Comment by emodendroket
5 years ago
Everybody promises their no-code solution is going to adopt to the way your enterprise already works, but the truth is you kind of have to go the other way around if you don't want misery.
5 years ago
Everybody promises their no-code solution is going to adopt to the way your enterprise already works, but the truth is you kind of have to go the other way around if you don't want misery.
I work at Stacker (YC S20) [0] and the approach we're taking to deliver on this promise is to start with the data.
That is, we let you take spreadsheets you already use and build more powerful collaborative tools on top of them, without code.
If you take the premise that a tool has a 'data' part, and an 'app' part, and that the data models the process, and the app more just controls how data is accessed, presented, the UX, etc, you might see why I'm so excited about this approach -- if you take the data from spreadsheets that are already being used to model a process in action, by definition you don't have to change your process at all.
[0] https://stackerhq.com
About 30 years ago one of my managers used to say "get the data model right and the application writes itself" and I have found that to be mostly true. What I have also often found is that people who create spreadsheets in business don't understand data modeling and even if the spreadsheet solves some business problem it's often very brittle and hard to change and adapt or generalize.
The spreadsheet structure point is an interesting challenge - I think often a spreadsheet ends up as the de facto model of a process, but often with, as you say, some redundancy, excessive flattening, and other structural issues that can make it more diffcult to build an app around.
The nice thing, though, is that shifting this structure around does not mean changing the process being modelled - it's more just a necessary part of making a more powerful tool to support it.
It's as you say, since the process is known, it's usually very clear exactly how the app should be, which under our model can inform how to shift the structure of the spreadsheet accordingly in pretty practical way. It's cool to see the same thing work in both directions!
3 replies →
This!
Understand the data and the application is simple and easy to understand. Start with a flashy GUI and your data is a mess.
So basically MS Access as a service?
Salesforce kinda nailing it (and I say that as Salesforce code crafter, not their no code user).