What low-code means, why it is important, who the audience is, and common use cases

What is low-code?

Here, “low-code” refers to a movement within technology. Let’s start with a simple definition of low-code.

Simply put: A visual tool that replaces some level of writing code

As simple as that definition is, there is a lot of confusion around low-code and what the term means.

Why is the term “low-code” confusing?

Because “low-code” can mean multiple things. Today, it is often used to describe one of the below:

• Visual Tools or WYSIWYG features
  The term is often used to describe alternatives for solutions that traditionally require code. Natural language processing and similar technology can fall within this category too.
• No-code
  Software that doesn’t require code to use or create within it. HTML and CSS can be required for styling. In Adalo, for example, you can create simple mobile and web applications without code. …

A GUIDE FOR ENGINEERING MANAGERS AND TECH LEADERS

Navigating the murky waters of debating and selecting tech

For the past ten years I’ve led software development teams. Some of the biggest debates I’ve been a part of involved the frameworks, languages, processes, and platforms used to create, deliver, and manage software.

Why are frameworks, languages, processes, and platforms so important?

• Craftspeople take pride in how a problem is solved, not just that they solved it. It is vital for developers to keep up with the modern practices.
• Teams use these every single day. A good carpenter should care about the quality of their tools. A bad hammer can really hurt, or just be hard to use.
• Developers want to have a meaningful voice in the tools they use. …

And How to Get Over Them

I’ve led software engineers for the last ten years. I have mentored or promoted around a dozen developers to team lead, management, and leadership roles.

In my experience, there are a few common pitfalls with new managers.

Pitfall #1: Failing to treat management like a technical skill you must learn

As with software development — in management there are frameworks, practices, even languages. Often new managers fail to dive into studying management the way they might learn a new framework or language.

You are effectively an apprentice manager. Even though you may be senior or experienced to others — your skills are the equivalent of a junior in your role.

The activities to learn your new role are also similar to a junior…

An innovation framework for startups and mid-size companies

Last year I was sitting in front of a CMO asking him what his top priority was. His response, “More than anything I need to innovate.” He felt that the future of his company rested on his ability to create and execute a breakthrough idea.

Sustainable growth requires constant innovation — 80% of executives consider future success to be very dependent on innovation.

But at the same time, 95% of product innovations fail.

How can you consistently innovate when you fail 95% of the time?

Use a framework to reduce the cost of failure, while validating success.

“Innovation is a bottoms-up, decentralized, and unpredictable thing, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be managed.” …

Guide for Startups and Small Businesses

Create meaningful customer experiences without code

Recently, Tiffany Zhong posed a question to a few no-code maker leaders:

Marketers are powerhouses of the low-code movement. Scott Brinker, a VP at Hubspot and an expert in the Martech ecosystem, says:

It’s about giving non-technical marketers the tools and empowerment to build apps, analyze data sets, and route data between different cloud services on their own, without having to take a ticket and wait (and wait and wait) for an expert in IT — or even in marketing ops — to do the work for them.

No-code solutions are giving marketers a way to solve their own problems. …

Focusing on what really matters: personality traits

The goal of this article is to help anyone better interview software developers.

I’ve spent the last nine years leading web application development teams. I have been a VP of Operations, Director of Software Development, Manager of DevOps, Project Manager, and Web Developer.

A Big Mistake

In 2014, I attended a Scrum Master Certification course run by Braintrust. I got into a hearty debate with the instructor around hiring practices. Brian Rabon, the instructor, argued personality and the ability to work well with a team are more valuable than technical skill. …

Google studied their teams to find out what makes them great

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan

What makes a team good? What makes that team perform over time?

In 2015, Google conducted a study to find out what made their top performing teams. They conducted more than 200 interviews with their employees.

Google was openly surprised by the results, as they said in their report.

“We were pretty confident that we’d find the perfect mix of individual traits and skills necessary for a stellar team — take one Rhodes Scholar, two extroverts, one engineer who rocks at AngularJS, and a PhD. Voila. Dream team assembled, right? …

The next four years will remake software development.

Low-code is taking over large companies.

The market for low-code platforms was $4.3 billion in 2017. It is predicted to grow to more than $27 billion by 2022.

Large companies are moving to low-code to reduce cost and increase speed.

“By 2024, three-quarters of large enterprises will be using at least four low-code development tools for both IT application development and citizen development initiatives.” — Gartner

What is low-code development?

The simplest definition is a visual approach to software development.

Low-code platforms got their start in 2011, and are maturing fast.

But is low-code impacting the startup ecosystem the same way?

Short answer: no. …