In Winter 2019-20, Cargill, the world’s largest food producer, came to Salesforce to drive lasting change in global agricultural practices. They knew that meeting growing food demand was reaping serious consequences on the planet, and they were a major contributor. They believed that technology and effective ecosystem design was the key to unlock sustainable change at the ground level.
TEAM
Engagement Lead, Strategist, Researcher, Part-time Designer
MY ROLES
STAKEHOLDERS
Cargill Sustainability | Descartes Labs | World Resources Institute | Salesforce Sustainability
Partners for Change
Beyond Cargill and Salesforce, we were also working with Descartes Labs and World Resources Institute in this pursuit. Each represent a key role in the ecosystem, defined below.
Making Sense of the Challenge
We worked with Cargill over a couple of months to understand all of the ecosystem players and opportunities to leverage.
Understanding Farm Decision Making
To better understand farmer motivations and decision making, we ran concept labs in Iowa in partnership with local agronomists. The following images are the stimulus used to force ranking and gather tangible input.
Aligning on a path forward
Following the Idaho concept labs, we went though several rounds of concept shaping, socializing, and refinement with our partners. We worked at a low fidelity to continue to be iterative and open-minded. It looked like this [for several months]:
A shared vision for partnership
We went in to March 2020, aligned, and with fresh concepts and research plans in hand. We had flights booked to spend a month in Brazil, working alongside farmers and agronomists to test concepts live. When the pandemic hit, travel was banned, funding was cut to this project and to Cargill’s sustainability efforts. We packaged up the work where we were, should we be able to revisit it.
