How to edit your product like a <developer> š¤
By Tzachi Davidovich, the Co-founder of Flycode.com
As both a seasoned product manager and a repeat entrepreneur, Iām always searching for new ways to speed up the product development process. Like the rest of you, when Iām building new products or features, I put to use the principles of the Lean Startup approach and focused on testing my assumptions with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). While trying to keep things lean and move fast, I often found myself still needing of UX, design, and development support to deliver basic functionality to customers.
Going slow, to go fast
In my previous product position I tested out ideas to improve the teamās efficiency with RnD by reflecting on a simple question ā what responsibilities can I take from RnD to save them time? Now, relieving one side and burdening the other isnāt always transitive but it can help to uncover more efficient ways to work. Anything my team could handle besides writing code, was fair game. We started with simple tasks like buying and connecting domains, setting up Analytics, or implementing tools like an email client and a support system. These simple tasks quickly added an extra 30% to our workload.
Soon after we began, a few things became clear:
The amount of time that developers are spending on tasks other than writing code is overwhelming.
When developers are more connected to the business, the openness to adopt and try new methodologies increases.
Wherever possible, dependencies in cross functional teams should be broken.
Hidden within developerās task of ācodingā thereās a huge amount of time going to waste.
Streamlining is not reserved only for startups and growth teams, itās a mindset.
Iām not suggesting you or your product managers need to be more technical or take more ownership of the development process to move faster ā itās more about the mentality than a specific skill. There are routine tasks that developers are doing that can and should be handled by other teams.
The āessentialsā and ānon-essentialsā in product development
We asked more than 70 companies across different verticals about their product delivery. You can see the results here. We found that on average, companies waste 286 hours each month on product edits alone.
It became clear that one of the biggest challenges for SaaS and Product Led companies is the speed of product delivery and managing developersā time
After 10+ years in product management I understand that even the most efficient teams forget to reassess their assumptions about what should be done by developers and what can be done by other teams. Given the cost of developersā and the increasing investments in R&D, itās a fundamental assumption companies need to challenge. Is there a way to differentiate which responsibilities are essential for RnD to own versus those that donāt require their time?
We all (probably) agree that in an ideal world, developers would have the freedom to only focus on solving core product challenges. But what about the rest of the tasks?
Defining a new category of No-Codeā¦ using your code :)
Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt, on āNo-Codeā:
These tools are reducing the amount of time and coding expertise required to translate an idea into something people can use. You no longer need to become a programmer to build things on the internet, empowering a new wave of makers from different backgrounds and perspectives. (The Rise of āNo Codeā / Ryan Hoover)
No-Code tools we love:
- Notion ā Note taking and knowledge management
- HotJar ā Visual user journey
- Webflow ā Website builder
- Zapier ā App automation
- Intercom ā Customer communications
- Bubble ā Building web apps
- Retool ā Building internal tools
The ecosystem of No-Code tools is exploding and many of the tools below are saving developersā time by changing the way product teams work. No-Code tools are becoming borderless, spreading to areas that traditionally were the sole responsibility of engineers.
From Fast, to Lightspeed with Visual Development
Even with the Lean Startup approach the process to quickly ship MVPās and experiments still requires a long cycle of:
- Defining the business/product ask.
- Research to estimate the demand, the KPIs, and how to validate it.
- If itās a frontend change, a PM needs to locate the right screens in production or in a design tool (assuming the design is up to date).
- Collaboration ā everyone has opinions especially when itās about new features or product changes. Collaborating with the various stakeholders involved (besides R&D) like marketing, content writers (if needed) and legal/compliance is key to avoid future roadblock.
- Donāt forget about opening a ticket! Whether itās a huge feature or a small product change, itās usually unavoidable.
- Spend time with the developers so they fully understand the change and can give feedback
- Product needs to prioritize the change
- A developer writes the code or changes existing code(even small text, image, or color changes happen in the code)
- Then the feature needs to be tested and deployed
We tried to visualize this process below:
[Have a different process? Email us: Hello@Flycode.com]
Weāre embarking on a journey to help teams move faster and save development time
What if we can cut most of this process out? What if we can use your code to create a tailored no-code editor?
We started FlyCode to solve one of the biggest product delivery challenges ā the speed of product changes and the collaboration on visual screens.
Today, you need a developer to do a lot of those changes, but what if you can ship products faster with a visual editor? while still editing with confidence and utilizing your own development workflow with no-code.
With FlyCode youāll be able to sync your code and get a no-code visual product editor for your teammates. Now I know, it sounds a bit strange at first :) Itās not an easy task, as it requires product delivery teams to:
- Move upstream in the delivery workflow ā changes can be done by product managers and designers securely following developer approved workflows (same workflow of the company).
- It will give a new sense of ownership to product teams to build (or make changes) rather than just defining what to change.
- It will help cut the noise for developers from the back-and-forth around product edits ā so they can keep doing what they love.
- Itās built on top your existing workflow. Developers will get a Pull Request pending their approval (if tests not automated) just like they are doing today.
- It will require zero integration. A real No-Code tool to get you started immediately.
- We believe itās the right timing for the future of product development and the no-code movement.
- And last but not least, it will democratize your product internally for other team stakeholders in Marketing, Content, Legal and more.
Building a Developer First Product
At our core FlyCode is a developer tool. Itās built by developers, for developers. We are building a developer tool because we believe in the power of the developer community.
- We utilize the same Git-based workflows that developers use and love.
- We are building a trusted tool for teams that want to scale fast.
- We keep the control with developers end to end. Developers choose which repositories to sync and what changes to approve.
- FlyCode is for developers that want to save time and free the organization to fly further and faster.
With our vision, we hope to bring Feature ownership back to developers while retaining the dynamic nature of product development.
Join us at flycode.com
