Nutrient Advisor
Streamlining the work of nutrition analysis and fertilizer sales
COMPANY
Nutrien is a global agriculture company that provides crop inputs and services. Agronomists that work at Nutrien partner with farmers to help them maximize their yields and work efficiently.
PRODUCT
The tool "Nutrient Advisor" helps agronomists with precise nutrition information that they can make recommendations on how to fertilize fields.
About the User
An "agronomist" by definition is an expert in the science of soil management and crop production.
At Nutrien, they are also much like sales people, helping farmers invest in the right nutrition for their crops.
There were existing designs that showed the user (agronomists) their soil test results, but there was a lot of important and useful information missing.
They needed to know how much nutrient was needed for the type of crop they planned to plant that season, at the yield they were aiming for.
They also needed the ability to take specific scientific information into account such as previous yields on that field, and soil type
With that information, the user should be able to make a recommendation on what fertilizer that needs to be used and how much, which they could then order through manual (non-digital) processes.
A successful product would be one that is end-to-end, allowing users to go all the way through to purchasing fertilizer for the farmers and even arranging for application equipment rental and services.
Meet the Team
Teams at Nutrien encompassed a lot of specialized knowledge:
In-House Agronomists (2)
Agronomists working exclusively with the tech teams
UX Designer
Me :)
Product Managers (2)
One lead strategic, one more tactical
Engineers (6)
Frontend and Backend Software Developers
Iteration 1
Knowing that the user would need a calculator to create a recommendation for farmers, I held a workshop with our team to put our heads together. It was important to get the perspective of all: science, in-house agronomy, engineering and product.
User Research
My Philosophy
Complex problems do not always have straightforward answers. In this situation, it is not only important to test the design, but to talk to users and get their candid take on if it aligns with their mental models and lived experience on the field.
the need
Talking to users who are actively working with farmers was the ideal way to gauge the viability of the concept. I was in charge of reaching out to participants, setting up and hosting usability tests, and synthesizing results.
The Results
The solution we imagined for users worked in isolation, however, we learned that it was not going to scale. Users could not simply click “buy now” at the end of the flow. They would need to break up the fertilizer into multiple applications over the course of a season.
