Kiwifruit Breeding Centre: ACCELERATING digital delivery
Kiwifruit Breeding Centre partnered with Radically to accelerate the delivery of KiwiCloud, a critical digital platform supporting its breeding programme.
Radically worked with KBC to simplify the environment around the product, clarify ownership and strengthen delivery capability, creating the conditions for KiwiCloud to move forward, and a stronger foundation for using data to accelerate kiwifruit breeding and innovation.
OVERVIEW
Kiwifruit Breeding Centre (KBC) exists for one purpose: to develop new kiwifruit varieties for commercialisation.
Data sits at the heart of that work. Every year, around 30,000 seedlings enter a breeding programme that can span up to 25 years. Along the way, KBC captures huge amounts of information about how plants grow, flower and fruit, and how that fruit performs. Every decision about which potential variety progresses is driven by that data.
KiwiCloud was developed to support that process, moving critical breeding information away from manual and paper-based collection and into a scalable digital environment.
As a key platform supporting KBC’s breeding programme, its ability to evolve and deliver effectively was becoming increasingly important.
KBC partnered with Radically to help create a clearer path forward for KiwiCloud.
THE CHALLENGE
KiwiCloud had been in development for close to a decade. Parts of the platform were working well, but delivery had slowed and the environment around it had become increasingly complex.
Multiple stakeholders, funding sources and competing priorities made decision-making difficult and slowed progress. Ownership was not always clear, while the governance structure around the product had grown increasingly complex.
At the same time, KiwiCloud was a digital product being developed within a research environment, where the structures and ways of working were not always suited to focused product delivery.
KBC needed to simplify the environment around KiwiCloud, strengthen ownership and create the conditions for the product to move forward.
THE APPROACH
Radically began by speaking with people across the programme to understand what was getting in the way. The discovery extended beyond the formal leadership group to people working with and around KiwiCloud, helping surface issues that had been difficult to resolve internally.
Governance was one of the clearest challenges. Over time, KiwiCloud had developed a layered governance structure of around 18 people. With so many voices involved, reaching decisions had become increasingly difficult.
Radically worked with KBC to simplify that structure and clarify who needed to be involved in key decisions. The governance group was significantly reduced, creating a more focused forum and allowing decisions to be made more quickly. From there, the focus broadened to what KiwiCloud needed for its next phase.
Radically supported KBC to strengthen product management and delivery practices, build internal capability, review its delivery model and consider the technology partnership needed to support the platform into the future.
This included:
- facilitating workshops to shape strategic direction
- providing interim delivery support and coaching
- guiding the RFP process for a technology partner
- supporting the evaluation and selection process
- helping KBC define the internal technical capability it needed
Throughout the engagement, Radically combined direct advice with practical support, working alongside KBC to make the decisions and put the capability, structure and delivery arrangements in place to move KiwiCloud forward.
OUTCOMES
One year on, KBC has a much clearer foundation for taking KiwiCloud forward, with clearer decision-making and accountability, stronger internal capability and a delivery model better suited to the product.
The engagement helped KBC establish:
- Faster, clearer governance: governance was streamlined, with a more focused forum enabling quicker, clearer decision-making
- Stronger product focus: KiwiCloud is more closely focused on the specific needs of KBC and its users
- Greater technical ownership: KBC strengthened its internal digital capability, creating clearer ownership and technical direction around KiwiCloud.
- A new delivery partnership: KBC has a new technology partner in place following the RFP process led with support from Radically
- Greater confidence in the future: digital and data have moved from sitting adjacent to the breeding programme to becoming a more central part of KBC's direction
The impact extends beyond the way KiwiCloud is managed. KBC has also secured further investment in KiwiCloud, giving the organisation greater confidence in the platform and where its digital and data capability is heading.
KiwiCloud is still evolving, but KBC is in a much stronger position to shape what comes next. With clearer ownership, capability and direction around the product, the focus can shift from resolving immediate delivery challenges to the bigger opportunity - using data more effectively in the search for the next generation of kiwifruit.
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