ASSIGNMENT

My initial assignment at CaringBridge started as senior frontend engineer working to build the next generation of their health platform, but my role evolved to include architecture as I noticed significant gaps in the proposed frontend stack.

SOLUTION

A team of just myself and one other frontend developer built the foundation of the new frontend platform which consisted of a NextJS application that used Apollo Client to fetch and cache data from a GraphQL API. We used AWS Cognito for IDP and I implemented the frontend UI and logic to authenticate and manage user accounts. I suggested we host the frontend on Vercel since CaringBridge had limited DevOps resources. Management was receptive to my pitch, marking the start of a common theme, and Vercel was an overwhelming success. We were tasked with integrating the existing Wordpress CMS, but I suggested we look at a headless CMS. I evaluated several options by creating POCs, eventually landing on Contentful for its ease of use and rich feature set. We learned Contentful wanted CaringBridge to be the pilot in their new pro-bono initiative to help nonprofits make an impact. This led to CaringBridge receiving free software, hosting, and training from Contentful staff on content modelling, platform integration, content migration, content release strategy, and more. Additionally, CaringBridge was looking to move away from its homegrown asset hosting solution which was buggy, expensive, and primitive. Again, I evaluated options and Cloudinary was the winner after we negotiated a large nonprofit discount. My final act was training staff on this magical stack which I had championed from conception to production.

An example of a category landing page built from migrated content and rendered in the new platform.

CHALLENGES

Low budget and limited resources were the main challenges, but some of this was overcome by the generous deals we received from vendors.

PARTNERS

CaringBridge does a good job of adhering to Agile principles even with their small size and limited resources, so internally I collaborated daily with QA, Product Owners, UI/UX designers, fellow developers, and DevOps. I also had the opportunity to collaborate with several vendors including Contentful, Cloudinary, and Vercel.