Design thinking and walking the Camino de Santiago: my story
As I was traipsing up and down hills, walking a small chunk of the Camino de Santiago (I did 270km in the end) with my heavy rucksack on my back, I noticed what I think is a really nice example of design thinking in a non-digital scenario.
When we explain to charities about design thinking at work, we sometimes see that people get a bit unnerved by the words “digital” or “design thinking” and struggle to see how it can be useful to them in their jobs or lives.
But as I walked, I was reminded that design thinking is applicable to all walks of life (see what I did there?!).
And perhaps my experience could be helpful as a way of explaining it to people in non-digital terms. Bear with me…
Keeping it simple, starting small
Before setting off, I’d done some reading and watched videos that said it was important to keep my rucksack as light as possible as you’re walking on average 25–30 kilometres a day.
I’d started off really well, but as I was about to leave the house I started chucking in panic items. Of course I needed an extra pair of trainers for my sore feet at the end of the day! Of course I needed lipstick! And of course I needed a book to read!
When I got to O Cebreiro and started walking the modest (!) 13 kilometres I’d decided on for my first day, I soon realised I’d packed too much.
My shoulders really hurt and my rucksack was jam packed which made getting anything out and back in a total nightmare.
At the hostel where I stayed the first night, observing the other pilgrims walking the Camino, I realised how few things I was going to need. No-one was wearing any make-up (surprise surprise!) and downtime was spent in flip-flops to air those smelly, sore feet.
So the next morning, I walked to the local auxiliary post office and sent myself a package home with all of the last minute things I’d added in. It weighed 2.5 kilograms, which turns out makes a lot of difference when you’re carrying it on your back!
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t miss any of the items at all throughout the 11 days I was walking.
So this was a reminder, in life as with digital and design projects: less is more.
The simpler things are, the better. If you keep a prototype or a service to the very basics to begin with, you stand to learn a lot more about it and you’ll also save yourself time, money and effort.
Iterating
During the first night’s communal dinner, in a traditional Palloza, I got chatting to an Italian pilgrim sat in front of me. He asked me how much my rucksack weighed. I didn’t actually know (ignorance is bliss!), so I returned the question. “4.5 kilograms”, he replied. Everyone stopped and stared in awe — it’s virtually impossible to keep it that light.
So we all grilled him on how he’d done it. Turns out he’d done a Camino before, and had spent the last few months preparing for this one: he’d dehydrated his toothpaste for a month on baking paper so that the water in it wouldn’t weigh him down. He’d also dehydrated his soap, and had packed the very bare minimum to travel as light as possible. He looked very pleased with himself (understandably).
As I continued to walk, I also noticed things that I’d improve next time. My rucksack didn’t really fit me, my sleeping bag was too heavy, I needed a mix of slow-releasing and sugary snacks. These weren’t problems at the time…they were just things that next time I’d like to improve on. I wanted to iterate on my Camino journey.
So by trying something out once, I learned a whole lot of stuff that I could improve on next time. And so did my Italian friend on his first Camino, and was totally mastering it on the second.
This is exactly what we should do for digital projects too: put something small and simple into the wild, try it out, then learn from how it’s being used and improve it next time round.
Learning by doing
If I’d actually listened to the videos and books I’d read about what to take on the Camino, I’d have saved myself time, money and shoulder ache. From the look on the face of the post lady, I wasn’t the first person to try the sending-everything-home trick. As with many things, sometimes you have to learn these lessons yourself, and that is often the only way it actually sticks.
So I’d encourage anyone starting out with digital to just try out something really small, find the courage to put it in front of your users or colleagues, and see what you can learn. You’ll likely catch the improvement/iteration bug, it’s quite addictive.
Right, I’m off to dehydrate some toothpaste and plan my next Camino…
H/T to Joe Roberson, who inspired me to think about and feel more about writing just as I was heading off on leave to walk the Camino :D
