Five Criteria to Keep Your No-Code Projects Stress-Free
Diving into the pros and cons of when agencies like Invoke use no-code tools and services for small, medium, and large clients.
The desire for quicker ways to launch digital products is higher than ever. Between myself, and my co-workers, we have been using no-code tools to get ideas up and running for our clients and partners in a matter of weeks, days, or even hours.
The team has used many tools and platforms, but the most hands-on experience for myself and the design team was with the website-builder Webflow. Tackling different projects using Webflow has presented us with challenges and helped us develop solutions that we can apply to other projects in the future. These aren’t exclusive to Webflow though. Regardless of the tools you’re using, these learnings will help guide your no-code solutions.
Here are five criteria that guide our use of no-code at Invoke.
Use no-code when the project needs to be done — fast
When balancing multiple clients and projects, taking the opportunity to use no-code for the right projects can get things done faster and with leaner teams. No-code can cut out some development steps and save time, and these tools and platforms often include templates that you can use right away to test your idea — or easily modify to suit your purposes. This type of quick-to-market concept has been covered before on the Invoke blog, so check out a specific case study with From Brick and Mortar to Ecommerce in 2 Hours: Setting Up Your First Online Store In An Afternoon
In Webflow, moving fast means you can go straight from your initial draft to the final product — whether you are utilizing templates or starting from scratch with rough wireframes.
Webflow also includes staging, so the team can visualize the final product and provide feedback earlier in the process. This helps you make changes as soon as possible. Or better yet, clients and other members of the team can actually use the Webflow content editor to collaboratively make quick content updates themselves.
Before Invoke itself had taken on any Webflow work, a couple members of our team did a quick collaboration with BootyByMich to launch this project. With a single founder, it was important for her to launch something that mimics a robust solution and validates her business model. No-code tools meant it had to be done without spending too much time and too many resources on the build. As she sees success, she will get a sense of what value could be delivered by building out a custom solution that scales up her business.
Use no-code for straightforward products
No-code platforms and tools are generally aimed at relatively generic use cases — cookie-cutter products if you will.
Although they can benefit a wide variety of people, they’re rarely perfect for your product.
If you want to expand and colour outside the lines, there are extra options, plug-ins, tools, and services you can set up to get more functionality. However, the bigger your house of cards, the more likely it is to collapse. The costs can add up and the plug-in that works best with your no-code option may not always work best with your existing toolkit. For small companies like Booty by Mich, the ongoing cost of these extra services may outweigh the savings in initial development.
This is why we use no-code to try out a general concept. It is part of the validation process. If this works, then investment in a complete solution will be worth it.
For established companies like Scalepad, integrations with different marketing tools may not be created equally. Maybe there is a plug-in for A/B testing, but it’s not the A/B testing solution you already pay for. This is why it’s important to use no-code for streamlined operations and ensure that plug-ins and add-ons are thoroughly tested and vetted to make sure everything plays nice.
Use no-code when your client and team has the right expectations
No-code is a familiar concept for people working in product, but it might be completely new for the client. They may not know about all the capabilities or restrictions of no-code tools, and may not think to ask since the final product looks like a regular website.
All functional expectations need to be laid out at the start. Absolutely all of them. If a new requirement is brought up halfway in, it has the potential to make a no-code solution no longer feasible.
During our work with Toyota, we saw that in a large, wide-ranging organization, new team members could end up looped in later on in the process. These new stakeholders brought up feedback and new requirements that warranted additional pages. Adding new pages is simple enough, but sometimes these ideas can be more complex.
If a client is used to the flexibility of something more standard like a Wordpress build, it’s important to emphasize that new ideas might not be as simple to implement on Webflow. Validating their technical feasibility can take time and introduce challenges for your timeline, resourcing, and QA efforts.
Use no-code when stakeholders are prepared to be decisive
We’re utilizing no-code so we can launch something fast. If we can’t make that decision just as fast, we’ve lost the advantage.
Just because changes can be made fast, doesn’t mean the decision process behind them is any faster. Sometimes, it can even prolong decisions when you are able to present different iterations so quickly that your stakeholders end up taking longer to decide.
With larger teams like Scalepad and Toyota, it proved important to make sure all the decision makers were involved from the beginning. Bringing in a higher-level decision maker could mean bringing in someone who hasn’t been briefed on what a no-code product can and can’t do. They need to know what it’s like from the beginning, so they can ground their feedback in what’s feasible
Use no-code when you’re prepared to keep iterating
No-code is all about speed to launch, so be prepared to launch without it being perfect.
It will be easy to update in the future — just make sure you or your client are technically capable to make those updates. No-code doesn’t mean no expertise. It’s vital that the teams responsible for making changes and improvements know how to do them.
For any type of client, it can be difficult to make them feel comfortable with a quick launch. From start-up to enterprise, it’s hard to put something out in the world that you know can be a bit better. However, the more experienced they feel with making changes and iterating, the more comfortable they will be with launching in stages.
How have no-code tools and platforms helped you?
Our goal is to put digital products out in the world and validate them efficiently. No-code tools help us communicate complex ideas — not just to consumers but also to key stakeholders. Experimentation with these platforms helps us decide where it’s best for us to recommend them as solutions.
What has your experience been when working in no-code tools, both for yourself and with clients?
If you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts of how we built any of these projects, drop me a line on LinkedIn or email me at robbie.sebullen@invokedigital.co.
At Invoke, we partner with world-class brands and startups to create the next generation of digital products. Learn more about what we do at our website or by following us on Twitter or LinkedIn.
