Design Thinking for Audience Development

by Gerald Klickstein | Creative Process and Entrepreneurship

For musicians, career sustainability hinges on audience development. When we continually attract new listeners, our revenues grow, and we gain the freedom to fully devote ourselves to our art.

In the context of audience development, design thinking helps performers and arts organizations understand their target audiences, formulate avenues to attract them, and implement appropriate actions. Design thinking encompasses five components that empower us to identify problems and devise solutions:

1. Empathize
   Pinpoint the target audiences that you’d like to connect with. They might be people in certain age or ethnic groups, from particular locations, or within ranges of personal income.


2. Define the Problem(s)
   As you empathize with your target audiences, problem areas will emerge. But the key to finding useful solutions is to define problems precisely.