Almost exactly a year ago, I ran my first workshop on NoCode automation with Zapier in my then team at PIRATEx.
Looking back, that was the starting signal for me to become self-employed with NoCode and later to found VisualMakers with Alex. And not just because I realized how much fun it is to show others what is possible with NoCode, but because it was the first time I saw the potential of how NoCode can literally inspire a team and every single employee.
You can find the blogpost from back then here.
One year later, I still draw a large part of my motivation for VisualMakers from this workshop and have since deepened and expanded these learnings in other workshops, conversations and, of course, with the founding of VisualMakers.
Some of them I cannot underline enough:
Lilith Brockhaus
You probably know this from yourself, or from conversations with other people: "I couldn't code, it's way too complicated." The fear of breaking something when confronted with code (even if it's just the HTML text of an email) is real in every company. A forgotten bracket can trigger days of searching for the error, unintentional loops can cripple entire servers - and code itself, as well as many of the associated terms, is a completely foreign world to most people, and one they don't dare approach. Due to this fear, there is no understanding of how software works, one is always dependent on developers and their opinions - and one is only limited in the ability to develop one's own ideas for automated processes and digital products. The idea that "we've always done it this way" has the best prerequisites to grow and flourish - and to destroy agile working.
This changes completely with NoCode. With NoCode, anyone, with or without a technical background, can build their own processes or products. Salespeople can build their own landing pages or automate their processes, marketers can better plan their content and automate workflows, accountants can automate the entire invoicing process - without writing a line of code (see the courses linked below). And with every automation or product comes ideas for new processes. All of a sudden, the thought "we've always done it this way" disappears and is replaced by: "What is possible, how can we improve every day?" This not only helps the employees, but also the whole company.
The beauty of NoCode is that everyone can learn it, everyone can understand it. This improves communication within but also between teams - everyone can have their say and contribute ideas because everyone understands what is being talked about and quickly develops an understanding of what is possible.
In my experience, the sense of responsibility for one's own work has improved enormously in all teams that work with NoCode: there is much less talk about what now falls within one's own area of responsibility and what, above all, does not, but there is more cooperation, mutual help and working together instead of against each other.
Of course, NoCode is not the panacea for every corporate culture - but I have experienced time and again that the playful approach to software has helped teamwork enormously - simply and solely because everyone develops a basic understanding of how software works with NoCode.
Before the workshop, I was the only person in the whole company at PIRATEx besides a developer who could build automations. I had good ideas about what could be automated, but I still had no idea what the individual teams really needed.Many talk about how in the future there will be a:n NoCode Officer:s in every company. I think that makes a lot of sense, but I would go one step further: There should be a NoCode officer in every team.
A marketing team needs different tools and processes than the accounting department, while the product team needs more complex tools and products than the HR department. It is clear that NoCode solutions make sense for each individual team - solutions that the team members can operate themselves without having to rely on developers every time and "rob" them of valuable time they need to develop the next feature in the core product.
I believe that we are just at the beginning of a big wave of NoCode development. More and more companies are already using NoCode tools and there will be more and more in the future that will also link and automate these tools. I am pretty sure that the companies that promote and establish NoCode in their teams will have a huge competitive advantage, will be more attractive as employers and, ultimately, used correctly, will be able to develop the better products.
If you want to become more efficient with your company and learn NoCode, let us also organise a NoCode workshop for your team!
