process

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So, picture this: We have a website. A potential customer lands on it, eyes lighting up as they choose their dream fixture—say, Man City vs. Arsenal They click "Book."


Simple, right? Beautiful. Seamless.


And then... the message is... and we quote... "After speaking to football clubs and suppliers... and then... and then..."


Every single time we sat down to talk ourselves through what actually happens behind the scenes of that one simple click, the "and thens" started multiplying like gremlins. The sheer volume of moving parts got more and more overwhelming.
* And then how does the ticket get assigned?
* And then how does the PTS trust account release the supplier payment?
* And then what happens if the flight is delayed by twenty minutes?
* And then how does the CRM update the customer's dietary requirements for the matchday lounge?


We could feel the panic rising.... we had to remind ourselves: At no point in our lives have either of us actually worked in tour operations or as travel agents.

But what we do have is our secret weapon: Heather. She brings a highly specialised, weaponised set of skills to the table....

Working as a Software Test Engineer, her entire job revolves around pressure-testing, vetting, and intentionally breaking systems to make them bulletproof.

And in addition to this... Heather absolutely LOVES a process.

Where lots of people would see a terrifying abyss of travel logistics and weep, Heather saw a challenge. Her beautiful, analytical brain kicked into overdrive. She spent weeks locked away each evening, fueled by coffee (and maybe a few beers..), building what is quite possibly the longest, most intricate work process flowchart in human history.


It captures every single dataflow, every potential bottleneck, every API call to PTS, and every "what if" scenario from York to Madrid. If a customer clicks "book," Heather’s chart knows exactly what happens to their data, their money, and their match ticket at 3:14 AM on a Tuesday. It’s brilliant!!


But as any good testing and project delivery duo knows: a flowchart is just a pretty picture until it faces reality.


At some point soon, we need to dry run this beast. Actually, scratch that—we need to run several dry runs. We need to pretend to be the customer, the supplier, the club, and the system all at once to see where the links break.


Though, knowing the British summer weather—and the sheer stress of launching a business—I am entirely confident that these won't just be dry runs. By the end of the night, after a few inevitable tech glitches and a bottle of wine to calm our nerves, they will definitely be wet runs.


The simulation is loading. The flowchart is locked. Pre-season testing is officially getting real!