What?
Indian Farming Landscape today is ridded with socio-economic, environmental and quality problems today. Took up a cross functional role with an early stage agricultural startup and the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research to develop a Minimum Viable Product that caters to marginal farmers & consumers of produce, to tackle said issues by leveraging emerging technologies.
Key Skills
- Product Ideation & Strategy
- Market Research
- User Surveys, Interviews & Focus Groups
- User Flow
- Video Editing
Team
Founders: V Narasana Gouda,
Prakash Veerapur
Founders’ Office Interns:
Kruthika Kolume, Harshita Shyale
Backstory
Having spent many summers growing up, on my grandparents’ farms, I am no stranger to the woes and challenges of Farmers in India. Always wanting to have been of aid, I jumped on the opportunity to contribute in the development of a win-win solution for farmers and consumer
Context
Company
VKF Agrifarms is early stage agricultural startup that aims at cutting down middle men to resolve three major issues, while leveraging emerging technology not only for agricultural practices, but also as a bridge.
My Role
Found myself conducting Ethnographic Research while I briefly lived in the village town of Kyarakoppa, Dharwad, India for a deeper understanding of the users.
Varied research methodologies were employed to address fundamental questions at different stages of the MVP Building process.
Phase I: Pre Beginning
Is there a Market for our Farmers’ Produce?
Phase II: Reaching the Customers
What is the best way for consumers to access the produce?
Market & User Research
Phase I: Before Beginning MVP
Objective: To Understand whether we have potential buyers, to validate our proposal.
Extensive research was done to identify opportunity, potential competitors and our advantage over them:
Business Opportunity
- Organic food is 0.1% of India’s $300 Billion annual food consumption
- Organic Farming - 2% of net area in India
- Consumer Consciousness of healthy, natural & safe food are on the rise
Competitors’ Analysis
- Produce both perishables &non-perishables
- Moderately priced organic produce
- Personal Customer Connect
User Interviews, Surveys and Focus Groups
Conducted user interviews and surveys both online and on-site to gather 120+ responses of users of varied age groups, across different tiered cities in India.
Responses of few of the questions:
User Persona
Based on the User Interviews and surveys, our Target Audience and Demographic was defined.
Target Audience
- All households
- Health-Conscious people
- People with special medication
- Dieticians
Demographic of Dharwad
- Majority population age: 45-75 years
- Not tech savvy
- Pro health
- Supportive of farmer community
User Persona of Target Audience
Mapped categorized findings from user interviews and surveys of various users to define user personas.
_-_Frame_4/w=1920,quality=90,fit=scale-down)
Insights from Phase I Research
The above Insights helped with the following:
- Validating the proposed solution.
- Pricing Points of Produce.
- Introduced Source Tracing of produce for visibility.
Once our proposed solution was validated, we were able to proceed with the remaining project of setting up agricultural practices for organic farming. We involved various local famers’ communities in the mission, and propagated new ways farming practices that encouraged sustainability, and were backed by technology, both of which were not tackled earlier.
Phase II: Reaching The Customers
Objective: To Understand the best way for the produce to be accessed by the users.
We employed the entire Design Thinking Process involving Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test to deliver a website as a proposed means of reaching the customers. This website was however, not the MVP of the start-up, but merely one of the ways to connect with the customer.
The extensive user research insights from the previous phase were utilized to design and develop a no-code website, with simple, intuitive design for easy use specifically on a mobile device and maintenance, in collaboration with a team of two others.
Low-Fidelity Prototype:
User Journey
Insights from Phase II Research
“I don’t want to download another app”
“I can’t find the website”
“I don’t trust online payment gateways”
“I want to ask for live updates”
Proposed Solution
“The first app I open everyday is WhatsApp”
All pain points can be addressed by the already existing app, that the community is widely accustomed to:
- Accessibility
- Ease of Use, Familiarity
- Trust & Connection with Seller
WhatsApp Integration
Say you want to place an order.
You may do so by clicking on either of these buttons, based on your preference
- WhatsApp Icon
- Shopping Cart
Impact of both Phases
- 20+ Marginal Farmers are involved in the process
- 400+ Customers Monthly
- 2 Farmer-Producer Organizations & Self-help groups collaborations
- Farmer Share: 50-60% Consumer Rupee
Reflections
- This internship was a valuable learning experience that strengthened my passion for conducting user-centered research to create products or services that prioritize equity, sustainability, and accessibility and truly serve the needs of their intended users.
- I gained a deeper understanding of the importance of considering the demographics, needs, and limitations of the user when designing a product.
- I also came to realize that simplicity is often more challenging to achieve than complexity, but ultimately make for a better user experience.