The Exhibition as a Product

For several years, I designed exhibitions with interdisciplinary teams. We wanted to work close to our visitors, build modular elements for future use and innovate in how we exhibit, not only in what. But the project, with its fixed scope, a team that dissolves after the opening and feedback that comes too late, felt too rigid for that.

When I later encountered product development in software, much of this suddenly made sense.

What if we treated exhibitions as products? Stable, fully funded teams that stay together. Iterative work, prototypes tested with visitors, fast feedback cycles. An exhibition that is not finished on opening day, but keeps evolving: adaptive, and close to the people it is made for.

A museum is not a software company, of course. But perhaps the question is not whether exhibitions are products – but what we would discover if we organised them as if they were.