As an emerging development tool, low-code products are rapidly changing the way enterprises digitally transform. With a visual interface and a small amount of code, users can quickly build applications, significantly reducing development costs and accelerating business implementation.
Low-code is a product that sounds tall and is really not that simple to use.
Notion I tried 4 times, Feishu multi-dimensional table tried 3 times, Yida, Ming Daoyun, Jian Daoyun can’t count…, in order to tutor students to sprint low-code-related portfolios, I used low-code products in the industry before and after, and also tutored many students to sprint to big companies with low-code portfolios.
Today, I will talk to you about the specific logic of low-code products, and what areas should we designers focus on as a complex product type?
Before we begin, let’s ask everyone a question: “Why are low-code products so popular?” ”
You can think about it for 3 minutes, and we will finally break it down this question!
definition
First of all, let’s give a brief science popularization to many students who don’t know much about low-code, what is low-code~
Low-code products refer to development platforms that use little or no code to quickly build overall applications through visual interfaces.
To put it simply, our users can quickly create the system they want by building blocks, thereby greatly reducing development costs and achieving rapid business implementation.
What does a product manager need to do?
In the process of a product from scratch, it is not easy to do a good job in the role of product manager, in addition to the well-known writing requirements, writing requirements, writing requirements, there are many things to do. The product manager is not what you think, but will only ask you for trouble, make a request:
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When talking about a product, we will definitely split it from the dimension of product type, but we will find that low-code products do not belong to the four product types we mentioned earlier. (Vertical business, industry attributes, collaborative office, operation management)
B-end design guide – product type
It is more like a product implementation method, because users can build CRM (sales management), OA (collaborative office) or purchase, sales and inventory (operation management) through low-code products, so it is more like a product architecture form, that is, any product can be considered for low-code, such as Xiangxiang Sales, a CRM product will rely on low-code product modules to build. Because of this, you will find that there will be many subdivisions in low-code products.
1. Multidimensional tables
Multi-dimensional tables are a popular segment of low-code products, which can provide users with data management and storage services through online tables.
About multi-dimensional tables are actually on the basis of the traditional table structure that can only display two dimensions (that is, the display of rows and columns), adding other dimensions, such as time, positioning, type, etc., so that users can have a more three-dimensional and comprehensive understanding of this product when using it, so as to meet complex data management needs.
The cube itself is positioned as simple and easy to use, so you will see that most of the content will remain in the foreground of the application, users can quickly edit, preview, and use quickly, compared with traditional low-code platforms, it is more simple and easy to use, but there will not be many functions, so it is suitable for lightweight data management and team collaboration.
For example, Feishu Multi-Dimensional Table, Airtable, SeaTable, Wig Table, and Notion all belong to this category, and everyone relies on the data table for deep processing of content, so as to improve their product discourse.
2. Process automation
Process automation pays more attention to the process configuration in the data, which is mainly customized in workflow design, approval process, and business process
It mainly focuses on the process flow in the system, mainly in the dimensions of workflow design, approval process optimization, and business efficiency improvement to achieve process automation.
Regarding process automation products, they are mainly through visual process design to realize the connection between their own system and other systems of the enterprise, and can verify the data, convert, calculate and other processing. For example, in the order processing process, customer information and consumer orders can be automatically obtained from the database, and a series of inventory deductions and price calculations can be carried out.
For example, in the industry, Qingliu, Appian, Nintex, and Partner Cloud all belong to these types, of course, many products will have process modules, but these products will be emphasized.
3. Data analysis visualization
Data analysis visualization focuses on the chart requirements in the business, and users want to quickly configure the configuration of chart components through dragging and dropping, and then realize complex charts.
The chart itself is a complex type that needs to be changed repeatedly, so it is necessary to make it low-code.
For example, the more famous in China is Jiandao Cloud, which quickly realizes the chart requirements in the work through the basic form engine, process engine, etc.
4. Internal system support
In fact, in the internal systems of many large manufacturers, there will be low-code products to support.
Because there will be so many systems within the large factory, it is actually a data island, which needs to be connected by an internal data platform, and there will also be a lot of temporary page construction needs internally, which will also give birth to low-code products and then implement them internally.
Recently, I have tutored many students in this situation, doing internal self-developed low-code, but this part of the content really has no way to share it publicly, so…
I want to mention more about Feishu’s multi-dimensional table here, why do I think it’s amazing~
Because it basically meets the three different types of composite products of process, chart and multi-dimensional table, it relies on the equipment form of the multi-dimensional table, and at the same time meets the automatic configuration of the process and the rapid presentation of the chart, so it is the culmination of all products~
This is also an important reason why our knowledge base migrated to Feishu.
function
Any product has an important role for enterprises, especially more domestic enterprises, so let’s talk about its value~
1. Respond flexibly
Flexibility is an important reason why low-code is popular in China.
Because all functions can be configured by users, many employees will also be immersed in the fun of DIY configuration.
At the same time, in the domestic software market, the only constant is change, we need to constantly adjust our own management system according to the business direction at any time, which leads to many enterprises will like this type of software more, it will look better landed, better delivered~ This is what traditional management systems cannot do.
For example, in our own bootcamp, we will use flexible multi-dimensional tables to manage the basic information of each student, so that we can analyze the overall situation (when we have time to talk about specific data details)
2. The market prospects are broad
As far as the current domestic market environment is concerned, you will find that most of the users of B-end products are still mainly small and medium-sized teams, so those who win small and medium-sized enterprises will win the world.
Low-code It doesn’t pick industries, as long as you have corresponding management needs, you will use it. Whether it is manufacturing, government affairs, finance, education, medical care and other industries, it can be easily implemented, because the system requirements of most enterprises are mainly information systems for data collection, so they can be easily mastered.
For example, for example, in a barbershop next to the door, their membership management method is still recorded in a paper way.
If you want to buy a management system with praise industry, the price is expensive first (the price of 4,000 a store a year, which feels unbearable), and at the same time, because you only have one store, you can only use paper for records before.
Now he can use low-code products (Feishu multi-dimensional tables) to record the customer’s name, mobile phone number, recharge amount, consumption amount, recharge time, recharge channel, etc., and can quickly transform into a complex business management system.
More importantly, when customers consume, they can directly use their mobile phones to deduct and facilitate efficient management by the system.
And in daily business activities, it can efficiently record and grasp the corresponding sales situation, and set up more marketing activities for its own stores.
And how many such hairdressers, repair shops, and washing and care shops are there in the country… This is an extremely large market.
Therefore, low-code products can empower many real economies~
3. Agile trial and error
The other side of flexibility is that it can lower the development threshold, so that business personnel can quickly participate in development, so that in the flexible and rapidly changing market, experiments and errors can be quickly and agilely.
After the product problems found in the early experiments, we can also quickly correct the error through the corresponding solutions. This ensures that the product can quickly respond to the needs of the market.
4. Low price
For the vast majority of low-code products, low prices can mean that the cost paid is not high.
And such a low price will indeed cause crazy involution of SaaS products on the market. For example, for example, our course used to be paid for use by Xiaoetong, but now we directly use Feishu to build a complete knowledge base and allow students to quickly take classes based on smart meetings.
And these products are tantamount to being more important for small and medium-sized teams in China. (Cost is the first thing to consider)
Page
Among pages, we have mentioned before that pages are divided into three categories: immersive pages, persistent pages, and configuration pages.
low-code products will place more emphasis on configuration pages, allowing users to perform more configuration work. But how to understand the page, we will find that the overall page contains several parts from the entire product logic stage, and we will break it down one by one.
workbench
In the workbench, you will find that most low-code product workbenches will be different from the workbenches of management systems.
Its role is more to serve as an entry point for various management systems, such as being able to view key information such as project overview and application status in the workbench.
At the same time, low-code products are also a type of product that needs to be collaborated, so the team’s collaboration dynamics, announcements, address books and other collaborative office-related fields will be displayed in the project.
So you will see different products with different design solutions and requirements in terms of synergy:
Ming Daoyun
In Mingdao Cloud, the main focus is the integration of the workbench, which exposes most of the key data through the workbench, so that it can be large and complete.
Mingdao Cloud has redefined the workbench, which was more based on applications as a dimension, and the purpose was to expose more key data.
Now we will consider a comprehensive platform, in fact, this definition will obviously be more suitable for users who use it for a long time.
Light current
It is mainly process-oriented, so you can see that it contains core to-do modules, to-do content and commonly used applications.
The proportion of the process is very high, which can be regarded as basically consistent with its product positioning.
Template market
Because it is difficult to configure, it is necessary to provide a template market for quick creation. The template market will be similar to the application market, so you can refer more to the application market of large platforms in design to give yourself more inspiration.
Core editor
This is the soul of every low-code product, because every user needs to customize the system through the current page, so whether the editor is clear and whether it is reasonable to use is particularly important.
The editor is mainly composed of the following four parts: component drag and drop panel, page markup canvas, component property configuration panel, and real-time preview window. This is also the focus of the designer, because the bread contains a lot of interaction, which needs to be modified by the designer~
…
About this part, I will explain it to you in our bootcamp course~
Why are low-code products so popular these days?
First of all, traditional management systems usually require enterprises to develop themselves and invest high labor and capital costs, which makes the construction system very cautious most of the time, which leaves enough market for low-code.
Secondly, the overall market environment is now emphasizing cost reduction and efficiency increase, and low-code products can take advantage of lower development time costs and advantages, so that the time period can be shortened when creating a system, so low-code is a key tool to verify market demand in the MVP stage of any team.
At the same time, technical personnel with in-depth development capabilities are still scarce, while business personnel have a deeper understanding of actual scenarios. The low-code platform provides them with the ability to “build independently”, which not only significantly reduces the cost of cross-departmental communication, but also allows business requirements to be quickly transformed into usable products, accelerating the whole process from concept to implementation.
Finally, the emergence of AI will find that it has opened the door to low-code, whether it is through the integration of AI functions through multi-dimensional tables, the expansion of intelligent application scenarios, or the automatic generation of pages and logic with the help of natural language interaction, the blessing of AI capabilities will make low-code products more intelligent, efficient and easy to use, and promote them to become the core productivity tools of future enterprise digital construction.
