Assessing Market Demand
I'm happy to share that my idea received an honorable mention award at the Software Innovation Challenge hosted by CAFF (Community Alliance with Family Farmers). This recognition for 'Product Design Process & Most Forward Thinking' from a seasoned panel in the food and agriculture sector is incredibly encouraging.
This achievement gives me an opportunity to exhibit at the Small Farm Tech Expo on March 1. I'm excited about the opportunity to engage with more farmers at our booth, gaining insights and validating whether our solution addresses their most relevant and pressing challenges.
I will take this opportunity to share how I have been approaching assessing market demand for my idea. Even if the idea originated from observing and interacting with farmers, I needed to understand the prevalence of these issues, considering the vast diversity in farming needs and practices. How big is the problem and what does my addressable market look like?
Numerous strategies are advised to avoid prematurely developing a solution without sufficient evidence of market willingness to pay. It includes
Creating landing pages with mocks to track sign-ups.
Using ads to understand the demographics of your page visitors.
Monitoring the number of pre-orders with credit card commitments.
Waiting for a specific number of Letters of Intent before starting to code.
While this is valuable advice for maintaining discipline, it's important to tailor these measures to your specific context. For instance:
Consider if your target customers typically express interest through email sign-ups.
Evaluate whether an email sign-up truly signifies a willingness to pay.
Reflect on the likelihood of your customers providing credit card details or signing a letter of intent for a product still in development. Personally, I've never done that.
In certain sectors, traditional signals like website sign-ups might not accurately reflect interest levels. For instance, I'm uncertain if farmers typically show interest this way. So, what’s been my approach?
My approach has been to create a bunch of checkpoints:
I created Figma wireframes to visualize the concept and gathered feedback directly from a few farms and organizations that I have built relationships with.
I developed a landing page and circulated it within my network connected to farms. Interestingly, I received interest from agronomists and soil scientists. They were not my intended audience, but nevertheless a good discovery!
I began building prototypes for pilot farms. While the solution might not be completely scalable, I’m hoping for a word-of-mouth for initial traction. Plus, it’s always a good feeling to build something that solves a real problem for someone.
I entered the idea in the SW Innovation Challenge mentioned above, a timely and fortunate opportunity. Since the contest was adjudicated by farmers and experts in this space, I felt that this would be a good way to validate if I’m on the right track.
Now that I have an opportunity to exhibit at the Small Farm Tech Expo, that is going to be my next major checkpoint. I am eager to engage with numerous farmers at my booth and present my idea. The feedback and market demand indicators I gather will be instrumental in objectively determining my next steps.
Until next time!