No-Code Communities

Audio Link: Communities 

Looking for other no-code fans? Want some help learning how to use no-code? Just want to have somebody else to run a few ideas past? In case you're not already aware of them, there are a number of no-code communities for those of us who are working on a no-code app (or thinking about working on one) and could use some support:

• No Code Founders - With over 5,000 members, I believe this is the largest group of its kind. NCF members can:
• Complete certification courses.
• Get discounts from various no-code providers.
• Ask for help from the community for any problem you're having with a no-code app project.
• Take part in monthly meetings where you get the opportunity to meet to staff members from no-code platforms like Airtable and Bubble.
• Talk with other no-coders about the apps they've built and how they did it.
• Check on job openings at no-code companies.
• 100 Days of No-Code - In March of 2020 Max Haining challenged himself to spend at least 30 minutes a day for 100 days learning to use no-code. Now his project has spawned an entire community, with the only requirement is to make the same commitment Max did. Members can:
• Find useful learning resources.
• Share daily progress reports on their projects with the community.
• Take part in weekly sessions where they can get feedback and advice about their no-code project.
• Get personalized support including 1-on-1 sessions with a mentor.
• Read about upcoming events and other no-code news in the weekly newsletter. 
• Launch MBA - If you're looking for help in figuring out how to monetize your no-code app projects, take a look at this website. Launch MBA's goal is to help you create multiple no-code businesses. To accomplish that members are given a multi-step plan:
• Over a 12 month period you'll launch 12 online products that slowly increase in size and complexity and have the potential to become paying businesses. You will be given a calendar with proposed launch dates and suggestions as to the type of product to create.
• You'll build up to a full software-as-a-service (SAAS) product, social network, or marketplace app, which can be either a web-based or a native mobile app.
• The community will provide continuous advice, feedback and encouragement over the 12 months.
• The plan also includes biweekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions with successful app makers. 

Note: Launch MBA is an "invite-only" site and membership costs $33 per month monthly, payable quarterly.

•  No Code Devs - With members in over 50 countries NCD provides a global perspective to no-code development. Members get:
• Personalized feedback on their no-code projects.
• Exposure to key skills for building no-code projects.
• Access to job opportunities.

A No-Code Challenge From Microsoft - Response #1

In a post the other day, I mentioned that I came across a statement in an article about Microsoft's Power Fx language that read:

"The truth is, point-and-click tools are great for quickly assembling experiences and workflows, but many real-world solutions need a layer of logic that goes beyond what is practical to drag and drop, for example:

Show a list of customers who signed up in the last 7 days within 15 miles of this location.

Highlight the newest entries in green.

When a user clicks for more details, if the record has outstanding action items associated with it, pop those to the top of the screen."

I wanted to find out how true that statement is, so I decided to try building an app on no-code platforms that met those criteria. Below is my first attempt, which I created on Airtable. 

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Before I even started I decided to include the customer information and the "action items" together, in a single data base table. If I were doing this for real I would have set up a separate "base" for the action items and linked them to customers in the customer base, but for this experiment I took the easy way out and just set up a "long text" field for the action items. The other fields in my customer base are customer id, customer name, address, distance (in miles) from a central address, and signup date (when the customer signed up with us). 

I set up a field for distance from "our location" because I assumed that we're talking about a business that serves multiple customers from some central address. Since that's the case, it would make sense to simply take a minute or so when the customer record is being created and use Google Maps to enter the distance to the customer's address.

After I entered a few customer records (including multiple action items) my base looked like this:

At this point I had to make another decision. The Microsoft article said to select customers who had signed up within the last 7 days and lived within 15 miles of our location and then added a requirement to highlight the newest records in green. I'm assuming that meant to highlight the customers who had signed up in the last 7 days, but in any case to do something like that on Airtable requires a paid "Pro" subscription and I didn't feel like buying a subscription just to do this example. Besides, I've always felt that if you want to look at a subset of your data, you should show only that data. So instead of doing any record highlighting I decided to just filter for the records I wanted and show only those records.

To set up the two filters, I clicked on "Filter" (the funnel icon) and clicked "+ Add filter". Then I selected the available options to create a filter that read "Where Distance less than or equal to 15". Next, I clicked "Add filter" and built a second filter reading "SignUp_Date is within the past number of days: 7":

Applying those two filters left me with this (the only record that matched both criteria):

To look at all the action items for this record I clicked on the "Actions" field, then hit the Shift and Space keys:

Once I pressed the Shift and Space keys, the 3 actions items for this customer displayed. 

That was the final result for my attempt to meet Microsoft's example of something that's very difficult to do with a no-code app. It may have been a little different from how you would do it on Power Fx, but personally, I felt like this version on Airtable met the challenge.

A Partnership Between Traditional Programming & No-Code

When I first started in the software business, a "systems analyst" would gather specifications for a new programming job from the potential users, give the specifications to the programmers, and the programmers would build, test and deliver the software. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the job was done that the eventual users discovered that there were things that were overlooked or misunderstood when the specifications were put together. As a result, software development gradually changed to include more participation from the users as the programs were being written.

Now, with the growth of no-code platforms, the users are capable of doing some of the software building themselves. It's a great chance to carry the relationship between the software professionals and "citizen developers" one step further. Instead of just consulting with the users during development, let the professionals create the overall plan and allow the users to "assemble" the different pieces of the software on no-code platforms. That frees up the professional developers, giving them more time to focus on how best to integrate the business's different software systems.

A No-Code Challenge from Microsoft

I was reading an article** about Microsoft's "Power Fx" programming language when I came across this statement:

"The truth is, point-and-click tools are great for quickly assembling experiences and workflows, but many real-world solutions need a layer of logic that goes beyond what is practical to drag and drop, for example:

• Show a list of customers who signed up in the last 7 days within 15 miles of this location.
• Highlight the newest entries in green.
• When a user clicks for more details, if the record has outstanding action items associated with it, pop those to the top of the screen."

This example plays to the strength of Power Fx since it's built on the framework of Microsoft Excel, but the point is well taken. There are situations that strain the boundaries of what no-code platforms can do - but I'm not convinced that this is a fair test of no-code app platforms. I've decided to try creating the above example on different platforms to see if Microsoft is right.

I'll be publishing the results from time to time (with the label "Microsoft Challenge"...

** "Introducing Microsoft Power Fx: the low-code programming language for everyone", Ryan Cunningham, Director PM, Power Apps, March 2, 2021

Landing Pages: What they are and Why they're Important

If you haven't heard of landing pages before, they're pretty much just what it sound like - the first or "landing" page users see when they open your app. Are they important? Well, take a look at the dozens of templates available on Bubble.io and count how many are landing page templates. Your landing page is where you sell potential customers on buying your app. It's where you explain what your app does, how it can help them or solve a problem for them, and why your app can do it better than its competitors.

In addition to being involved in no-code, I also write books and there are a few cardinal rules to making your book stand out. You need to have a title, cover, and description that grabs the attention of potential readers and you need to make use of the proper keywords to attract readers in the first place. The same thing applies to apps. You have to employ keywords and other methods to get them to find your app and then you have to convince them to buy it.

To help customers find your app requires a little knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) if it's a web app or ASO (App Store Optimization) if it's a native app. Whether you have a web or native app, there are certain search optimization factors that apply to both. Here are a few of the more important ones:

• Keyword use in the HTML title, subtitle, and app description of your landing page (keywords identify the subject of your app such as "project management").
• Use of keywords in the alt text portion of any image tags.
• The app description should be just long enough to provide an in-depth summary of the application's features.
• Page loading speed - a slow loading landing page can turn off potential customers.
• Avoid duplicate content. Don't repeat a keyword string just to try to bump up your keyword count.
• Include an email or push notification sign-up form so you can keep contact with the user, even if they don't immediately buy your app. Also you might include a link to a 3rd party payment service in case the prospect does decide to buy your app.
• If you've made an update to your app, make sure to update your landing page too.
• Check the spelling and grammar on your landing page for accuracy.
• If you have a web app with a URL, have a custom domain that's easy to remember and not overly long.

If you're not sure how to put together your landing page, there are a number of no-code websites that can generate a custom landing page for you including:

• Carrd - The free version allows you to create a landing page from one of their multitude of templates. With their paid version you can have your own custom domain, remove the Carrd branding, and add input forms as well as integrations to third party services like MailChimp, PayPal and Stripe.
• Unicorn Platform - Similar to Carrd, you can create a landing page on the free version or pay to include a custom domain and various integration services.
• Google Sites - Lets you make a landing page for free. Designs are limited but the editor is easy to work with and you can quickly add the basic items you need.
• Bubble.io - Has lots of free and paid templates with a wide variety of designs (bubble.io/templates). This is also a great place to preview a few of the landing page templates to see what type of things you can include in your own landing page.

No-Code Podcasts

Quick Note: If you're looking for more information on no-code try the Visual Developers' podcasts (https://visualdev.fm/listen). With over 60 episodes these podcasts, hosted by Ben Parker, Lacey Kessler, and Matt Varughese, cover topics ranging from "How to Price No-Code Projects" to "The Most Underrated Webflow Features" to "How No-Code will Replace Developers". 

Business Process Automation

There are literally a dozen new "no-code" platforms popping up almost every week - and a good many of them are emphasizing that they can help with "Business Process Automation". So what is Business Process Automation? Basically, BPA is the act of computerizing one of the normal functions or "workflows" in a business (such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, purchasing, or new employee onboarding) that are currently being done as a series of separate steps. In order to automate one of those processes you have to start by defining the entire chain of events that are involved, including which employees are responsible for which tasks and what each person's options are at a given point in the process. For example, new employee onboarding can be complex, requiring the cooperation of many different people in the organization. Typical steps in the process include:

• Prepare a workplace for the new employee, equipped with a phone, computer, office supplies, and any other items the person may need.
• Set up the new person's internal email and messaging systems.
• Make sure the new hire's supervisor and fellow workers are notified about when the person will be starting work and what duties he or she will be performing.
• Explain the terms of the employment contract to the new hire and secure the person's signature.
• HR will need to have the new hire fill out a Form W-4 for income tax withholding and a Form I-9 to verify the person's identity and right to work in the United States. In addition, if the new hire wants to be paid by direct deposit HR will need to gather that information along with an acceptance form for any voluntary deductions the person elects to have deducted from his or her pay. 
• Set up a training plan and a schedule for training sessions.
•  Present the new hire with a copy of the employee handbook.
• List any equipment, tools or inventory items given to the new employee and obtain the person's signed agreement as to what items were issued.
• Schedule any previously agreed on drug testing.
• Have the person sign any non-disclosure or non-compete forms required by the company.
• (Additional onboarding tasks)

This is only a partial list of the items that may be included in bringing in a new employee, so you can see why doing all this manually can be difficult to manage. Encapsulating everything into an app can streamline the process by ensuring all steps are followed and documented and all persons that need to be involved are notified automatically when there's a task they need to perform. The app can also be designed to allow for alternatives if a particular person is missing or if there's an unusual circumstance, such as the person is being brought on as a freelancer.

Integrating a workflow automation procedure with other systems can also be a big help in keeping track of things. For instance, I did some work a few years ago for a large company that had a dozen tire stores with several mechanics at each store. The company issued certain tools and equipment to each mechanic and employees were required to return those items when they left. Since there was a high turnover, making sure of what had been issued and what had been returned was a time-consuming process. Integrating the inventory function into automated onboarding and exit processes would have simplified the record-keeping required by making it a standard part of the handling of new hires and terminated employees.

If you need to create a BPA system you can definitely do that with a no-code app. With the recent surge in interest in process automation you can build BPA apps on almost any no-code platform these days. Just do a little research to see what options each platform offers  - and to give yourself a head start, look to see if a particular platform has a template that fits your needs. I'll also be doing more posts about automation apps here on the blog in the near future.