Proposal: Incorporating farm "rotations" into LiteFarm work

Owned by Lite Farm
Last updated: May 03, 2022
2 min read

 

Problem:

Individuals that spend a lot of their time sitting at a computer often feel the need to spend time outside or otherwise escape their computers. Most computer-based jobs don’t really have an outlet for this type of escape and burnout or dissatisfaction can occur.

 

Context:

LiteFarm is a more “concrete” app than most. That is, for the most part, we’re recreating and streamlining physical processes in software that happen in the real world. Can we leverage this “concrete-ness” to address some of the problem?

 

Proposal:

LiteFarm occupies a fairly unique ability to address this problem. For many LiteFarm employees, there are farms using LiteFarm in their nearby vicinity. Assuming (this needs to be vetted) farmers would want a free pair of hands periodically, could we get LiteFarm employees literally into the field a few times a year?

 

Benefits:

I see several benefits:

  1. LiteFarm employees stave off burn-out and feel more connected to their work

  2. LiteFarm employees get a better understanding of what they’re building

  3. LiteFarm employees support the communities they’re building for

  4. Farmers get free labour and an opportunity to help build a better app for their operations

 

Execution:

LiteFarm would continue to pay salaries normally. This would be considered “staff development time”. A few approaches we could take:

  • LiteFarm could essentially “shut down” for X weeks each year to support heavy work periods on farms in each employees local area, such as seeding or harvest.

  • LiteFarm could have a “gap day” between sprint review and sprint planning where everyone that wants to can get into the field.

  • Every employee gets a certain number of “field days” that they coordinate with their local farmer as convenient

  • Could do after sprint planning - once you know the scope of what you need to work on - to then build it more effectively