During our last AgriTech Incubation Program, we got to sit down with AgriTech Senior Product Manager from San Francisco, Levon Minassian, where we discussed what AgriTech is and what it means to participate in our AgriTech Incubation Program.
We are excited to announce that Levon will also be participating in our upcoming AgriTech Incubation!
Q: What’s your expertise?
The area of expertise that I would say that I’ve been working in for the last 6 years is in digital agriculture.
Q: So what is Digital Agriculture?
So basically in AgriTech there’s always new devices and data streams like IoT devices, remote-sensed sources of climate data, plant health data, data related to the soil and different characteristics that are important for tracking, for farming contexts, and pulling all of that data into a platform or some sort of recommendation engine. Basically [digital agriculture] it is the process of making data actionable for farmers or anybody working in the agriculture industry.
Q: Could you elaborate on what you’ve been talking to students about and how you’ve been guiding them?
So we’ve been going over a lot of product management 101. We’ve been discussing how you evaluate different value propositions and we’ve been addressing different problem areas. I’ve been giving general advice on their ideas for different products or feature areas or how they can refine problem statements that they have into different initial solutions. We’ve spent a lot of time going over the MVP process, for example, how could we get an initial prototype together and take it to a particular userbase and then get feedback to start to refine and build a longer term solution.
Q: How do you feel about their thought process, like what have you seen in the past couple of days that stood out to you?
I would say that a lot of students that i’ve encountered have a really great imagination, which is something that you need to be able to conceive new ideas and new solutions, where maybe they don’t have as much background in, you know, how do I step into the shoes of my user, which is a farmer. There are so many other players involved in the AgriTech value chain, so getting exposure to the nuances of what’s needed by each of those actors in the AgriTech value chain is like something that I’ve tried to highlight – that they need to focus a little bit more on. But overall they have a really strong tech background. So starting to marry that tech background with the practical needs of the users that they are trying to go after and solve problems for, that’s really the next step of what I’m trying to help them with.
Q: So, why AgriTech? Why should you spend your time getting involved in AgriTech?
We can get into how AgriTech is really the foundation to like all the other industries…everybody has to eat. The only reason we are here and able to do anything else is because of the soil, and you know, the ability to grow crops and have a stable food system. So it’s endlessly fulfilling and interesting if you really get into it and get a passion for the process by which we feed ourselves. And we are at a time when there’s so many pressing needs in agriculture – there’s so many resource constraints: water, energy, and then land as well. We have this really big global challenge of producing more food with less resources. And technology has a really big role to play in closing that gap and providing improvements with that sort of situation that we find ourselves in. So it’s a really exciting time to be in AgriTech I would say.
Q: What would you say to people who are thinking of applying to the next Agritech program? What type of skills would someone getting into AgriTech need to have? And who can contribute?
Maybe some people think they need to have a big background in farming or they need to have a big background in ecology, or like, they need a technical background or they won’t be able to help in AgriTech, and I’d say that’s not true. In AgriTech and the companies that I’ve been a part of and have interacted with in the industry over the last 7 years, you meet people with every kind of background. And I think as more people from other backgrounds come in, it only makes the industry richer because you’ll be able to provide a unique perspective to professionalize — to find ways to contribute, I would say.
