DESIGNING AN AGTECH WEARABLE APP
An NZ-based AgTech startup (client under NDA) was developing wearable animal technology to make life easier for farmers and reduce reliance on costly infrastructure. Their primary focus had been on the physical product, leaving the digital experience underdeveloped.
As Principal Product Designer, I was brought in to define the digital product direction, align leadership, and deliver a usable MVP app (digital twin product) within two months. The team had just secured first round funding, making the timeline critical. Working with limited resources, I owned product vision, strategy, and execution end-to-end to help the company reach its pilot milestone.
YEAR/ROLE
2025 | Principal Product Designer
KEY ACTIVITIES
Product Vision, Brand Identity, Market Research, Customer Research, UX/UI Design, Product Management
INDUSTRY
AgTech | Wearable Animal Technology | B2C
DELIVERABLES
Design System, Product Architecture, High-Fidelity Prototypes, Digital Product MVP, UX Flows, Brand Artefacts
Problem Landscape
The appetite for wearable animal technology in New Zealand was still in the “prove it to me” phase. If a tool doesn’t clearly solve a problem or demonstrate return on investment, most farmers will stick with traditional methods. This meant the product’s perceived value had to be obvious from day one.
• COMPETITIVE PRICING INTENSITY
Established market competitors required expensive infrastructure like reception towers, Starlink subscriptions and high cost wearable devices.
• LABOUR TURNOVER
36% of dairy workers leave within a year, making remote oversight of the farm essential for farm continuity.
• FARMER SCEPTICISM
Only 59% of farmers viewed digital technology as positively impacting farm performance, preferring proven local results.
• ANIMAL HEALTH RESPONSE IS REACTIVE
Managing individual animal needs across large herds is still a manual, time-heavy task that often hides health issues until they escalate.
Approach
I began by running deep-dive sessions with the founder and COO to clarify both the conceptual product vision and brand identity: defining who they wanted to be, who they didn’t, and how to stand apart in a crowded AgTech market. From there, we worked backwards from a conceptual vision to a milestone-based roadmap informed by interviews and over 20 industry reports.
• ALIGNED THE TEAM AROUND PURPOSE
Facilitated vision and brand workshops with leadership to define values, positioning, and product principles that guided every product decision.
• DESIGNED MULTI-LAYER ARCHITECTURE
I designed a three-tier data architecture allowing users to move between individual animal, herd-level, and goal-based “workspaces,” each mapped to the seasonal jobs-to-be-done on farms.
• BUILT SUSTAINABLE DESIGN INFRASTRUCTURE
• COLLABORATION AT PACE
Worked with engineering and data teams to connect hardware data with the app experience, delivering a MVP to pilot farmers within eight weeks.
What Shipped & Why it Matters
The MVP and strategy work brought structure, confidence, and renewed energy to a team sprinting toward their first major milestone. It showed pilot farmers tangible value while giving the business a roadmap for future growth.
• 0 -> 1 DIGITAL PRODUCT
The wearable product was already on livestock, now the digital twin app connected the experience and demonstrated the real value. The MVP was also functional tool to test in real conditions, enabling immediate feedback loops.
• DESIGN INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT TO LAST
The bootstrapped Figma design system and UX flows became the team’s living documentation for future releases. It allowed the team to build layouts with consistency without a design resource.
• SHARED UNDERSTANDING AND MORALE BOOST
The new architecture, roadmap and brand aligned the team and renewed their excitement of the product we were bringing to life.
• FOUNDATION FOR SCALE
The MVP architecture set up the framework for future multi-herd, multi-animal and multi-user management, as well as, predictive data features.
