Discovery + Empathy
In the agriculture industry, there is a major generational shift underway. With the population growing, new technologies emerging, and more laws regarding traceability and transparency, now more than ever there is an urgent need for modern, digital applications to support new farmers and retailers and ensure sustainability.
Currently, many retailers are using quite dated tools. Many are also using those in tandem with applications such as Quickbooks, Excel, five other specialized applications, and even pen and paper.
Each of these tools work as intended, and are even great tools. But older software is no longer being updated, and transferring thousands and thousands of entries of data is often lending itself to errors.
Horizen’s goal is to be a one-stop-shop for Ag Retailers to handle all their business needs, improving their own work experience, as well as the experience of other sectors in the agriculture chain (Farmers, Manufacturers, Distributors, etc).
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Research
We began by talking with retailers to understand their current systems and the landscape of available market solutions. Through these conversations, we learned about the diverse array of tools and methods being utilized, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. While many retailers were using tools that are good in their own right, there remained gaps in functionality, ease of use, and reliability, that many retailers were still wishing for. We also learned that some retailers were working as simply as exchanging SMS messages with one another (which puts real pressure on the “Ease of use” of the app).
These conversations helped us identify areas where Horizen could make a meaningful impact From simplifying how products are priced, to insights on customers, interviewees were excited by the prospect of what a more modern, curated-to-agriculture app could look like.
Personas
John is a sales associate at a small, family-run agriculture retailer in a rural community in kansas. His workday goal is to provide great, easy service to his customers and maintain a profitable business.
Goals:
Build and maintain strong relationships with local farmers and customers.
Offer a curated selection of high-quality agricultural products.
Increase store profitability by finding cost-effective solutions.
Frustrations:
Keeping track of the status of work orders.
Challenges with acquiring high-demand products due to limited supplier relationships.
Competing with large retail chains that can offer lower prices.
Mary is a manager at a large agriculture retail chain in Nebraska. Her primary workday goal is to ensure the seamless operation of multiple store locations and to oversee the distribution of agricultural products efficiently.
Goals:
Improve customer satisfaction by offering easy access to view product and service pricing.
Increase sales and profit margins by optimizing stock levels.
Foster strong relationships with suppliers to ensure a steady supply of products.
Frustrations:
Managing inventory across multiple locations can be challenging and time-consuming.
Dealing with supply chain disruptions that affect product availability.
Keeping up with the rapidly changing market trends and customer preferences.
Wires / Testing / Feedback
Using all the information and data we got from research, we got to work on designing. We initially started with designs geared more around dispatching and work orders (fertilizer applications, soil sampling, your typical farming stuff). While feedback on these areas was promising, we learned the more immediate need from initial customers was to deliver a better tool to price and sell products.
We worked with a large distributor (now a Horizen customer) who were extremely helpful with providing feedback on designs and were able to test new features with a high number of sales.
We were also able utilize former Ag Retail employees for testing and feedback who were able to provide valuable insight without any pressure of knowing Horizen was looking for Ag Retail customers. They were very helpful in giving alternate perspectives from experiences working for different sized retailers and under different operations.
After compiling user feedback, we set out to improve these features. Some feedback was simple: X-feature isn’t very clear. Some feedback was pointing out errors we had in the flow and how things don’t really work the way we’d designed. And some long-term feedback was more subtle. (And by that I mean, some features were never clicked on once over the course of a month of use.)
Results
Early feedback has been positive, with customers accomplishing tasks much quicker and with more reliability. The early stages of the applications have elicited a lot of enthusiasm for new features, which has been really helpful in expanding into more exciting features after the necessary bones have been put together.
Customers have reported faster task completion, less time spent hunting down information, and fewer errors in tracking.
Reflections & Next Steps
The project has been a big learning experience. There are so many more nuances in the agriculture industry than I expected. It took me way longer than I would’ve preferred to wrap my head around some of the ways ag retailers and farmers operated, but the problems felt satisfying to come up with solutions for in a way they hadn't felt before, so I was grateful to solve for. The team at Horizen have been great to work with, and they work extremely hard.
The next phases on deck for Horizen are implementing AI tools and dispatching. We are consistently getting feedback on current and developing features and iterating on them as they come in.
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