August 2023
Organto (I Am Organic)
Organto wanted to prove its produce was organic — not just claim it. I turned a raw supply-chain dataset (a QR code on every banana) into a farm-to-shelf story, then led EU market research and positioning when the build stalled.
Role
UX and Marketing Consultant
Duration
1 Year
Tools
Adobe XD, Keynote, Miro
Content Clarity
Defined the narrative structure and key messaging across the digital passport, transforming scattered data into a clear consumer-facing story.
Intake Framework
Built a modular intake system to standardise farm documentation and cut ambiguity for the tech team and stakeholders.
UX Direction
Delivered UX recommendations backed by usability testing and interviews, shaping the roadmap for Passport 2.0.
Strategic Research
Ran a full EU market analysis, mapping retailer behaviours and framing Organto’s competitive edge in transparency.
Stakeholder Alignment
Built internal presentations that turned complex insights into clear direction for design, marketing, and leadership.
Brand Positioning
Helped reframe digitalisation from a backend feature into a brand differentiator built on trust and authenticity.
Discovery
brief
What started as a technical ambition quickly revealed a deeper challenge: how do you turn a supply chain dataset into a human experience people actually care about?
Research outcomes
Interviews and user testing with Dutch consumers surfaced a tangle of mixed assumptions:
Key Insights
🧑🌾 Certifications alone don’t create trust, stories do: While organic and Fairtrade labels were expected, they weren’t enough. Users wanted real proof: who grew this, how was it treated, what does “organic” mean here?
📱Scanning needs a clear payoff: Most people won’t scan a QR code unless there’s something to gain, either utility or story. A passive list of facts doesn’t justify the action.
👀 Attention is fragile, and we lost it: Animations and popups buried important information. Critical content was either too hard to spot or too easy to scroll past.
🛤️ People think in journeys, not databases: The product’s life cycle made intuitive sense to users, but the structure didn’t. Users expected a guided story, not disconnected categories or labels.
🗂️ Visual hierarchy matters more than volume: The platform had content, but it lacked clarity. Without a strong narrative and visual structure, even meaningful data felt fragmented or dull.
Rewriting the Narrative
We moved toward something more layered — less certificate, more digital companion to the banana’s life — and restructured the experience into five narrative zones:
Each section needed meaning, not just data. “Hours of Sun” became a storytelling hook about growing conditions rather than a weather stat — and a shift toward speaking to the user directly.
Ideation
The “digital passport” idea felt rich with potential, but early versions treated it like a certificate, not a story. I experimented with ways to make the experience more personal, playful, and legible — turning each piece of data into a stamp of identity, as if the banana had travelled and been verified at every stage.
This gave us a tone of voice (“Date of Birth”, “Place of Origin”) and a visual vocabulary of stamps, badges, and approvals that brought the story to life. It also shifted internal thinking: instead of just showing traceability, the platform could give each banana a personality and a journey — a banana with a backstory.
Where the Tech Fell Short
Content and structure were getting clearer, but backend integration lagged. Opus struggled to convert farm documents into clean, usable data, so the focus shifted from the platform’s design to making the system work in real life.
Data collection was the bottleneck. Farmers were sending PDFs, handwritten records, scattered certifications — no standardised intake.
So we rethought the approach: instead of waiting for automation, start manual and go modular. Give farms structured templates. Define what data belongs in each section. Roll out one supply-chain stage at a time.
Pivot into Marketing
Context
With backend development on pause, Organto deprioritised the digital passport build and pivoted to broader business questions: Which markets should we focus on? What messaging resonates? What does transparency look like at retail?
Because I’d been deep in the mix of consumer insight, supply-chain data, and platform storytelling, I was asked to support the marketing lead directly — a natural extension of the work I’d already done on what people value, trust, and respond to.
I led an EU-wide market research deep dive, synthesising findings into stakeholder presentations and team sessions. I looked at retail dynamics, competitor positioning, sustainability messaging, and how digitalisation was being used not just for operations but as a brand differentiator.
Questions I Helped Answer
What to emphasise when pitching to European retailers.
How brands like Aldi and Carrefour frame sustainability and CO₂ data.
Where digital traceability reads as valuable rather than novel.
How Organto can own a position around authenticity, clarity, and story.
Key Learnings
In fast-changing, resource-limited environments, insight work becomes the glue between vision and execution.
My role became a translator—turning user research, supply chain complexity, and digital friction into clear, strategic direction for marketing and product.
Visual communication mattered. I wasn’t just delivering insights—I was crafting how they were understood, shared, and acted on.
QR Code Marketing Video
Narrative Power
A strong story builds more trust than raw data, especially in low-touch products like produce.
Flexible Focus
Great design isn’t always a screen. Sometimes it’s a spreadsheet, a conversation, or a reframe.
Role Fluidity
The most valuable work I did wasn’t always what I was hired for, and that was the point.