Carbon Data Collection

From Field-by-Field Data Entry to Crop-Oriented Program Execution

How I helped rebuild the foundation of Indigo's carbon platform around real-world farm management, reducing burden and unlocking scale.

Role

Senior Product Designer

Context

Sole designer, execution

Scope

Research, UX design,
systems design, architecture

Team

PM, engineering,
CS, policy & science

Executive Summary

Indigo's carbon platform required growers and partners to submit complex, multi-year agricultural data across enrolled fields — but was built around a field-first model that didn't reflect how growers actually manage land. I led the research and redesign that reoriented the platform around Crop Plans, reducing duplication and creating a more scalable foundation for program execution.

10×

reduction in time required to complete data collection

84%

of users rated the filing experience easy or very easy

~1M

verified carbon credits generated post-redesign launch

"This is an unbelievable time saver. If there was a most improved award, this team wins it hands down!"

01 — Product

How the new model came to life.

Crop Plan creation wizard

The core new flow: create a crop-level plan once, then assign across fields. Replaced dozens of repetitive field-year records.

Crop Plan management

Centralized view of all records across assigned fields with consolidated issue management.

Field-level insights and tracking

Simplified field page allowed growers to review cropping history and efficiently resolve issues.

Progress and status visibility

Redesigned dashboard gave growers and partners a clear view of program filing status at a glance.

03 — The Insight

Growers don't think in isolated field records. They think in terms of crop management across groups of fields over a season.

That shift changed the design question entirely: not "how do we improve field-by-field data entry?" but "what would this platform look like if it were built around real-world farm management?" Everything that followed flowed from that.

04 — The Solution

Project Lightning rebuilt the platform around Crop Plans as the primary unit of work.

Instead of recreating nearly identical records field by field, users could create a crop-level plan once, assign it across relevant fields, and manage records more centrally. Supporting improvements to dashboard structure, navigation, and progress visibility helped turn the redesign from a workflow fix into a more scalable program execution foundation.

05 — My Contribution

What I owned.

Foundational research and synthesis across growers, partners, and internal stakeholders

Strategic reframing and insight development

Crop-oriented system framework and product architecture

Workflow and interaction design across all major flows

Crop Plan creation, management, and issue resolution design

Dashboard and navigation redesign

Engineering handoff and implementation support

Alignment with VPs, directors, and cross-functional leadership

From Field-by-Field Data Entry to Crop-Oriented Program Execution

How the new model came to life.

Even small enrollments could balloon into dozens of repetitive records.

Project Lightning rebuilt the platform around Crop Plans as the primary unit of work.

What I owned.