Whether developing a product, web site or exhibit, good design begins with understanding the intended audience. Yet too often the audience discussion remains at a superficial level, identifying audiences by age, children, adults, relationship, families or geography, local, tourist. Design thinking—a phrase currently used to describe an approach to foster creativity and problem-solving—emphasizes the importance of empathy to “walk in someone else’s shoes,” brainstorming to spur creativity and rapid prototyping to test ideas. Dana Mitroff Silvers uses design thinking to help cultural institutions develop strategies to engage audiences, especially through digital technologies. Join our conversation this week as Dana and I discuss the traps that many institutions fall into in terms of using digital technologies and how they can avoid them.