The Shopper's Mindset - Mental Model for No-Code

So let's get into one of the most frequent topics we talk about over at the State of Change mental model, and that's going to be the shopper's mindset. A key aspect of the shopper's mindset is the idea that, like, which makes it very different in no-code, low-code versus the way technology might have been built, say, 10 or more years ago, is that in the shopper's mindset, you are looking for the right tool for the job. A lot of trained engineers are trying to figure out how they can do the job. Or how they could do the job using whatever the tool was that they were trained in using. But in the world of no-code, low-code, we say the general ideal is that, that most tools are tools that we could find ourselves using, but there are really going to be 3 things that will, that will drive how we would do it. There are a few key ideas, like, so one is what are the state of the tools? State of the tools. And this is going to be like, you know, are there updates?, right? Have there been, are there new tools out there? Is there new tech underneath the tools? This is actually really where AI comes into play, right? So that the, you know, in, in the world of available tools for us in the world of no-code, we've been previously using much more of a visual development model, right? That's a lot of the way that Zapier or Make or, you know, a lot of these tools for like stitch things together, kind of style this mind map have worked. And then there are things which are just aware of more of context and really more expression building. That's like what we have in Excel, right? So Excel has its formulas, allows you to make all these really powerful expressions. We're seeing, we also saw a lot of that in Bubble, right? Where Bubble's aware of context and allows you to build expressions in the form of sentences that almost feel like they could be grammatically correct to describe what it is you want to happen in a workflow. And then most recently we have natural language and, you know, AI-assisted development where you're trying to describe what it is you're doing and the AI is is figuring out, because one of the things AI can do super, super well is the actual generation of code. The fact that AI can generate code, and really all these other tools are really only about the generation of code, means that we have some really cool opportunities to take advantage of the evolutions in new technology. But that's not the only kind of thing that can change that makes it worth doing a shopper's mindset and revisiting this every once in a while. The second one is going to be new job. Or new understanding of the job. Now, what often happens when we're shipping a product, particularly a technology product, is we put lots of effort into the actual building, but we only discover once the product reaches the market what really the need is. So we might find that the thing we thought we were building isn't really the thing that was necessary, that there's 20% of it that turns out to be where 80% of the value is. And that causes us to again, revisit the question of what then is the right tool for the job for fulfilling that demand. We may still be able to be the people who fulfill that demand because we are staying above the fray of the individual technologies. We're deciding which technologies to bring to the party. And so as we do that, this is going to be where customer feedback, just market intelligence, and frankly, changes in reputation. Because you'll find that as you are helping the market more, the people, people who are in the market are going to be willing to buy more and different things from you. This is going to cause a change in the kinds of tools that are going to be most appropriate for that. You'll originally might've had a visual app and then turns out what they really need are help in their operations and they just have trust with you in their operations. That's going to mean using the things that are more towards automation and flows and robots. Or the reverse could happen, right? You are in the bowels of the organization, you're making things happen. And now they want to put you more on the frontline. This change in understanding will cause a change in which tools are really appropriate for solving which job. And by taking a shopper's mindset, we are saying that it's not like, hey, we're only good at one thing. What we're good at is finding the right tool for the job. And that's both about understanding supply in the form of new technology and also the demand in terms of what the market needs. The third thing I think is really important here is going to be changes in us. Different tools have different skills. So if I were to go to xano.com, Xano is relatively advanced as no-code goes, but really uses this function stack, right? To keep everything they're doing very no-code and largely English language. So I find that like there are, there are easier ways to be starting with no-code. Like the absolute easiest way in the world to start with no-code would be something like Zapier. And there are things you can do to decrease your cost with Zapier and have more complexity, like using Make. Using Xano becomes an alternative to that. We're thinking about like we can bring more of this AI stuff to the party where we could use things like FastGen, which is much more about connecting with code and Pipe Dream also has that quality or be taking a look at something like, you know, Buildship, which is sort of sitting in the middle and it's like more about using AI to generate more Legos for people. And of course, these are just tools that people have as of today. I'm fully expecting in the course of the next few months, these things are all going to change. And so. That change is a big reason for the shopper's mindset, because we're gonna see changes in all three of those aspects. There are gonna be changes in the availability of, in the state of the art of the tools. Some tools will get better, some tools might even get worse for the jobs that you particularly need to be done. Your understanding of the market and what it needs is going to change, and your own ability is going to change while you're not looking, as you sort of move up the ladder and you find that different tools or things you can use. A lot of people who have been part of state change for more than, say, a few months find themselves asking about very, very different questions than they were at the beginning because they have learned and they are finding that as a result of learning, that tools that previously were about just getting them over the next hump are now kind of holding them back because they're too simple or they're about the 80% that matters less and they need to use a different tool that's going to unlock the 20% that matters more as they focus in on that, those things that really create value. The question of which tool is right for you, and I'm not saying any of these 4 are going to be right for you. There can be new ones that we've never seen before. But that shopper's mindset and being aware of changes in us and changes in the tools around us and be revisiting that every once in a while becomes, I find, really, really important. The changes are continuous, but you can't really afford to like always be stopping every minute and say, hey, how much have I changed? But I think if you revisit this question every, say, you know, few weeks or every month, uh, you'll find that there are new tools out there, uh, and that there's a new you using the tools. And that there's a better understanding in the market. All of these things happen much more when we're willing to keep momentum, being able to keep that principle of you will build this again because you're just trying to get yourself to that next level of knowledge and be able to ship to the market so that they can be learning and keeping this wheel turning. And when you have all of that, you're able to take advantage of this fast-moving market that is providing you with even better tools and an even better you that lets us serve our customers. Better. We will be talking more about this general area of being curious and how to bring more information into your life in future lessons. I'll see you again.