums and businesses will be held in November. The goal is to identify partners for piloting the new museum services. Pilot projects will begin at the end of 2026 with selected companies and museums.

Official summary:

The project aims to strengthen the service design, business, and financial skills of professionals in the museum and cultural heritage sector, enabling the productization and sale of expert services. At the same time, it builds bridges to the business world by attracting companies to collaborate with the cultural heritage sector. The goal of the project is to develop new, attractive, and sustainable service concepts that promote the financial sustainability and impact of museums and cultural heritage actors.

The project runs from January 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. The project team includes Project Director Leena Tokila and Project Coordinator Monika Keisala.