Planning a pilot run

Quick Recap: Prasenjit and I are students at Cornell Tech building a platform to connect farmers with institutional buyers like hospitals or schools. Our goal is to show that by buying directly from local farmers, buyers can save on both. I used to be a farmer in Upstate New York.

So far our adventure has included Qualitative Interviews, exploring the Ag Census, and finding data on the Origin of Every Product. We’re building an algorithm that matches farmers and buyers using some dummy data. Setting prices is tricky. Our first and second contextual enquiries were helpful for refining our product.

We’re planning a pilot of the Empire State of Food platform. This is going to fall into the category of a paper prototype. Our pilot will consist of Prasenjit and I renting a U-Haul in March, picking up produce from farmers and delivering it to buyers. We will be texting farmers and buyers as Empire State of Food to mimic an app on user’s phones. There will be a pre-written script for the texts to keep it consistent. It’ll feel like using a chatbot.

We are testing our biggest uncertainties about our platform: logistics, switching costs for farmers and buyers, our matching algorithm and pricing.

We are not testing the user interface, how well an app for our platform works or the point of sales. The actual app and user interface will be informed by our pilot results, but that isn’t where our biggest uncertainty is. E-commerce already exists and there are ways to design an app to be user friendly — these are not big risks for us.

Paper Prototype Pilot Protocol

1. Get hard orders and availabilities via text from farmers and buyers one week before the pilot.
2. Run the algorithm to make matches.
3. Confirm orders the night before via text with farmers and buyers.
4. Generate invoices for buyers.
5. Generate receipts for farmers.
6. Email out the respective invoices and receipts.
7. Plot out the route for the next day.
8. Text each farmer/buyer when we are ~20 minutes away.
9. Ledger for receiving and distributing each item.
10. Every case is labelled and logged.
11. Follow up survey for both farmers and buyers three days after pilot.
12. Follow up again 30 days after the pilot is completed.

Pilot Run Supplies

• Masking tape
• Sharpie markers
• One phone for navigation
• One phone for texting farmers and buyers
• U-haul van
• Cash for bridge/Thruway tolls
• Invoices
• Receipts
• Texting scripts — create consistent responses
• Clipboard
• Ledger for receiving/distributing cases
• Pens
• Coffee
• Snacks/meals
• Road trip playlists

I rented this mini van to deliver $2k of frozen lamb when I was farming. #swaggerwagon #deliverylogistics

As you can imagine, this requires a fair amount of prep work and follow up. The timeline for our pilot is as follows:

1. December — Survey farmers along potential Poughkeepsie-Kingston-Hudson route.
2. December — Qualitative interviews with buyers along the Poughkeepsie-Kingston-Hudson route.
3. January/February — Contextual enquiries with buyers
4. February — Survey Buyers
5. March 15th — get hard orders and hard availabilities
6. March — Run the algorithm
7. Week of March 30th — Paper prototype pilot
8. Follow up 2 days after.
9. Follow up 30 days later.

Survey Questions

Farmers

What produce will you have available the week of March 30th, 2020?

In what quantities? (a range is fine)

Do you currently sell to wholesale customers?

How do you pack each product?

What price per unit do you expect for the above products?

Is there anything else we should ask?

Buyers

Can you use the following products the week of March 30th, 2020?

What quantities do you need?

Have you purchased directly from farmers before?

How do you expect each of these products to be packed?

Who are your current produce vendors?

What price per unit do you expect to pay for the above products?

We appreciate that both farmers and buyers are taking a chance on us by participating in our pilot. We’re asking them to conduct real transactions on a platform that isn’t quite real yet. We don’t take this responsibility lightly.

We want to set the following expectations for farmers and buyers.

• We prioritize filling buyers orders.
• Not every product from every farmer will be purchased.
• We want your feedback.
• We are not charging for the service of delivering during the pilot.
• There will be a 30 day repayment on invoices to be paid directly to the farmers.
• We really appreciate your time and energy.

So if you’re a farmer or dining hall manager in the Mid-Hudson Valley expect to hear from us in the coming weeks. My email is lpm36@cornell.edu if you have any questions. Thanks!