My time at Holiday Caravans Direct (HCD) was one of the most formative experiences of my career. What began as a development engagement quickly grew into something much more. I wasn’t just writing code - I was building a product from the ground up, managing every technical decision, and aligning closely with the business to deliver something that could actually scale. I became the sole developer, architect, product owner, project manager, and technical lead, often all within the same day.

The project demanded more than technical competence. The original platform was a legacy .NET Framework system that had been stretched to its limits. It was slow, fragile, and difficult to maintain. Rather than try to patch it up, I made the case for a complete rewrite. I built a new platform in .NET Core with a Vue.js front end, structured around APIs and modern architectural principles. I wrapped the legacy database in a service layer, allowing me to continue using the existing data during the transition. This allowed the business to keep running without interruption while I delivered an entirely new foundation.

One of the most challenging and rewarding components was the booking system. Caravan owners had highly specific needs - custom seasonal pricing, daily overrides, offline bookings, and rules that varied from one owner to the next. I built a calendar component that separated availability from pricing, using a two-step API model to optimise both performance and user experience. This allowed pages to load quickly while maintaining the flexibility owners needed. Vue.js played a key role here. I started by introducing it incrementally and eventually transitioned the front end entirely away from jQuery and Knockout. Vue made it easier to manage state, reactivity, and component isolation—especially important when you’re the only developer responsible for everything.

Working directly with non-technical clients taught me how to communicate effectively without relying on jargon. I learned how to explain technical decisions in terms of outcomes and how to guide business stakeholders through complex choices by offering clear, actionable recommendations. I wasn’t just delivering features - I was helping shape the direction of the business. I introduced agile practices, trained the team in SCRUM, and established a cadence that allowed us to iterate without losing sight of the bigger picture.

Although I never held the title, I effectively acted as the CTO / Technical Director. I defined architectural patterns, prioritised delivery, created documentation, and thought constantly about how the product would evolve. Even though I was working alone, I built the system with future contributors in mind, organising the codebase modularly, documenting decisions, and structuring APIs in a way that would allow for scalability and maintainability. The platform was built not just for now, but for what it could become.

Looking back, I see HCD as the moment I transitioned from being a developer to thinking and operating like a technical leader. It gave me a crash course in ownership, architecture, and strategic decision-making. It challenged me in ways I never expected and gave me the confidence to step into leadership roles later in my career. More than anything, it taught me that good architecture isn’t about complexity - it’s about clarity, adaptability, and solving the right problems at the right time.