“No code is a revolution, it gives access to a product culture”. Jordane Lacroix, like other French no-coders, is convinced of the potential of the no-code technologies that are flourishing. Interviewed by ZDNet, this speaker on low code / no code training at the Maria Schools training school for new digital professions sees quite diverse curious profiles arriving on the campus benches. On the one hand, there are those who have “an appetite for technology” and on the other, professionals who have “a digital project to carry out but do not know how to go about it and need support. “.
For some time now, a number of tools and training courses aimed at users with little or no development experience have appeared. Gartner predicts that within a year, more than 50% of medium and large enterprises will have adopted low-code application platforms, and by 2024, 65% of applications will be developed in low code worldwide. In concrete terms, no-code tools allow you to create web or mobile applications without a single line of code. Among the most popular tools, some like Webflow and Bubble respond to display and design issues, while others, like Airtable, are dedicated to the database or automation, like Zapier, among others. .
Although most are North American, they are already achieving a certain visibility in France. Communities are forming, such as the No-Code France collective, which has nearly 6,000 members, the NoCode for Good association which works around solidarity and environmental projects, or even the NoCodeuses, which works with job seekers in second half of career.
Freeing the constraints of traditional development
Training centers are working on the front line to democratize no code in France. Last week, on the occasion of a round table on the theme “No-Code and professionalization” orchestrated by Pierre Launay, CEO of the Cube agency, no-code experts met to address the challenges of this ecosystem. to become.
The exchanges started on a first shared observation: traditional development and “no code” development should not be placed back to back, but are on the contrary complementary. “No-code tools are used by 25% of developers today,” observes Thomas Bonnenfant, co-founder of Alegria Academy. For him, access to no-code skills allows traditional developers to “focus on the tasks for which they have more added value”, and thus “save time and use code to push the limits of these tools or else do things that can’t be done with no code.
Jordane Lacroix, who was not present during this round table, also maintains that the opposition between a professional and non-professional developer has no reason to exist. “Very often, the no code will allow to start a project. But once a product has found its market, that’s when it becomes interesting to turn to a developer”. Especially since the no code has limits in terms of functionalities, specifies the latter, and raises more broadly questions of security, “dependency on the tool”, and “pricing policy” which applies to it.
However, the main quality of no code is to be able to work “without having to read or write code”, summarizes Erwan Kezzar, co-founder of Bypassing, ex-co-founder of Simplon. As opposed to low code, therefore, where coding knowledge can be useful. “No code plus code is power. If profiles master both, the future is open to them,” says the expert. On the other hand, this does not prevent no coders from possessing a minimum of technical skills, argues Erwan Kezzar. “No code is certainly more accessible, but not easy. If we jump on Airtable, we risk using it as a fake Excel. From our point of view, no code can lead to knowledge if it is learned in the right way”.
Professions to be defined
While developers are in high demand on the job market, no-code experts agree that there will be several professions around these technologies to support all use cases, and avoid to find themselves looking for “a five-legged sheep”, as Pierre Launay puts it. Especially since the ecosystem is growing very quickly, and “a publisher is born every day”, recalls the co-founder of Cube.
On the one hand, no code can be seen as an alternative to overloading CIOs in companies. Provided you don’t fall into “Shadow IT”, notes Pierre Launay. In addition to “unblocking the entrance to the IT pipeline”, the rise of no code also makes it possible to embark on businesses and “to free ourselves from the legacy”, notes for her part Heloïse Ollivier, head of operations at Maestro.
How then to unearth the rare pearl? “It is possible to find profiles with a business skill and a no-code skill alongside” argues Erwan Kezzar, taking the example of a growth hacker who would be specialized in no-code. For Heloïse Ollivier, the ideal profile of the no coder should bring together soft skills, such as resourcefulness, and hard skills, which involve both knowledge in tech, a product cap and a mastery of tools. In short, “it’s a culture and a state of mind above all” she sums up. Jordane Lacroix rather sees the no coder as a bridge “between the product designer and the developer”.
The “robot portraits” fuse even if the job offers for the no code are still struggling to take off, observes Heloïse Ollivier. “It’s more of a string to a bow than a profession in its own right,” she concedes. However, “this profession of maker no code will exist, that’s for sure”, assures Thomas Bonnenfant.
Pierre Launay notes that, for the time being, no business vertical really stands out in the no-code sphere. Cube works just as well with scale-ups, who want to go faster in the launch of their products, as with SMEs and even some large groups. But one thing is certain, affirms Jordane Lacroix: “the outlets how to arrive slowly”. And he adds that “some developers are turning to no-code tools to complement their work. »