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.

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.

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:

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.

User Persona of Target Audience

Mapped categorized findings from user interviews and surveys of various users to define user personas.

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

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.