[00:00:00] Speaker A: In your opinion, Kyle, what is the most important or effective feature in John Deere Operations Center Mobile specifically?
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Yeah, okay, great question.
Yeah, I would say the thing we hear most often, it's, it's the ability for a busy farm manager to be able to pull the phone that's already in their pocket and then in 30 seconds understand everything that's going on across their farm. You know, are there any of my equipment that's throwing a trouble code that I need to be concerned with or where's my equipment working or how soon before the team's going to move on to the next field or am I achieving the sort of productivity or job quality I expect? Things like this we hear, you know, I hear from a, a buddy all the time who says, I check it 30, 40, 50 times a day. I'm just constantly.
The ability to just keep tabs on everything that's going on from, from anywhere. Right. Farmers live, we know this, they live on the go. So the beauty of operation Center Mobile is that it's always right there with them.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: So I, you wouldn't know this, but I live, you know, six hours away from our family farm where the action is. I'm a province over six hours away. And so I could definitely relate to that as I sit over here and check in on what's going on on the farm. It's really, really cool. Do you have any, any stories, anything top of mind of, of like a story that just caught your attention or a, like a testimonial from a farmer that just stands out?
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think of just off the top of my head, I had a buddy not so long ago who in the hospital having a baby and was able to keep track of what's going on even while he's away. I know hopefully he was paying attention to what mattered most, when it mattered most. But you know, still there's a lot of downtime, as you know, in those situations. And so the ability to just keep tabs, even in a, in a context like that where normally you'd be disconnected from the farm and what's going on.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: And do you feel there's.
From a size of operation, do you feel that there, there's, you know, any additional uptake on at a certain scale or is this kind of a tool that, you know, if you've got a tractor, a sprayer, your combine, you know, this is, that's what you need to get going on something like this.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. So we, we work across, of course, farm sizes that really span a large gamut So I would say that you. We have customers on the smaller end who definitely love the ability to have their data with them when they're at the coffee shop talking with their fellow farmers. And we have farmers on the, on the larger end on a large scale who need the ability to keep track of their fleet, what's going on. And it obviously becomes increasingly important as you're managing more machines, more people to make sure everything's moving along as it ought to be.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: So, Kyle, you, you're very responsive on social media, on X, and that's why I wanted to have you on, on the show here. What caught my attention was that you were taking feedback, suggestions and brainstorming with, you know, farmers and others on, on X. And I just want to ask, what do you get the most out of those interactions?
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, great question.
Yeah, it's probably been about, I don't know, 10 years ago or so that I took note of the conversation that was just naturally happening amongst farmers and others in agriculture just on what at the time was called Twitter, obviously Ag Twitter, some called it. And I wanted to be where the conversation was happening and just kind of listen in. And then at some point along the way, I started posting about features we were developing. And then people just naturally start associating you with a product and then begin to interact at that level. Level. And so people make, make requests and ask questions. And I feel like that really keeps me, keeps me grounded. I try to pay a lot of attention to what are the things that people are asking for, what are the problems they need help solving. And it helps prioritize what we build. I keep, you know, I keep a folder on my, on my computer that's, that's categorized. It's actually a bunch of folders by category of all the screenshots. Anytime I see something screenshot it, put it in a folder. And over time I go through there and as things stack up, it's like, okay, this is something that, is clearly something that's top of mind for our customers. And it's just, it's a helpful way to just keep an ear to the ground.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: You may not be aware of this, but last, I think it was last September, it was like September 5th, there was a request that you were like engaging in conversation and a request, a bit of brainstorming. And I think it's 24 days later you had the update and were like, hey, we've made this change. Here's the update. Let me know what you think of it. And I don't know I thought that was pretty cool to see that come across.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: I can't take credit for that. I work with an amazing team and there's nothing that quite motivates us as a team than real customer feedback and knowing that the person that asked for it is going to use it. It's going to solve a problem for them and hopefully make their life a little bit easier. So that's really rewarding for us. And so that's really what helps get some of those things through really quickly.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Well, my sister in law, I've got a comment for my sister in law to wrap up our segment. I'm going to save it for now, but yeah, there's some problem solving there as well for us. All right, no, let's just keep going down that vein here.
So this podcast, Western Canada listener base, why don't you just tell us a little bit more about, know your role at John Deere, you as a person, you know, what drives you, where do you come from? Just more of your story.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Sure, yeah, absolutely. So I grew up and actually still live in rural central Illinois. Both my, both my grandparents were farmers, but my dad did not go to the farm. He worked his career IBM and so computers, technology, always surrounded by that from a, from an early age. And I knew I wanted to do something in that area. So, you know, but I also grew up surrounded by agriculture. Combine rides in the fall, 4H FFA, all of those things. And so, you know, after I graduated college and looking for a job, I found myself at the intersection of technology and agriculture. And that's been a really good fit.
I love agriculture.
It's this industry where you have rich tradition and yet adoption of technology. Right. Where tradition meets the future. And so it's a really great place to be.
I've been at John Deere now for about six years. Been focused on operation center mobile that whole time. So my passion, yeah, building hopefully powerful but simple tools that help hard working farmers around the globe be, be more productive.
And then of course, I can't neglect to mention that along the way, got married to my best friend, my bride Heather and we have five kids age 11 and under. So that's awesome. A big part of my life is, is being, being a dad.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: That's, that's a fun household. Lots going on every day. So that's awesome. Well, I appreciate that. Appreciate that. Kyle, can I ask, do you have a beat or a handle on how, how planting went in your, in your area, how things were going?
I think it was a little bit wet, maybe just south of you guys this year, but how to go kind of in your backyard there?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Yeah, there were. There were some delays. But, you know, once things got going, things are pretty well done around. Around this area. So, yeah, after a few weeks of dealing with some rain farmers were able to get in and get the acres in. So, yeah, things have gone smoothly.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Good stuff. Good stuff. All right, I want to turn our attention here to more about getting familiar with Operations Center.
If you're going to your local John Deere dealership and you want to open this door a little bit, like, what is the best way to just get engaged or introduced to Operations Center?
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, great question. I mean, so you mentioned already that we have an incredible dealer network. So, I mean, one great way is to go visit your local dealer and have them show you what the digital tools are capable of and show you in person how these things. It's really not just about mobile, but how these things work end to end, all the way from the solutions on the equipment itself to what you can use in the digital tools off board.
And of course, another great way that you can do right now, apart from visiting the dealer, is just jump on YouTube and there's a ton of really great video tutorials. A couple searches will pull up a number of videos that are worthwhile. And then don't forget about. We have a great knowledge base. It'
[email protected] and I use that myself. Honestly, I get asked all kinds of questions that sometimes are outside of my area of expertise. And so it's like, oh, okay, well.
Or I just need to refer someone to here's how to accomplish this or that task. And so I use that resource a lot and find it super helpful.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, appreciate that.
And can I just throw in here as well? When you look at Operations center, there's obviously desktop version and then there's the mobile version.
Are you part of both teams or is obviously they're together to some degree, but is there.
Let's grab our phones here and dial in specifically to that user experience. How does that kind of come together?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah, so I spend my time focused on Operations center mobile, but work extensively with my coworkers who work on Operations center web. So I care a lot about the web experience, but my focus is on mobile specifically. And you know, we're really trying to. To not necessarily replicate every single thing you can do on the web on mobile, but just trying to take the ones that are most common, most helpful to have with you on the go all the Time and really trying to find the right balance of what to have in mobile versus what to have in web.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: All right, cool.
All right. So, you know, I think of Operations center for myself. These are the words that come to mind for me. I think about, you know, management, I think about decision making, I think about efficiency. You know, those are three. And I wanted to toss it over to you to ask what words resonate for you when you think of Operation Center?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah, man, you hit the right words. I mean, you're touching at the heart of why the easy ones.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Right?
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. I mean, you know, agriculture, it's always been this sort of complex, delicate blend of tradition, intuition, and trials and lots of checking of the weather and stuff like that. Right. And it's a, you know, it's a thousand things to manage, a thousand decisions to make. It's hard to overstate the challenge that farmers face every day. And so our, our aim is to, to build tools that help farmers navigate that sort of complexity.
And so, yeah, efficiency, management, these are the types of things we're trying to build a platform that farmers can run their farm on. From making making plans to ensuring that their equipment is set up for success when they enter the field, to monitoring the work as it's happening through the season, all the way to simple tools for, for optimizing decisions by looking at all the data that's being collected across the farm. So all of it's there to, to really help farmers be more profitable, more productive, and hopefully get the tech out of the way. But the purpose is not the technology. Right. The goal is to, to give a farmer more time at the dinner table and not more buttons to press. Right. And so, yeah, that's, that's what we're trying to achieve.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: I think, like, I wrote down simple here as well. I.
I don't think that's exactly the right word that I'm going for, but that, you know, that easy, not easy, ease of use, like, that's also something that in our farm conversations, like the ability to go and do something, it's very.
It's simple to go and use it.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: So we're trying for that. I mean, we're trying to take things that, you know, it's like the best technology, the best tools are like a good pair of boots. Right.
If you're thinking about it, something's wrong, it gets out of the way, it does its job.
That's what we're trying to accomplish. And so, yeah, making that as simple and easy to use as possible is something I think about Every day.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, I got a couple more for you here. I appreciate your time today, Kyle. When I look at the features that have come out recently, I need to ask, is there anything on the horizon, something a sneak peek or anything you can give us a little teaser on here for this summer?
[00:12:51] Speaker B: I mean, watch out in the space. Without getting into too many specifics, watch out in the space of logistics. I mean, I know that that's something that's a hot word among, among farmers and for good reason.
We are going to make big investments in that space over the next year. And so we want to make sure that everybody in the operation has the right information at the right time to be at the right place at the right time and keep the operation moving along as efficiently as possible. You know, imagine that the tender receiving an alert, knowing that they need to be at the sprayer and in 15 minutes or they're going to be out of product or making sure that, you know, for example, I know that the team is going to be finished harvesting the field in about 20 minutes and I need to think about moving them along to the next field.
Things like that that really help provide answers at the right time so that a manager can make sure that the team is where they need to be and saving, really reducing idle time, reducing unproductive time and maximizing the amount of time that they can keep running.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: All right, awesome.
We are going to stay tuned for logistics folks. That certainly perked my ears as well and I'm sure it did for the listeners. Okay, before I get into a bit more of a funny one here.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Is.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: There or what would you maybe suggest here when it comes to, you know, analyzing some of the, the data that is collected or, or taking or maybe going from, you know, call me like a beginner user to a more advanced user.
Is there a path or resources there? And we talked about YouTube, we talked about was it Knowledge center as well that you brought up? Is there anything else that kind of can get you to that next level from a user, you know, a pro, up to a pro user level?
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it begins with a lot of people are already collecting all this data, right? They the ability to collect yield maps, for example, has been around for well over a decade. And so a lot of times people have connected equipment and just aren't looking at the data. And one of the beauty, beautiful things about operations center, mobile operation center web, click on a field, right?
Pull up last year's harvest and just review.
There is a ton of information, insights that you can get just by browsing through some of the data that's already been collected. And then of course getting a bigger picture. There's in mobile we have a tool called analyze and in web there's a tool called work analyzer. It allows you to kind of get the, the big overview of how things went over the course of a season. Quickly answer which, which of my varieties perform better than another? Or which of my fields was I more efficient on or less efficient on? Or comparing operators or equipment.
Really easy tools to slice and dice the data that you're collecting.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: All right, that sounds great. Perfect.
Okay, so here's just a quick one. We're tight on time here, but I want to say on our farm, you know, a hot meal is very, very important for the crew.
You know, at the dinner time, supper time, it's very, very important.
And my sister in law, she's not, wasn't originally from the farm or the area. So you know, saying to go to grandpa's half, you know, it didn't quite, didn't exactly know what that meant. Right. Or whatever the names were. And what I could say now, and she told me to mention this is that everybody gets a very hot meal now because she knows exactly where she's going. Perfect dinner time when it's time to bring out that meal. So that's, that's why it exists.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: That's, this is why operates exist. Make sure that get the hot meal.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that was, that was good. I, I thought that was a good one. So. All right, Kyle, I appreciate you coming on the, with the Futures podcast. Anything else that we didn't cover today that you want to bring up?
[00:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean look, we'd love to, you know, have you visit your, your local John Deere dealer. Love to have you use Operation Center Mobile and web. We're going to continue to build fantastic tools. We'd love to hear your feedback on what we should build next. And we can't wait to show you what we're working on.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: And could we put a little plug for your X handle, your social media handle. How should people get a hold of you?
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me at xyleplatner and be happy to try to answer your questions and I post there when we release new features.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thanks again, Kyle. Thanks.
