 What is regenerative agriculture? As climate change becomes a more mainstream issue, consumers, farmers, brands and retailers are beginning to take a closer look at how to review land and animal management practices: if current topsoil degradation rates continue unchecked, all topsoil could be depleted in 60 years. And since it takes 1,000 years to generate one inch (3 centimeters) of topsoil naturally, now is a good time to take action. Sustaining topsoil isn’t enough. We need also to adopt practices that can regenerate soils with improving soil health as the central foundation. While the term “regenerative agriculture” can have many meanings, in general it describes farming and grazing practices such as restoring degraded soil, improving biodiversity, and increasing carbon capture with the intention of creating long-term environmental benefits, positively impacting climate change while drastically improving farm profitability. Balancing profitability and sustainability: regenerative agricultural practices can protect the environment, improve soil fertility, and optimize long-term profitably to create greater food security. Increasingly, precision farmers use geo-enabled smart devices and cloud computing to understand how no-till, cover crops, rotational grazing, and other sustainable practices contribute to better soil health, biodiversity, and CO2 sequestration. Regenerative Agriculture Practices Regenerative agriculture practices improve the overall health of soil and the environment. One of the key principles of regenerative agriculture is to keep the soil covered at all times. This is achieved through cover crops, which protect the soil from wind and water erosion, lower the temperature of the soil, and feed the microorganisms within it. A “no till” guideline helps to protect the soil’s natural microbiome, so by limiting the disturbance of the soil, it maintains its structure and prevents erosion. Lastly, regenerative agriculture promotes crop diversity. Biological ecosystems are maintained and strengthened by cultivating a diverse number of crops, which work to enrich and restore the health of the soil as well as create a habitat for beneficial insects. In summary: financial impact of employing regenerative agriculture practices comes not only from the improvement and productivity of the soil profile but also from the effects and implications of the regenerative agricultural practices. Four basic principles govern regenerative agriculture:
With the successful implementation of each practice, soil microbial, fungi, and bacterial populations strengthen the symbiotic relationship with one another, nutrients and minerals, water, and, most importantly, the roots of a developing crop. These relationships form the nexus of soil health, untapped yield potential, nutrient cycling, porosity, water infiltration, and organic matter development. Improved soil health reduces the need for excessive fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide inputs by creating an optimal environment of nutrient cycling and plant vigor; this allows plants to compete better and face growing-season challenges. By progressing through these practices, allowing each principle to build on the next, a sustainable production model is created. How Consumers Can Help The easiest way consumers can contribute is to align themselves with brands that utilize products grown via regenerative agriculture. By way of vegetable and grains, consumers can do research to see if the farms where these products were grown utilized regenerative agriculture concepts like cover crops, crop rotation, and no-till. By way of meat, dairy, and eggs, consumers can look into if the farmers utilized practices like holistic management and rotational grazing And now, the proof is in the pudding – here’s a great TedX talk from Gabe Brown, a regenerative farmer in North Dakota and a pioneer of soil health. Let me know what you think here. My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. New Chapter! Head of Product at Vayda Vayda is advancing regenerative outcomes in agriculture. By combining regenerative principles and a high-tech approach, we are focused on facilitating the reversal of climate change, while rebuilding natural ecosystems and feeding people with healthier food. thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader
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 This is a follow-up from a few previous notes about influencing without authority because product managers have a unique challenge in that they own the product roadmap yet they do not manage any of the people who are directly responsible for executing on a company’s products – and as this organizational design continues to develop it leads product managers to need the ability to influence others to help them achieve their objectives without the direct authority to do so. A quick reminder of the previous episode, in the dangerous animals of product management (Read the original article here and my note about it here).
In order to effectively deal with those dangerous animals, product managers essentially must master the art of influencing without authority – and that requires a unique mix of hard and soft skills. And while each animal requires a different approach, dealing with them more often than not involves one or more of the following tactics:
Let me know what you think here. My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Head of Product thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader  A few weeks back I was talking to a startup founder and we were discussing product-market fit … This is actually a really good question in the context of Agriculture: a very slow, cyclical, highly commoditized and culturally entrenched industry – almost backwards by high-tech industry standards. And as such, I’ve been ideating on trying to find a good definition of a starting point for product-market fit in Ag and how, as an early stage startup and as a product manager, we should tackle the answer. More generally, product managers will always find it hard to figure out what features and product initiatives to prioritize amongst so many competing priorities and stakeholder demands (I have talked about this here!) Made popular by Marc Andreesen in the 2000s, product market fit at the time was the “only thing that matters” or the exact moment when a startup successfully finds itself in “a good market with a product that can satisfy that market”. In the B2C world, this is iPod and the fitness crowd in 2003 or Netflix and DVDs in the early 2000s. But how does this pan out in the B2B world of AgTech? Since there is a lot of product/market fit literature all over the internet, here’s a sampler of what I gathered with a quick google search and that I find the most relevant:
A. Product/market fit is when you build something that people want I will have a more detailed note about this particular definition very soon – it’s a great update from the initial Marc Andreesen definition by Paul Graham (Y-Combinator). Essentially, it stems from the accurate observation that most founders build things nobody wants. And the reason is that they think about startup ideas, not products but sound plausible enough to fool them into working on them. Graham goes on that when launching a startup business, there should already be some people who urgently need the product, and not just the idea of a potential benefit of using it. So the only question that matters is “who wants this right now?” – And as such as an entrepreneur as well as product manager, instead of (most often than not without evil) forcing your views on users, always ask yourself who wants what you’re building so much that they’ll use it even if it’s a crappy buggy first iteration MVP? B. Product/Market fit is when you have the right solution to a problem that’s worth solving The lean startup literature refines the two previous suggestions further by breaking up this startup lifecycle into three stages:
C. Product/market fit is when users love your product so much they tell other people to use it This is my favorite because this is Porter early definition of Product/Market fit in the 1990s, way before “software was eating the world”: “When people understand and use your product enough to recognize it’s value that’s a huge win. But when they begin to share their positive experience with others, when you can replicate the experience with every new user who your existing users tell, then you have product-market fit on your hands. And when this occurs something magical happens. All of a sudden your customers become your salespeople.” Simply put, product market fit is having enough users that love your product so much they spontaneously tell other people to use it … in other words, as a product manager you build a strong viral base of advocates for your product. As an example, chances are that the first time you used Slack somebody in your friends circle invited you to use it – you didn’t click on an ad online, right? By doing so you will also avoid the trappings of targeting a growth goal first and probably fool yourself until someone (like me) digs into your user retention numbers! (See my note on growth product management pitfalls here.)  In conclusion, for product managers as well as startup entrepreneurs, and also in the context of Ag Tech startup this does apply super well, which is the reason why I thought about writing this in the first place, it’s important to separate product/market fit from problem/solution fit and more specifically, in order to estimate your true potential customer base, you will need to make sure you measure the true desire for your product, not just for a solution. If not you’ll most likely end up with a product/market fit false positive. Further, always thrive to find a high or extreme degree of product/market fit or set yourself up for a giant, and often times, super costly, world of painful disappointment. Let me know what you think here. My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. Head of Product thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader  The pandemic of 2020 has leapfrogged the restaurant industry 10 years in the future in less than a year. With this extreme reshaping restaurateurs need to probably completely change how they run their businesses and adapt to rapidly changing consumer demand and behavior. One of the good questions to have is how to meet the rise in delivery demand. Everything from internal POS systems, marketing strategies, and common business practices are all very rapidly evolving. For example, estimates are that up to 60% of U.S. consumers are ordering delivery or takeout at least once a week. The result is that on top of potentially shifting to ghost kitchens, restaurateurs need to reevaluate how they approach their delivery game. It’s a new world out there is upon us and now is the time for an entirely new restaurant experience. My high-level thoughts about food trends that the pandemic accelerated 1. Industry-Wide Shift to Delivery-Only Restaurants are definitely shifting to delivery as demand continues to rise. A few ideas come to mind, such as the need to implement new systems and processes to make room for fulfilling online orders; or the need for ample restaurant kitchen space for preparing and fulfilling online order; ensuring a seamless experience for drivers and customers. But the most important: planning for more online orders helps classic restaurants prepare for the shift to delivery-only: re-evaluating the menu, for example, are there items that don’t travel well or package well, in other words making room for the menu items that make the most sense for a delivery-focused world. 2. Technology-First Online differentiation is a must when most orders are made from an app. We’re really post yelp here. So restaurants need to know tech real well, understand all delivery trends, be able to position their brand online and on delivery marketplaces well – leverage Doordash, Uber Eats and GrubHub, to maximize your reach and convert them into new and repeat clients. 3. Off-Premise World It’s really clear to me that off-premise food businesses will continue to thrive. Consumers are relying more and more on online food delivery and it’s becoming a new normal to have a wide variety of options available on delivery apps. Although some customers may begin to return to dine-in once protective measures have been lifted, the convenience of online delivery will remain a staple in customers’ lives. Delivery will be treated as a separate business given that people all over have realized just how convenient and safe delivery really is. 4. Less Restaurant Space With the shift to an off-premise world comes less of a need for a large restaurant space for dine-in customers. For example, quick service restaurants and fast-casual chains have even started designing new restaurant layouts that are leaner and more focused on pick-up and curbside-to-go options versus traditional on-premise dining. With less real estate space needed to meet delivery demand, I think ghost kitchens will be rising in popularity as they come with the perfect turnkey solution for online delivery. 5. Ghost Kitchens Ghost kitchens allow restaurateurs to expand their reach through each food delivery app. They’re strategically located where the most online food orders are taking place. And since they’re not focused on high foot traffic, that means the real estate is less expensive too. With the rise in delivery demand, the shift to a delivery-first model might become vital to stay ahead, and very soon, restauranteurs will be using ghost kitchens to create seamless delivery systems that leave customers at home happy and realy loving the food. 6. More Digital Marketing, Less Traditional In a pre-covid world, restaurants have to heavily rely on foot and as a result focused more on traditional marketing to reach your customers (think yelp?) but as of now, digital marketing is in, restaurants need a strong digital presence and soon, without a physical storefront, entirely shift focus to digital storefronts. But here’s the really good news: shifting to a digital marketing focus helps reach customers where they already are, and it’s way more easy to leverage key insights into customer behavior and data, meanwhile with more online customers, the demand for off-premise dining will continue to expand in the year to come. Let me know what you think!
DM me @philippemora on IG and Twitter My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. |
AI-Native Product Builder in Colorado. travel 🚀 work 🌵 weights 🍔 music 💪🏻 rocky mountains, tech and dogs 🐾
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