Automation: the next no-code frontier
Workflow and data automation will be native capabilities for leading no-code tools
Welcome to issue #4 of the No-code Analysis newsletter, a weekly newsletter about no-code, product development, user experience, and technology.
Here’s what you’ll read about in this issue:
Automation capabilities will become part of the new baseline for major no-code tools
No-code tools with native automations will distance themselves from competitors
No-code automation will ensure organizations build resiliency and prepare for crisis
Examples of no-code automation process to save you time
If you enjoy this issue, please like it above or leave a comment below. Have suggestions to make this newsletter better? We’re listening here and on Twitter @nocodemethod!
The no-code baseline is shifting
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
One of the most consistently delightful things about using no-code tools is that the technical barriers to getting started are removed. For many new creators, getting to a simple “Hello, World!” is a few clicks away and no longer requires a developer or designer. With a richer experience than a traditional “Hello, World!” script, a no-code starting point is often a fully functional app that can be easily extended and customized.
As no-code tools mature and continue to add more functionality, they will need to strike a balance between initial ease of use and powerful capabilities. Already, no-code tools have enabled the creation of millions of apps. While maintaining the ease of use that has captured the attention of so many creators, many tools will have ambitions to layer in powerful integrations and automation capabilities.
This week, Airtable made big news by announcing an impressive set of product features as part of the Airtable Platform, featuring custom Apps, a Marketplace of community-created solutions, native Automations, and Sync to enable organizations to collaboratively shared data across bases.
Source: Airtable
They also announced a massive round of funding to help them expand and continue to grow. With this move, Airtable signaled a clear intent that will be seen as the beginning of a new era of no-code tools.
Automation is a differentiator
It is already well known that a startup or small business can be launched and run efficiently using no-code tools, including back-end integrations between products that aid in automation. Skepticism abounds, however, about whether no-code tools can scale to run entire large organizations.
What if the greatest promise of no-code is not in replacing development teams, but in empowering creators, designers, and startups to create scalable apps and integrations without code while at the same time enabling business users to share organizational data from a verified dataset and giving them the tools to easily automate critical but repetitive workflows?
Suddenly, the expansion opportunity seems massive and easy-to-use, native no-code automation capabilities alongside integrations with best-in-class external tools sound extremely appealing.
Efficiency = resilience
There will always be boundless demand for scale and efficiency in large organizations. Since COVID-19, organizations both large and small have sought out technology as a critical component of their ability to evolve and prosper. Automation is one of the three ways that Harvard Business Review proposes to “shift work, talent, and skills to where and when they are needed most, thereby building the organizational resilience and agility necessary to navigate uncertain times and rebound with strength when the economy recovers”.
Accelerate automation.
For certain types of work, automation can increase reliability, improve safety and well being, and handle sudden spikes in demand. In fact, automation isn’t a job-killer in today’s economic environment, it is becoming a mandatory capability to deal with a crisis. - “How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Redefining Jobs”, Harvard Business Review
Major investment will go into this area as forward-thinking organizations shift from crisis thinking to longer-term strategy. And that means there is a huge opportunity for nimble, no-code style tools such as Airtable to step into the void left between bloated Salesforce installations and over-worked development teams.
The measure of success for no-code tools will be whether individuals and teams will be able to take advantage of these promising capabilities without unintended consequences to data integrity and existing systems.
5 examples of no-code automation
Automatically generate invoices for a SaaS startup
Eliminate repetitive business processes to save time and grow efficiently
Automate DevOps QA tests for enterprise deployment processes
Transform data, send alerts and notifications, and update lead status for marketing teams
Scrape pricing data or content from any website for competitive intelligence
Quick bits
💻No-Code Operations role at On Deck
A previous issue of this newsletter explored the use of no-code and low-code tools in the enterprise. We referenced an idea proposed in a thought-provoking blog post where David Peterson from Airtable predicted that “no code operations” would be the next highly sought-after role in technology.
With developer time primarily focused on building a startup’s core products, the hypothesis was that there would a growing need for a role that could quickly build tools to solve specific problems and scale workflows within an organization.
A few days later, the startup On Deck listed a job opportunity for a "No-Code Operations” role to enable their operations so they could “accomplish with 20 people what most teams need 50 for”. One data point does not make a trend, but this is likely only the beginning. More organizations will look to no-code and automation as a competitive advantage, and they will need experienced builders to help them make the right choices for scale and efficiency.
The role has not yet been filled as of this writing, so follow the link below if this sounds like a good fit for your skills.
That’s all for this issue. Thanks for reading. We hope it gave you some things to think about and inspires you to get out there and build!
Please let us know what you liked, what you didn’t like, and point out anything we missed. You can drop a comment below, and we’re always listening on Twitter @nocodemethod.
If you enjoyed this issue, we would be thrilled to have you as a subscriber.
If you really enjoyed it, we would appreciate it if you would share our newsletter with a few friends or your social media followers.