top of page

Farm Easy

An online platform that collects farmers data from cooperatives and assigns them a credit score to access affordable finance, they are then linked to off-takers to sell profitably.

Product Summary

Product Duration: July 2021 (2 weeks)

Team Members:

16.png

My Role: Product Manager & Project Manager

Content: This is an intense 2 weeks Hackathon organized in the Innovation Readiness Training (IRT) of Novustack in the 1 month Innovate for Africa Fellowship.

​

The Prompt: Identity a problem/challenge faced by real people and innovatively create a solution for it. Deliver a minimum viable product (MVP) and a pitch of the solution at the end.

​

Solution: We came up with FarmEasy: An online platform that collects farmers data from cooperatives and assigns them a credit score to access affordable finance, they are then linked to off-takers to sell profitably.

Key Skills:

  • Project Management

  • Concept Ideation

  • Strategic Thinking

  • Analytical Thinking

  • Empathy

  • Synthesized Primary Market Research (PMR)

  • Created Customers Persona

  • Prototyping

Screenshot_20210710-195713_1625946501163.png

Empathizing

I pitched the problem area on the first day of the Hackathon and other team members also joined the cause. We brainstormed as a team on the problem area and after picking the direction, we agreed on the end users. 

​

We undertook primary market research (PMR) by interviewing 7 smallholder farmers from two different countries Nigeria and Uganda on the major challenges they face on the farm from the pre-planting to planting and also post-planting season. I listened attentively as I asked open ended questions that made them express themselves without any restrictions.

What were the key Insight

  • Financial constraint is common to all the 3 users I interviewed 

  • Also, poor structured market 

  • A few of them also mentioned the limitations of farm labour.

Screenshot_20210710-211520_1625948312774.png
Screenshot_20210710-195649_1625944040103.png
Screenshot_20210710-211014_1625948339050.png

Customer Persona

Rose_Group 8 Define - Breakout Room Activities(1).png
Rose_Group 8 Define - Breakout Room Activities.png

Define

Provided with an open ended prompt, we identified the major challenges faced by smallholder farmers: Financial constraints and inaccessibility of structured markets.

​

We did this by reviewing the information from the PMR and processing it using the problem statement canvas as shown in the table.

Rose_Group 8 Define - Breakout Room Activities(2).png
Affinity Diagram Brainstorm.png

During the divergence stage, ideas were populated by all team members using the crazy 8’s design sprint method where we generated more than twenty six ideas. The process of convergence started after all ideas were registered, the ideas were summarized till we have many features of the individual ideas in the one and final solution. 

Prototype

Copy of Papercraft Idea Book Brainstorm.png
IMG-20210718-WA0009.jpg
IMG-20210718-WA0006.jpg
IMG-20210718-WA0007.jpg
IMG-20210718-WA0008.jpg

Presentation

The hackathon presentation was made to Novustacks’ leaders who are experienced entrepreneurs and also judges who are experts and founders of startups. I opened the presentation on a high note talking about the problem with the user story. The rest of team members also presented as we utilized the strengths of the individuals in the team in all the stages including presentation. 

​

By the end of the presentation, the judges gave us the following feedback:

 

Congratulations you were a strong last team to present! Great work on your presentation and pitch. It was wonderful to see your group come together as a team. 

Well done!

~The facilitator

 

Problem: Liked the focused storytelling focused on a single farmer's experience

Solution: Alternative financing / credit scoring makes sense - already identified a number of inputs to feed into ML model, and understand the overall value chain (inclusion of offtakers to guarantee demand and lock in return for lenders)

Competition: Laid out a clear competitive differentiation with focus on cooperatives

~Judge 2 - Remen

Reflection

Reflecting over the hackathon, some of the things I learnt and that was better reinforced in me was:

  • Teamwork: As the great author John C. Maxwell said “Teamwork makes the dreamwork”. We realized the smooth output by leveraging on the strengths of the people that make up the team. 

  • Input from everyone matters! No idea is small or nonsense. The ability to include everyone no matter how diverse we are is priceless.

  • As a product manager, creating an environment where everyone matters and is heard can be hard, but if achieved, it is very rewarding.

  • The product is all about the customers! I enjoyed every time spent with end users, empathizing with them and learning about their pain point.

  • The team’s motivation is also paramount all the way through the end so as to stay ahead of the project timeline in each phase.

These tips equipped us to develop an idea from scratch within two weeks. If I were to push this project further, I would build a prototype for the different user groups, break down the journey respectively in smaller details, and user test the core features under respective scenarios. 

bottom of page