Freshwater Farm Plans
Freshwater farm plans (FWFP) are a regulated farm planning process designed to stop further decline in freshwater quality, make water quality improvements within five years, and begin to reverse past damage to New Zealand waterways. All farms above 5 hectares are required to complete a plan and put in place a series of actions that will help to mitigate risks identified to freshwater.
Work completed whilst at FarmIQ Systems Ltd
Over the course of about 10 months, I led the end-to-end discovery, user research, design, and development of the freshwater farm plan tool.
I collaborated closely with our environmental subject matter expert, training and content team, and external stakeholders, including local and regional government, account managers, and our marketing and sales team. Throughout the development process, I worked with an agile team comprising a Product Owner, three developers, and two testers.
Given the limited availability of the Product Owner, I took on the responsibility of gathering and managing requirements during the project's initial stages through to build.
My role
The Opportunity
Freshwater farm plans are one of the many ever-changing regulations New Zealand farmers need to keep up with. No templates or tools existed to help farmers understand and complete a FWFP. Consequently, farmers were likely to invest excessive time in understanding complex legislation or spend a lot of money on consultants or certifiers to complete the plan for them. Both of these approaches would most likely result in paper documentation that is challenging to maintain and update.
How Might We create a tool that helps farmers complete a freshwater farm plan that can be easily certified and audited?
Discovery
Due to the scale and complexity of this project, an extensive discovery and testing phase was needed to ensure we were delivering a product that met the legislative requirements and well as being easy to use and understand. The follow sections detail the research that was undertaken.
Customer interviews
We already had a farm environment plan in FarmIQ which would likely be a similar format to the FWFP. I started by interviewing 5 existing customers about their experience using this feature as well as looking at enhancement requests in Salesforce. I also asked questions about their awareness and opinions around freshwater farm plans.
Main findings:
Users wanted to access the map within the plan so they didn’t need to exit the context of the plan.
Needs to be easy to export and share the plan with 3rd parties.
The plan shouldn’t just be a checkbox exercise. It needs to allow for different types of farms with different needs.
Users wanted an easy way to add notes and attachments to convey additional information about their farm.
The wizard format of the plan helped break up the plan and guide them through the process.
Most farmers had a limited understanding of freshwater farm plans but would prefer not to engage a consultant for cost reasons and because they have the most knowledge of their own farm.
Understanding requirements and building a flow
I worked closely with our subject matter expert to break down the requirements and understand the processes to create a rough user flow. This required extensive research and reading through documentation. I dedicated a figjam board to document, capture findings, and create diagrams and flows.
We also met with regional councils and the Ministry for Environment to understand their own regional processes and further develop our knowledge of the requirements. Some councils had some additional regional requirements and different processes, however as we were developing a national tool our challenge was to ensure their biggest needs were met without tailoring too much towards one region.
Stakeholder meetings
Given the intricate nature of freshwater farm plan requirements and the limited farmer expertise available, traditional user testing wasn't feasible. Instead, we conducted regular focus groups comprising a small group of individuals with diverse expertise, including those highly knowledgeable about freshwater farm plans and others with sufficient understanding of the broader context. During these sessions, we gathered invaluable feedback on my designs and I was able to refine and iterate.
Participants:
Our subject matter expert
1 x Farmer
1x Policy advisor from MFE (Ministry for Environment)
1 x Environmental consultant who was also qualified to certify plans
Aside from this core group, we also got feedback from other consultants and SMEs as we progressed.
Beta testing and feedback
After developing the initial concept of our tool and allowing farmers to familiarise themselves with freshwater farm plans, we conducted beta testing. We selected six farmers from regions required to prepare a plan, including a mix of sheep, beef, and dairy farmers with varying technical abilities and farm sizes. We sent a survey to these farmers after they completed the process to identify bugs and assess usability and comprehension issues.
Simultaneously, our plan was presented to other stakeholders, including dairy and beef companies, regional councils, individual farmers, certifiers, and consultants.
Main findings:
Several bugs were identified
Minor wording adjustments were needed
Some features lacked clarity, requiring clearer help guidelines
The PDF layout was adjusted to align with the certifier marking process
Auditors needed an easier way to review the status of actions completed by farmers; this will be addressed in phase two, likely with a dashboard
Overall, feedback indicated the tool was easy to follow, and the requirements were clearly broken down
Our Solution
We came up with a step by step solution that guides farmers through the comprehensive process of creating a freshwater farm plan. The plan is broken up into digestible sections with guidance through all requirements and helpful real-world examples.
The digital plan results in a PDF report that can shared with a certifier or kept for personal use and a CSV report of all actions for audit use. Third-party access also allows certifiers to be added directly into the digital plan.
Our solution empowers farmers to complete much of the plan independently, reducing reliance on certifiers or consultants. This approach saves time and money, while fostering greater farm autonomy and environmental awareness.
The introduction screen gives an overview of freshwater farm plans, what the process will involve, and provides helpful links for users to find out more information outside of our system.
The awesome visuals were designed by our in-house graphic designer Marco.
The wizard navigation guides farmers through the tool, tracking their progress, and allowing them to easily navigate between sections.
Due to the length of each section, we included a homepage at the beginning of each one to outline the necessary steps for users to complete.
Digital mapping
The FWFP requires a large amount of mapping to point out areas of interest on the farm including areas of cultural significance, and infrastructure and land features that could pose a risk to freshwater. We integrated FarmIQ's comprehensive digital mapping functionality directly into the plan, eliminating the need for users to switch contexts. Additionally, we included several new features:
Snapping functionality for faster and easier mapping
The ability to upload shape files from directly within the plan
The ability to overlay regional layers such as soil, slope, culturally significant areas
Checklists to help users keep track of what has been mapped
We provided the necessary steps for users to complete a comprehensive risk analysis taking into account their land, farming activities, and wider catchment and cultural significance. Using an interactive risk matrix they could assess the significance of the risk from low, medium or high.
The final part of the process was creating actions to address the risks earlier identified. All actions translated into tasks in the wider FarmIQ system and put into a digital diary. For actions that required physical work on farm, these could be assigned as a task on the map with the exact location.
The plan could be shared with third parties through an exportable PDF report and CSV of the action plan. It also allowed for third party access meaning multiple users could contribute to the plan.
Challenges and risks
As with any large-scale project, there were several challenges we faced:
Part-time availability of our subject matter expert
Limited availability of our Product owner during the discovery phase requiring me to be more closely involved with keeping track of requirements
Budget constraints
Lack of existing templates or sources of truth to guide us
The complexity of the requirements and lack of stakeholder understanding of the process
Risk of potential changes to the regulations from the new incoming government, requiring flexible technology for content adjustments
Conclusion
In conclusion, this project was a significant undertaking, offering plenty of learning opportunities and requiring communication with a diverse array of stakeholders. It was also a unique experience navigating complex legislative requirements
Despite the new government's decision to pause the rollout of freshwater farm plans for re-evaluation, we've received positive feedback from farmers who have still chosen to complete a plan. The tool is designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for easy adjustments once the government's final decision is made.
Winner of the 2024 Beef + Lamb New Zealand Technology Award!
B+L NZ is a farmer-owned industry body representing New Zealand farmers and we were one of three finalists to win this award. The judges described oue FWFP tool as taking a step-by-step approach to identifying the most productive and vulnerable parts of the farm landscape, enabling targeted management and providing clear evidence of land stewardship to underpin farmer stories.
