When Coldplay Met Kumbh: Rethinking Pilgrimages Through Design Thinking

“Spiritual journey pe nikla tha, project manager ban gaya.”

That single line dropped halfway through our 2-day Design Thinking x Behavioural Science workshop at IIM Udaipur’s Executive MBA program captured the entire tension of religious tourism in India.

You set out to find peace.
Instead, you're coordinating hotel check-ins, managing temple queues, herding the group, and figuring out where everyone’s shoes went.

Welcome to the beautiful chaos of pilgrimages, a space overflowing with faith, ritual, nostalgia… and just enough jugaadto keep things running.

The Challenge: Can We Make Pilgrimages Easier Without Diluting the Devotion?

We posed a deceptively simple question to the participants:

“How might we improve the end-to-end experience for pilgrims at popular religious sites?”

What followed was a deep, eye-opening dive into human behavior, social norms, and spiritual expectations all through the lens of design thinking methodology.

What We Heard Blew Us Away

As the EMBA teams conducted immersive conversations and secondary research, they surfaced powerful insights:

●    “Hardship will be redeemed as blessings.”
Waiting in queues, walking barefoot, or dealing with chaos is often seen as part of the spiritual reward, not a problem to be fixed.

●    “Bhagwan ke ghar koi chori kyun hi karega?”
Faith breeds trust. The divine is seen as a natural deterrent to theft or exploitation.

●    “Sangam me sab ek jagah nahane aayenge to bheed to hogi hi na.”
Crowds aren’t just tolerated, they're expected. They reinforce the scale and sanctity of the moment.

These weren’t friction points. They were mental models. And understanding them was the real unlock.

The Real Innovation? Designing for Beliefs, Not Just Pain Points

This is why we love blending Design Thinking and Behavioural Science.

It moves you beyond surface-level fixes and into the realm of cultural metaphors, implicit beliefs, and deep-rooted expectations.

Once you see that — you start designing solutions that don’t just work. They click.

What the Teams Imagined

From Coldplay concerts to customer experience design, the solutions were imaginative and grounded in empathy:

●    RFID Bands Inspired by Concerts:
Colour-coded bands to guide different segments of pilgrims, seniors, groups, individuals —through the chaos with clarity.

●    The ‘Saarthi’ App:
A digital companion for your pilgrimage planning, reflecting, and supporting your journey emotionally and logistically.

●    Pilgrimage Project Managers:
Imagine someone handling logistics so you can actually focus on your spiritual goals. (A literal answer to the workshop’s opening quote.)

These ideas weren’t just innovative; they respected the emotional journey of every pilgrim.

Why This Matters

Religious tourism in India welcomes millions every year.

Yet it operates largely on inherited habits, not intentional design.
This makes it one of the most underexplored frontiers for service innovation.

And the best part? It’s not about adding tech or efficiency for the sake of it.

It’s about designing with empathy, understanding real behaviour, and enhancing customer experience even when your “customer” is a pilgrim.

Big Love to IIM Udaipur’s EMBA Participants

Your curiosity, creativity, and ability to challenge assumptions made this workshop a joy.

Here’s to more collaborations where we canco-design solutions that matter — to business, to society, and to everyday human lives.

Because at TinkerLabs, we believe:

Simple ideas move the world.
But first, you have to understand what’s really going on.

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