How to learn about a No-Code Platform in 20% of the time.
What is Pareto Principle?
The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is a theory maintaining that 80 percent of the output from a given situation or system is determined by 20 percent of the input. The principle doesn’t stipulate that all situations will demonstrate that precise ratio — it refers to a typical distribution.
Basically, you spend 20% of the time as input and get 80% of output. When you begin to approach No-Code, it takes a lot of time to learn. It’s harder because, you are figuring out your idea, design, workflows & eventually you also have to learn about No-Code platforms to implement your idea. This is an inefficient and Ineffective way of learning & executing your ideas.
How did I come up with this learning style?
I have built over 30+ Projects just in No-Code. Here’s a tweet thread of my openly built projects and systems built for various contexts:
Clarity on No-Code Platforms
A fundamental clarity every maker needs to have is:
👉 No-Code platforms are not made for design, they are only made for execution. You need to be ready with design, workflow and product strategy before you even jump into No-Code.
👉 No-Code Platforms are designed for work with how technology actually works like, you need to be aware of basics of Interfaces before you jump in.
Constraints for Learning
When I started with #noco30d for nocolo.co I wanted to learn about Adalo or Bubble in the following constraints:
Explorations are to be done in less than 3 days.Explore all options and constraints of the No-Code Platform.Get an overall understanding of how workflows & data works in that platform.
Based on these points I started to develop a simple system for the same; Here let’s look at it with example of Music App.
Step 1: Start with Simple App Idea
Start with a basic Music app, something familiar. Make a music app which has the following aspects:
Artist Page with basic detailsAlbum Page with 2–3 Songs from each album.Playing the SongRelations showing the artist has albums & the albums has related artists.
Step 2: Work with Data
When you work with data you actually understand, how any platform handles the data and wether it can actually fit your context.
For example: I learned that Adalo does not give me an option to show my data as Time, only currency was available.
Setup your data in a spreadsheet. Setting up a spreadsheets allows you to see the details and the connections in your information (View how a spreadsheet can be setup).
Here is the data for you to practice:
Get on Google sheets
Step 3: Imitate existing Design
I was able to build out Music app quickly using a familiar layout like Spotify and make workflows using the above Data. It really helped in understanding the constraints of the No-Code platforms.
For example: I realised that Adalo did not really handle responsiveness well & had issues with alignment once published (See the final result).
Step 4: Final Decision Time
Once you conducted this simple experiment:
If you see that the platform has more potential, you should invest more time in learning the nuances and making more workflows.
If not, choose a different No-Code Platform and see if it fits your needs by repeating the same experiment.
Your Context
Learning is highly dependent on context and motivation. There is a difference between being a No-Coder and shipping a project using No-Code.
The above method works for Learning more about a platform & also to ship your project. If you are looking for learning no-code to become a No-Coder, you need to shift your strategies.
How to maximise your No-Code shipping and learning?
Define a project. Gather the data that your product needs. Design the workflows of your product. Working with timelines and ship consistently.
Being a No-Coder means a lot more and deserves more detailed posts of its own.
Did you try out this method?
Thank you so much for reading this Article and I hope you found this useful.
If you have tried this method of learning, I would love to hear from you and tag your explorations with @teamnocoloco or #nocopareto on twitter and i can get to them right away.
Also published on nocolo.co