The art of choosing: when everything cannot grow at the same time
January 2025. The team meets in Lille, at the offices of Guild, the technical partner. Coloured sticky notes on the walls. Sheets of paper spread out on the floor. The time has come to turn feedback from the field into concrete decisions.
The grower’s dilemma
Every grower knows it: you cannot grow everything on the same plot. You have to choose. For PermaTechnics, the situation is much the same. Ideas abound, the needs identified pile up, but resources stay limited.
The exercise of the day looks simple, and is complex to carry out. Sort, prioritise, postpone. Every feature is weighed and assessed from three angles: its value for market gardeners, its technical complexity, its real urgency.
The choices that shape the tool
The regulatory compliance module? Essential for CAP 2026 compliance, but put back by a few months. The reason is pragmatic: better to consolidate the foundations first, crop planning and task management, before adding floors on top.
Automatic calculation of seed requirements, asked for by several testers? It moves to high priority. A feature that looks simple but that will save market gardeners precious hours.
The sophisticated crop rotation algorithms Didrik demonstrated? They will wait. First make it possible to plan simply, then optimise. The team is learning to walk before it runs.
Between technical ambition and economic reality
Another trade-off comes up: development or marketing? Should the tool be perfected, or should the word start getting out? The decision leans towards a cautious balance. Building a community of ambassadors, yes. Launching large scale campaigns, not yet.
Morgan brings his view from the field: “Market gardeners are not looking for perfection. They want a tool that works, now.” That sentence reframes the debate. The urgent thing is not to have every feature, but to have the right ones.
The seeds of tomorrow
These trade-offs draw the outline of PermaTechnics. An application that grows in stages, that gets richer through contact with its users. Every postponement is not an abandonment but a “not yet”. Every choice strengthens the core of the tool: making daily life easier for market gardeners.
The workshop ends. The roadmap is clear. Some seeds will wait for the next cycle to germinate. Others will be sown straight away.
Coming next: how do you prepare the ground to welcome the first users?