Client Success · Plantix

In 2024, Plantix embarked on a bold initiative to develop a data product that bridges cutting-edge technology with the needs of farmers and businesses in the agricultural ecosystem. Under the leadership of Androniki Menelaou, Head of Data Products, the team navigated the complexities of building a 0-to-1 product, balancing technical innovation, product strategy, and customer insights.

Elias from Product Matters, supported and guided Androniki on her journey to craft a compelling focus and strong alignment stakeholder alignment within the company. Through field research, stakeholder collaboration, and strategic coaching, Androniki and Plantix have laid the groundwork for a transformative solution poised to drive sustainable agriculture into the future.

Born in Nicosia, Androniki Menelaou is a data science and product leader with a DPhil (PhD) in Statistics from the University of Oxford, where she developed patented software for genetic research. Her decade-long professional career spans impactful roles across fintech and agritech, including co-founding Katana Labs, leading advanced analytics at ING, and heading data science at Apollo Agriculture. Now Head of Data Products at Plantix, she specializes in developing data-driven solutions for sustainable agriculture. She excels at building high-performing teams and strategic partnerships while developing innovative 0-to-1 products that drive measurable impact in complex global markets.

Androniki, tell us about your personal journey as the new Head of Product in Plantix!

I joined Plantix to lead the Data Products initiative during an exciting transition period. My background in Data Science and Agtech seemed like a good match and I am aligned with the vision of the company. I was excited to have a role to bridge customer needs, business viability and technological understanding. I spent some time orienting myself with the team and the data and visited India where I met both farmers and corporates who act in the agriculture ecosystem. Breaking down the assumptions on how agriculture in India was important and speaking with several companies helped us narrow down a couple of challenges we could address with some pilots.  Having learnt from the pilots, and with more interviews we were able to take the learnings and define a team, a problem and a region to focus for 2025

For me, the differentiating proposition of many AI products is going to be data and I am particularly excited about how we’re working to solve fundamental data collection challenges in agriculture while ensuring we maintain our core mission of supporting farmers.

Could you walk us through the approach you’re taken to build this product? How do you deal with an early stage product?

For a few months I was overwhelmed with the possibilities and opportunities and said yes to anything that came across my desk. It is both exciting and exhausting to build a new product. So at the beginning I made a rookie mistake. After a few months I was spinning. 

Saying yes to many things has actually allowed me to learn a lot about the industry and the agriculture ecosystem and make important connections. I used this and in combination with desk research put down a product narrative. I communicated this with my peers and stakeholders where I received critical feedback and also aligned with them. That helped me create some focus and actually gain confidence on the insights that started emerging. From there, we built a strategy and defined opportunities to go after aligning it with the overall company ambitions for 2025. From there we worked on a product strategy and now on the dawn of 2025 we are (almost) ready with our Q1 roadmap.

As you assembled and led the team, what qualities or skills were most essential? How have you balanced different areas like data engineering, product strategy, and customer needs?

The most essential quality we’ve looked for is versatility – people who can wear multiple hats while maintaining focus on our core objectives. Our team needs to balance technical excellence with business acumen, as we’re building both data infrastructure and business relationships simultaneously. The team is self-sufficient and can build products end-to-end. Another important aspect is each member in the team has previous experience in building products. I find the discussions across functions are 10x more constructive if you have walked the walk and talked the talk. 

We’ve structured the team to cover three critical areas: technical capability (ML engineers and data engineers to ensure high-quality data collection and processing), product strategy (to define our roadmap and value proposition), and customer understanding (to understand, build and maintain strong B2B customer relationships and ensure we’re building what the market needs).

Has there been anything unexpected in this journey—either challenges or pleasant surprises? How did you adapt?

Few challenges as always and everywhere:

1. We discovered that the timing of agricultural seasons significantly impacts our ability to run pilots and close deals. We’ve had to adapt our planning and resources accordingly, ensuring we have sufficient commercial focus in Q1 and Q2 to align with these natural cycles.
2. We realised that in many cases, technical teams are excited about our data and the potential to solve specific problems but cannot bridge this clearly to the impact in the business. Together with a great colleague, we now present a design partnership where part of it is to help the team internally to realise the value and understand the business opportunity. Providing a frame has helped discussions move to the next level.

A pleasant surprise is the creativity and new ways of thinking and working using AI tools – I used Claude projects to go through all the documents and dovetail to group insights among others. It’s an amazing time to be building products

What would you recommend other emerging product leaders working on brand new products?

Many learnings indeed:

1. There is a balance between underinvesting and overinvesting in team and resources. It’s a chicken and egg discussion but definitely a fine balance when you start building new products and it’s important to get the team. 
2. People are everything – going on an adventure of defining a new product in a startup has very high chances of failure but it is an incredible journey and the single most important thing to increase the chances is the right team. 
3. Focus is key – with a white canvas it is very easy to get lost and spin around – for me working on the product narrative and strategy has helped me be critical and create focus. 
4. All other important aspects of building a product customers love and having an empowered team holds true in new products as well!

What was it like to work with Product Matters?

My journey with Elias began in quite a memorable way – sending an email at 4am from an airport on my way to Berlin, feeling somewhat lost about our product direction. The speed of response – Elias got back to me by 7am – and we were on our first call within days. This responsiveness would become characteristic of our entire engagement.

Initially, as someone with a statistics background, I approached product coaching expecting to learn specific tools, frameworks, and processes. Elias had a different idea – he challenged my assumptions in the best possible way. When Elias first asked me to write a product narrative, I was both surprised and slightly concerned – it seemed far from the tactical toolset I was expecting. However, this process proved transformative. As I worked through the narrative, I found myself spinning less and gaining more confidence in my ideas. What’s more, it created a foundation that made everything else – strategy, roadmap, OKRs – flow naturally.

Our coaching sessions typically balanced two elements: addressing immediate challenges I brought to the table, while consistently pulling on deeper strategic threads over time. This combination of tactical and strategic thinking helped us make significant progress in areas like strategy development, team structure, and organizational alignment over the past six months.

One particularly valuable aspect was having Elias as a sounding board for my thinking. Getting an outside perspective and hearing about similar challenges faced by other product leaders made the journey feel less isolating. It helped me develop a broader view of what great product leadership could look like.

While it doesn’t guarantee success – building great products never comes with guarantees – it has equipped me with a mindset focused on learning and growth. It helped me see that product leadership isn’t just about having the right tools or frameworks; it’s about embarking on a journey of continuous learning and discovery, which has made this role all the more exciting.