Overview

At AgriG8, I joined as the first employee of this Agri-Fintech startup focused on providing more equitable and fair financing to farmers across Southeast Asia. Working across Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Cambodia, I led product development efforts to create financial technology solutions that specifically addressed the needs of smallholder farmers.

Product Case Study: AgriG8's CropPal

Product Overview

CropPal is a mobile application that helps smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia digitize their farming activities, access agricultural advice, and build financial credibility to unlock better loan terms. As Product Lead and employee #1, I led the development from concept to market adoption across five countries.

Problem Identification

Through field research with farmers across Southeast Asia, we identified several critical problems:

Limited financial access: Smallholder farmers faced interest rates of 30-60% from informal lenders due to perceived risk
Data gap: Financial institutions lacked reliable data on farm operations to accurately assess creditworthiness
Low tech adoption: Existing farm management apps were too complex for farmers with limited digital literacy
Disconnected ecosystem: No single platform connected farmers, financial institutions, and agricultural experts

Product Approach

Discovery Phase

Stakeholder research: Conducted 50+ interviews with farmers, agricultural companies, and financial institutions
Problem validation: Analyzed existing loans and financing patterns across target markets
Technical constraints: Mapped common device types, connectivity challenges, and digital literacy barriers
Competitive analysis: Evaluated 8 existing farm management applications, identifying key gaps

Product Definition

Product spec: Created comprehensive PRD outlining core features, user journeys, and technical requirements
Success metrics: Defined adoption metrics (MAUs, session time), engagement metrics (fields registered, activities logged), and business metrics (financial institutions onboarded, loan approval rates)
MVP scope: Prioritized core features that would deliver immediate value while building toward financial inclusion goals

Development Leadership

Team building: Recruited and led a cross-functional team of 3 developers, 1 external designer, and 3 interns
Technical architecture: Selected Flutter for cross-platform mobile development, Node.js/Express backend with PostgreSQL database hosted on GCP
Agile implementation: Managed 2-week sprints with daily standups, and weekly demos to external stakeholders
Testing approach: Implemented both automated testing and manual field testing with actual farmers

Key Features & Rationale

Intuitive Data Entry Interface (MVP)

What: Single "+" button expanding to 5 options with text labels, inspired by Tamagotchi simplicity
Why: Field testing showed this design dramatically improved data entry completion rates compared to text-heavy alternatives
Outcome: 95% activity logging completion rate among active users

Farm Management System (MVP)

What: Personalized farm profiles with local unit size display (not just hectares) and custom naming
Why: Research revealed farmers across all countries identified farms primarily by local size measurements
Outcome: Users voluntarily registered multiple fields with 98% accuracy compared to ground verification

Financial Activity Tracking (MVP)

What: Detailed input cost and sales price logging with historical comparison
Why: Thai and Vietnamese farmers specifically requested this to track seasonal cost variations for inputs and labor
Outcome: 78% of farmers used this feature to negotiate better input prices with suppliers

Visual Engagement Elements (MVP)

What: Animated farmer character that celebrates logging milestones
Why: Testing showed gamification dramatically increased engagement across all demographics
Outcome: "Very cute" feedback was universal, with 40% of farmers showing the app to family members, creating viral adoption

Carbon Measurement Backend (V2)

What: Automated carbon calculation system based on IRRI's CF Rice calculator
Why: Created verifiable sustainability metrics for financial institutions and aid agencies
Outcome: Data validation using Google Earth Engine NDMI (moisture index) created trusted verification of sustainable farming practices

Customized Record Visualization (V2)

What: Flexible date range filtering based on farmer-defined seasons rather than calendar structure
Why: Farmers preferred setting their own date ranges rather than using predefined seasonal categories
Outcome: 3x increase in frequency of reviewing historical data compared to initial calendar-based design

Impact Dashboard (V2)

What: Impact and credibility metrics for financial institutions and philanthropic partners
Why: Transforms raw farming data into actionable insights for loan assessment
Outcome: Onboarded first European aid agency as dashboard user within 6 months

Results & Impact

Rapid Development

Timeline: Delivered functional MVP within 2 months of initial development
Efficiency: Implemented complete feature set with limited resources (team of 6)
Quality: Maintained 99.5% crash-free sessions despite rapid development cycle

User Growth

Adoption: Scaled from 0 to 300 farmers across 14 regions in Southeast Asia
Retention: Achieved 65% monthly active user retention after 3 months
Engagement: Average of 4.5 weekly sessions per active user

Business Outcomes

Funding: Secured mid-six figures in grant funding based on MVP success
Partnerships: Established data-sharing agreements with 3 financial institutions
Impact: Early users accessing loans at 15-20% lower interest rates than previously available
Growth trajectory: Positioned for 1,000+ farmer onboarding in 2025 and first major financial project

Product Decisions & Tradeoffs

Offline-First Architecture

Decision: Built robust offline functionality despite increased development complexity
Rationale: Field research showed 60% of users had intermittent connectivity
Impact: 98% data reliability even in remote areas with poor connectivity

Visual Interface over Data Tables

Decision: Invested in animated visual elements and graphical interfaces rather than efficient data tables
Rationale: User testing across Southeast Asia showed high engagement with visual elements regardless of literacy level
Impact: The "very cute" animated farmer became a viral adoption driver, with farmers showing their children and neighbors

Local Measurement Systems vs. Standardization

Decision: Incorporated multiple local farm measurement units instead of standardizing on hectares
Rationale: Field research showed farmers primarily identified their land by local measurement systems
Impact: Dramatically increased data accuracy as farmers could input information in units they understood intuitively

Verification Backend Investment

Decision: Built sophisticated carbon calculation system with satellite data verification
Rationale: Financial partners required high confidence in sustainability data accuracy
Impact: Created trusted verification system that unlocked funding opportunities while maintaining simple farmer interface

Lessons Learned

What Worked Well

Tamagotchi-inspired UX: Simplifying interfaces to their essence with visual cues transcended language barriers
Contextual field research: On-the-ground testing revealed unexpected insights like the importance of local measurement units
Balancing farmer simplicity with backend sophistication: Creating simple interfaces for farmers while building sophisticated verification systems for financial partners

Challenges & Adjustments

Regional differences: Discovered significant variations in farming practices and record-keeping preferences across countries
Unexpected feature requests: Financial tracking was much more important to farmers than we initially assumed
Verification complexity: The challenge of validating sustainable practices required more sophisticated solutions than anticipated, including satellite data integration

Future Product Direction

Machine learning integration: Developing automated verification of farming activities using photos
Supply chain connections: Building features to connect farmers directly with buyers
Financial product integration: Creating direct pathways to loan applications within the app
Community knowledge sharing: Enabling farmer-to-farmer advice based on successful practices verified through the platform

Relevance to Public Sector Products

The CropPal experience demonstrates my ability to:

Understand complex stakeholder ecosystems (similar to government contexts)
Design for users with varying technical proficiency (critical for citizen-facing applications)
Balance immediate utility with long-term platform vision (essential for sustainable public good products)
Build and launch products with resource constraints (common in public sector contexts)
Measure impact beyond traditional product metrics (aligned with public good objectives)

References

David C.Y. Chen - CEO @ AgriG8