Farming and Product Development

Roaming the villages of Bihar and chit-chatting with farmers has led me to appreciate farming as an enterprising profession. Throughout my interactions, the bits and pieces of a typical farming operation began to mimic what a product development process looks like. I promised my research team to jot down this thought and here is that note.

Planning the crop

As the harvesting season approaches and the farmland lays bare; the clock starts ticking for the farmer to decide what to grow next. Every passing day with the farms bare is an opportunity loss. Many don't have the luxury to plan too early as they are constrained by budget and changing market conditions, and might even have to borrow money from the local lender @5% per month rates. Farmers have to access their resources and the market to make this decision.

For a product team, the crop is the key user story around which the next feature will be brought to existence. If the dev plates are about to run empty, there is an added pressure to decide the next feature. We are also constrained by company resources and changing market conditions; at the end we are also taking a bet based on the evidence we have at the moment.

Planting the seed

Once the crop decision is made, the farmer starts land preparation, buys the seeds and other input products, gets manpower, coordinates with the neighborhood farms ( these farming groups share resources in many instances); and the seeds are planted. Farmers work on a thin working capital and spends his dime only when it is absolutely needed and can't wait another day. Typically, he is always trying to hit the high importance and high urgency bucket.

With a user story in sight, product specs are fleshed out followed by design and engineering discussions; with many features bringing in cross-team dependencies. Product teams are no strangers to ruthless prioritization to keep the ball rolling in the face of complex roadblocks. With the plan in sight, dev work kickstarts!

Managing the crop growth

Planting marks the start of an arduous journey for the farmer who has just made a pact with the elements. On inquiring a 2 acre farmer, how does he know what to do when, his response was - "khet hamse baat karta hai aur hum samajh jate hai" (my farm speaks to me and I understand). If the plants show a nutrient deficiency, or an insect attacks the farm, or an animal comes for grazing, or its a virus attack - farmer has to intervene with sound judgement. He cannot spend more on keeping the crop healthy than he hopes to make from selling the produce at the end of the season, this is a harsh reality. In some unfortunate cases, he abandons the crop care mid-way due to rising costs and prays for the best; while in others cases nature plays havoc to the whole cropping season (severe or adverse weather conditions). After regular monitoring of the crops, taking care of problems and fighting the elements, he finally begins to see the fruits of his labor in front of him.

The dev process is also filled with incidents in between which need active attention, the closest parallel to the daily farm visit is the daily scrum. For bigger features, it is common to hit roadblocks in the middle of the dev process like lack of bandwidth, a high priority task appears suddenly, integration and data issues, open dependencies on other teams. At the end of the day, the investments in a feature should be trumped by the outcome that is foreseen. There are cases, when midway through the projects, this realization leads to scraping of the feature. Org wide impact like changing company focus, or business unit terminations are less prevalent but not uncommon in their ability to put projects on indefinite hold. The product squad has to work through these challenges and finally glance at their production ready code.

Harvesting and Selling

Ah, the harvest season has arrived, after all the hard work. Marked by celebratory festivals around the country, this is a prosperous time for the nation. However, this celebration is not without its own challenges. The markets decide the prices, economy 101 - supply and demand at play; the farmer is a price taker in most cases. For non-perishable produce he can hold it a bit longer in the hope of timing the market. Every action he did for the previous season, comes down to two factors: (a) his access to the market and (b) market's acceptance of his produce. This step is highlighted time and again as the most troublesome phase of the farming operation. As Marty Cagan puts it, it's not about the output but the outcome.

Litmus test for any feature release is market acceptance, even if we build a complicated feature with many moving parts, at the end of the day if it doesn't hit the intended goals then it was all a waste ( or a learning opportunity at best ). Market does not care about your efforts, work hours, meticulous planning, it simply cares about the most accessible and the most efficient solution to a problem. This is a humbling experience for many of us and you can be sure that a farmer relates with you on this aspect closely.

The learning cycle continues

Money was made, money was lost. What now? Here is where I see a divergence happening within the farming community. One section repeats most of the processes they followed again hoping for better results, at best they follow the lead of known members of the community. There is another section, the one which reflects on what went wrong, what went well, what is new in the market, what can I do better? and start a mini-cycle of innovation. This second breed may not get better the next cycle or the next to that, but if I have to bet my money I will put it on this breed. Exact words from a progressive farmer - "Innovation se hi farmer karze se nikal sakta hai, aur koi rasta nahi hai, mere gaav me kafi log itna mehnat nahi karna chahte" (Innovation is the only way out of debt for a farmer, there is no other way, many people in my village don't want to put in the effort).

The same concept holds true for the product development team; it must act as a learning machine; iterating its process to get better at what it does. Over time, among competitors, the team which keeps the cycle of mini-innovation alive will race ahead, in some cases these effects are exponential. Setting up this virtuous cycle for the first time is not without its challenges but once up it can keep the flywheel spinning to infinity.

PS - This note is an over simplification of two complex and involved processes. You must also realize that farmers with small land holdings do not have a concept of choice in their farming lives, its all set in stone for them.