Trace Genomics - Case Study
Role: Design Lead
Completed: 2020
Platform: Web
Intro
The soil microbiome is a key driver in planting and management decisions. With Trace, farmers and agronomists have the ability to identify and measure the pathogen populations in their soil, allowing them to quantify the risk of disease and take the appropriate management action.
Problem to Solve
Farmers have been soil sampling for decades and are familiar with the standard measurements and have a certain set of expectations regarding data points. The redesign of the webapp needed to introduce our customers to results that would be contextualized around their fields rather than spreadsheets and give actionable information rather than overwhelm users with data.
The Starting Point
Trace had already launched an online platform to submit the soil samples and to track their progress. What was missing was the ability to get results to customers. Before diving into potential solutions, I ran a design sprint with the head of research and development, reviewed user flows with our lead agronomist, and defined scope with my PM. There were three primary goals around presenting this information:
With the average customer having samples spread out over their entire farm, we needed to shift the lab focus on individual samples to the user’s perspective of how multiple samples explain what is happening on a field
Farmers and agronomists needed to easily switch between different issues on a single field or between a single issue on multiple fields
New data is great, but our customers needed to have clearly presented insights that would allow them to take action
Proof of Concept
Once we had developed our initial concept, I put together a prototype and we joined the sales team for a roadshow through the midwest meeting with current customers and other farmers who were interested in learning more about the product. I then conducted a series of in-person usability sessions with farmers and agronomists to better understand how our different user groups wanted to use the software and what they most wanted from it.
In three and a half days, we went through Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Arkansas. While driving across state lines or waiting in airports, we were able to discuss some key takeaways:
Agronomists were interested in the power of the platform while farmers were interested in a printable PDF report they could review
Viewing sample results as shape files of their fields was necessary for context
Agronomists were going to need to do the bulk of the setup work for their farmer clients
Everyone was interested in a new data layer to help them better understand their soil and potentially solve some of the mysteries on their fields regarding yield
“This new tool will be a game-changer for us. It will give us analytics we’ve never had before.”
Initial Launch of Farms & Fields
For a couple of years, the lab team at Trace had been delivering data about the soil microbiome that had never before been available to farmers and agronomists. But, it was not a scalable experience. The sales team had to be very involved in the process in order to help translate the findings and highlight the most significant pieces of data. It was not ideal, but it proved that there was enough being discovered to scale up the operation in to a web platform.
In collaboration with my PM, our in-house agronomists, the project engineer, and our sales team, we were able to create an experience that provided logical steps for farmers and agronomists to discover the most important information first, and then dig into more specific details related to a specific field, pathogen, or nutrient.
