After weeks of brainstorming, editing, and pivoting, the final week of digital product development has been completed. This stage wasn’t just about wrapping things up, it was about locking in the design and feel and ensuring that it aligned with the farmers’ needs.

Reflecting on the development process

Building this newsletter has been a process. The idea and early drafts were full of ambition and complex layouts, heavy graphics, and long sections. But through deep-thinking and testing, feedback, and a few big pivots, figuring out that simplicity and consistency are what truly matter.

Some of the key learnings from the process include:

• Flexibility is essential. A good newsletter framework for farmers must adapt to changing content each week without requiring a total redesign. Making sure that there were clear instructions for farmers to add in their name, produce or product types, as an ad-lib format.
• Consistency builds reliability. Even as content shifts, the audience of The Beet will feel grounded by recurring sections like CSA lists, related recipes, and intuitive fill-in-the-blanks.
• “Done” is better than “perfect.” By focusing on progress instead of perfection, we were able to keep momentum and ensure a finished product instead of endless revisions.

The Final Product

The completed newsletter is clean, seasonally produced, and farmer oriented. It features long-format reads and templates, harest guides, recipes, CSA templates, and event templates.

Looking Ahead

The newsletter is no longer just a concept, it’s a living piece of communication. The success will now depend on reader feedback & engagement, ongoing projects, and how it adapts to the rhythm of the seasonal work by farms. The final week may mark the end of development, but it’s also the beginning of the product. It’s an ongoing project, never truly ending.