KBC: Scaling an employee engagement app in a complex environment through structured software delivery.
KBC, one of Belgium's leading banking and insurance groups, had a clear cultural (and digital) ambition: stimulate specific employee behaviors and strengthen collective spirit. Their answer? The Pearl app. An internal platform where employees earn pearls by completing challenges, which they can convert into donations to a good cause.
What began as a promising prototype soon hit its limits. Built by a mixed development team, the app was functional but standalone.
Scaling it to 40.000+ employees across the KBC organization raised complex questions.
We were building further on top of a prototype, without the resources and right profiles to really own the project.
Stefan Garaleas, Head of Corporate Culture & Change at KBC
At this point, The Value Hub was brought in for its proven expertise in structured software delivery and scaling digital products in complex environments. Our structured approach and deep understanding of agile transformation in regulated contexts made us a perfect fit and partner. For the next phase of the Pearl app and beyond.
A software delivery health check revealed the current process flow, resources, delivery methods, including the strategy and alignment gaps. In close collaboration with KBC, we helped reset the delivery approach.
We structured the development flow end-to-end: from business requirements to test automation and secure deployment. We introduced agile project management to deliver incremental value in short, measurable sprints. A product discovery track ensured that challenges inside the app aligned with the broader cultural strategy of KBC.
We rebuilt the delivery process with a focus on direct business value to the end-user. This allowed us to deliver results in a structured and predictable way.
Luca Filippone, Managing Partner at The Value Hub
To accelerate delivery, we scaled up the product development team with the right talent: backend and frontend developers, analysts and an experienced agile project lead. This allowed the internal KBC team to stay focused on business priorities, while we ensured operational execution at speed and quality.
This story shows how you can scale and market an app in a structured, value-driven way with attention to the target audience. Or how digital ambition meets effective software delivery.
Our role in this project and what we accomplished:
Thanks to the collaboration with The Value Hub we now have a streamlined process and we improved the technical quality of the app.
Stefan Garaleas
While new features are still being developed and the user base grows, KBC is gradually internalizing more ownership over the product. With the right foundation in place, the focus now shifts toward sustainable adoption, continuous improvement and anchoring the app within the broader culture strategy. And the partnership between KBC and The Value Hub? Since this first collaboration, the two teams have joined forces on several innovative projects, built on shared trust, clear ownership, and a pragmatic approach to digital delivery.
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