PickTrace Field Pack: Expanding Market Reach Through User-Centered Design
In 2022, PickTrace set an ambitious business goal to expand its Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) to $11.5M. As Design Lead, I faced a significant challenge: our product served only certain crop types, leaving a substantial potential market untapped. The key to unlocking this growth lay in supporting field-packed crops—particularly table grapes and strawberries—which represented 160,000 acres and $6.7M in potential revenue.
The Opportunity
Field packing operations differ fundamentally from traditional harvesting processes. In field packing, produce is harvested, packed, labeled, and quality-checked directly in the field rather than at a separate facility. This presented unique tracking challenges:
- Small teams needed individual label roll assignment rather than crew-wide tracking
- Workers expected same-day payment based on tiered piece rates
- Different pack styles required flexible configuration
- Quality control happened in real-time in the field
Our existing system wasn’t designed for these workflows, but successfully adapting it would unlock access to 90-100% of these high-value crop markets.
My Role & Approach
As Design Lead, I directed our discovery, definition, and design process. I assembled and led a cross-functional team including a product manager, implementation specialist, design support, engineering, and QA.
Discovery: Getting Our Boots Muddy
I knew that understanding the field packing process firsthand was essential. I led multiple on-site research sessions where we:
- Observed actual field packing operations for strawberries
- Interviewed field workers, managers, and operation owners
- Documented process variations across different growers
- Identified critical pain points in existing workflows
- Created detailed process maps connecting field activities to potential features
Rather than relying on assumptions, we immersed ourselves in the environment where our solution would be used. This “muddy boots” approach revealed nuances that office-based research would have missed, like how label rolls could be compromised by field conditions or how payment expectations differed for field-packed crops.
Balancing Innovation with Existing Architecture
With critical business objectives on the line, we needed to carefully evaluate tradeoffs and risks. I facilitated collaborative sessions with product and engineering to identify:
Opportunities to leverage existing features:
- Building on established “Work Bundles” and “Jobs” features to minimize disruption
- Adapting existing rate range functionality for tiered piece rates
- Selectively displaying new features only to relevant users
Challenges requiring innovative solutions:
- Redesigning label roll pairing for small teams instead of entire crews
- Creating a system for re-pairing compromised label rolls
- Developing tiered piece rate calculations based on production thresholds
“Virtual Field Packing” for Rapid Iteration
To validate our designs without disrupting customer operations, I created an innovative testing approach I called “Virtual Field Packing.” We transformed office spaces into simulated fields, with actual field managers directing role-playing exercises through realistic scenarios:
- Worker check-in processes
- Label roll assignment and management
- Production tracking and crediting
- End-of-day checkout and payment calculations
This approach allowed us to rapidly iterate designs based on realistic feedback before deploying in actual fields. It revealed several usability issues that we addressed before launch, saving significant development rework.
Design Solution
Our final solution elegantly integrated field packing capabilities into the existing system while addressing the unique requirements of this process across both in-office and mobile field applications:
- Enhanced Job Setup (In-Office Application): Office managers could now configure field packing operations as a job type, with specialized options for pack styles and tiered rates. We carefully redesigned these administrative interfaces to accommodate new field packing parameters without disrupting existing workflows familiar to office staff.
- Team-Based Label Assignment (Mobile Field Application): We completely reimagined the mobile experience for field managers, creating intuitive interfaces for assigning unique label rolls to small teams rather than entire crews. The mobile solution included streamlined workflows for replacing compromised label rolls in harsh field conditions.
- Tiered Piece Rate Tracking (Cross-Platform): The system automatically calculated payments based on production tiers, with real-time visibility for workers on mobile devices and comprehensive reporting for office administrators. This required tight integration between field data collection and back-office processing.
- Mobile-Optimized Field Interfaces: Field managers gained intuitive tools optimized for harsh outdoor conditions, including simplified navigation, high-contrast visuals for sunlight visibility, and offline capabilities for areas with poor connectivity. These interfaces supported critical field activities including quality monitoring and real-time production tracking.
We consciously designed these features to be invisible to customers not using field packing, preserving the simplicity of the core experience while adding powerful capabilities for our new market. The solution required careful consideration of both administrative needs in the office and practical operational needs in the field, creating a cohesive system that worked seamlessly across contexts.
Results & Impact
The business impact exceeded expectations:
- First Customer Success: Royal Oaks Farms implemented the solution in March 2022, representing $1.2M in gross revenue
- Rapid Expansion: After just two weeks, they committed to expanding PickTrace to ALL their berry operations, not just strawberries
- Market Expansion: The solution put us on track to achieve our SAM expansion goals of $11.5M
- Bonus Achievement: Added $5.2M toward our annual payroll processing objective
- New Partnership: Royal Oaks became a beta testing partner, providing valuable access for future research
Beyond metrics, this project transformed how design was perceived within the organization:
- Design-Led Innovation: This was the first major “design-led” initiative where product managers embraced design’s strategic leadership
- Enhanced Collaboration: We established new collaboration channels between design and engineering to address system architecture early
- Accelerated Delivery: Using our new design system components, we delivered in less than 30 days instead of the estimated 3 months
- Methodology Evolution: We developed new methods for iterative delivery that increased trust in design’s strategic value
Key Learnings
This project reinforced several powerful principles that have shaped my leadership approach:
Business-Driven Design: Design must be accountable to business goals. By aligning our work directly with revenue targets, we earned credibility and investment.
Field-Based Research: There’s no substitute for observing users in their actual environment. Our “muddy boots” approach revealed insights that would have been invisible in office settings.
Strategic Compromise: Understanding where to leverage existing architecture versus where to innovate allowed us to deliver meaningful change without unnecessary risk.
Innovative Validation: Our “Virtual Field Packing” method demonstrated that creative approaches to testing can yield valuable feedback without disrupting operations.
Cross-Functional Partnership: Design thrives when it becomes the connective tissue between different disciplines, creating a shared vocabulary for success.
Most importantly, this project proved that user-centered design and business objectives are not opposing forces—when properly aligned, they create powerful opportunities for growth. By deeply understanding both user needs and business goals, we created a solution that expanded market reach while genuinely improving the experience for workers and managers in the field.
