The year 2020 saw no-code grow from a trend to a legitimate movement. The idea behind no-code development is nothing new but this time around there is real momentum fueled by the rise of makers and side-hustlers combined with modern cloud technologies and smartphone adoption, no-code is about to disrupt digital transformation. This should make for an interesting 2021 and I have some predictions about it.
- No-code enters the enterprise
The no-code tidal wave is about hit the enterprise via the back door (office). The enterprise back office is the unsexy part of business like finance, accounting, operations and general administration. This is ripe territory for major transformation driven by no-code technology and automation. You don’t have to take my word for it, simply look into the army of no-code/low-code specialists that the Big 3 firms (Deloitte, KPMG, etc.) are actively looking to hire and deploy into the largest corporations on the plant. - The rise of no-code ops
With this new enterprise demand comes the need to create and define roles for these new positions. No-code Operation Specialists will become this new workforce armed with the technical and business skills needed to navigate the corporate waters and build new autonomous workflows that will make them among the elite special forces within any organization. - Turn-key no-code businesses
Various templates, themes, frameworks and technologies are commonly used to speed up the time to launch new digital businesses. No-code will take things a step further by enabling new businesses with the complete product, marketing, and operations stack needed to launch their venture as fast as they can fill out a form. - No-code gets educated
You might have seen a few no-code related courses and bootcamps in 2020 and you can expect that to ramp up significantly next year with more platform specific bootcamps and corporate training sessions. Don’t be surprised if you also discover a no-code related course at your local community college or even prestigious university. - No-code investments
If you’ve visited Product Hunt at all this past year you’ve probably noticed the steady stream of no-code newsletters, communities, and products launched on the daily. This no-code activity has captured the attention of the VC world and you can expect it to be a theme among investments in the months ahead. - The death of low-code
With the rise of no-code comes the death of low-code. Low-code will quickly become a legacy term as these platforms fail to evolve and adapt their platforms for the needs and skills of a rising workforce. - More developers will embrace no-code
The no-code movement has received some unwarranted negativity at times from parts of the dev community. This negativity tends to come from those who view no-code development as a threat to traditional developers. The reality is no-code simply eliminates the re-inventing of the wheel for common parts of every development project. This is a positive thing for devs everywhere as they get to focus on the unique development aspects and business logic of each project.