The power of simplicity: lessons from the Eurostar

As someone deeply entrenched in supporting organisations to uncover areas for improvement and innovation, even my leisure time becomes an opportunity to observe and learn. This week I took a return trip with the Eurostar and I couldn’t help but keep my ‘innovation goggles’ firmly on.

But here’s the twist — Eurostar left me pleasantly surprised. From booking to check-in to boarding to travel to arrival, I found myself in awe of the streamlined and seamless experience they provided both online and offline. In an era where public transport often comes with its fair share of headaches — delays, grumpy staff, and discomfort — Eurostar was a breath of fresh air.

Not a single step felt unnecessary, frustrating or confusing — it was just simple. They’ve managed to distil the travel experience down to its essence, eliminating unnecessary steps and reducing friction at every turn, both online and offline.

No faff. Easy peasy. Straight forward.

It was a timely reminder, that when we think about innovating, we can easily get fixated on innovation being something out-of-the-box, totally new and nowadays super high-tech, but what if that game-changer for you and your business was simply, to be simpler?

As my colleague Sam Pickering put it beautifully: “Simplicity is damn hard to arrive at, especially when designing new, innovative and exciting artefacts. ‘New’ can be inherently complicated just because, well, it’s different to ‘what is’. Now is the time for empathy, make your audience’s life as easy and as simple as possible by repeatedly looking at the problem from their perspective, not yours.”

If this is the case, then where do we start on this pursuit for simplification? At Magnetic we are currently partnering with a leading FMCG client who is embracing simplicity as a key strategy. We have determined three signals that highlight a need for investigation:

• Duplication of work/steps: Evidence of users duplicating steps and effort to conduct a task.
• Workarounds: Evidence of users finding alternative ways to conduct a task/step in the process.
• Bottlenecks and Delays: Evidence of frequent delays or tasks/steps getting held up.

These three signals have helped us uncover opportunities for simplification and become the launchpads for innovation; ensuring that every task and step is purposeful, and lean and drives value to the user.

So, who knew my Eurostar trip could be so fitting?

What other signals do you look out for? How might your business embrace simplicity today? Comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Author: Mireille Toyn

Mireille is a Managing Consultant at Magnetic — a design and innovation company that helps design better futures. We’ve worked with global businesses, government organisations and fast growing start-ups to build capabilities, products, services and transform organisations. To find out more get in touch: mireille.toyn@wearemagnetic.com.