My No Code Learning Journey
Feb 29, 2024 | Garrett Houghton
I’ve learned many no code development tools over some 10+ years of working in tech. The no code space has evolved tremendously in this past decade. Capabilities I previously dreamed about that could only be achieved through traditional programming are now possible without writing a line of code, thanks to advancements in visual development tools and AI. As innovation is advancing quickly in this space, I thought it would be interesting to recount my no code learning journey as someone who 1) had aspirations to develop software 2) had simultaneous struggles with learning programming languages, and 3) had no formal prior computer science training. Maybe this recounting can act as a potential bellwether for where this is all going or inspiration for those on a similar path.
I started my career in the corporate media sales space as an operations person. Most of the more modernized companies I worked for in this space were using Salesforce as their CRM and Slack as an internal chat/communications tool. Back when Slack first launched, CRM tools didn’t natively connect to it. So as an operations person, I looked around at tools like IFTTT and Zapier to stitch together automations across this internal sales stack. I landed on Zapier as it was the easiest for me to pick up and also had the flexibility and power I needed to get the job done. I still use Zapier to this day for automating work between tools.
Zapier was a great first no code tool for me to learn because it didn’t require an understanding of many components of web architecture like database design, frontend design, and APIs. I just needed to know the logic and what data I wanted to send where and with that limited knowledge, I could automate quite a lot. For the first time in my life, I felt like a developer!
During this same time, I had aspirations to be a tech entrepreneur. As someone who didn’t know how to code, I tried learning Python and Django to develop my software ideas and quickly learned I was way out of my depth (and interests) with coding. So what options did I have? I recruited engineering friends and hired freelancers on sites like oDesk (now UpWork) to develop the web and mobile apps I wanted to run and sell. This turned out to be a brutal experience, as friends can jump ship whenever and freelance development can be a money pit when you have no idea what you’re doing (like I did), but I learned a ton during this time, mainly if I ever wanted to start a technology company again, I’d want to develop the initial technology (or at least know intimately) how the technology worked.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code: 1
Money made off the Internet: $0
During this time, simple no code website builders were available, primarily for building marketing and static content sites. The most prominent ones I was familiar with at the time were WordPress and Squarespace. The WordPress CMS and cacophony of WordPress plugins intimated me, so I went with Squarespace, which as the newer entrant to the market, championed itself on its sleek design. The fact that it was relatively simple for me to pick up made it an obvious choice for me as a website builder. So I learned how to build simple marketing and static content sites on Squarespace to promote the various applications I was commissioning for development.
At this point, I knew how to automate systems with Zapier and how to build static sites with Squarespace: a solid foundation but not something I felt enabled me to build and launch the type of software-enabled company I aspired to on my own.
After several more failed software projects where I either partnered with engineering friends again or hired freelancers to develop the software (or again, tried in vain to learn how to code), I took a break from the whole space and focused on climbing the proverbial corporate ladder as a strategy and operations person at tech and new media companies.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code: 2
Money made off the Internet: $0
After a break of a few years, I got the itch to start tinkering and building software again. This time, I dove into two other no code tools: Airtable and Bubble. Airtable crossed my desk because it was an easy and convenient tool for building internal data dashboards and visualizations at the media companies I worked for. At the time, Airtable Interfaces didn’t exist but they had visual data views that could take data and make it more digestible and interactive for people. They also had a no code web form builder which was huge for collecting data and storing it in a central place easily. Without knowing it, I was sort of learning what relational databases were and how to coherently structure data tables.
With Bubble, I had aspirations of building full-stack web applications with their no code builder, but quite frankly, the tool was over my head and abilities at the time. I didn’t know what databases were, how a frontend spoke to a backend, or what APIs were – so a visual builder, like Bubble, that helped abstract and automate things for builders ended up confusing and intimidating me. So I gave up and stopped learning Bubble and decided I still couldn’t build software products myself yet.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code (or visually code, e.g. Bubble): 3
Money made off the Internet: $0
Fast forward a few years, and as a corporate operations person, I continued to hone and refine my Zapier and Airtable skills. I became what I would call an internal Automator at the companies I worked for. There wasn’t a name for this type of work at the time (and there still really isn’t), but I was labeled as an operations person who was “good at tools and data and stuff.”
At the same time, I became aware of Notion and started using it for my to-do lists and other personal project management tasks. Notion was such an incredible experience for me as a no code enthusiast because the drag-and-drop editor was one of the most intuitive no code software experiences I had ever used up to that point. So many modern no code editors now use the principles that Notion popularized. In addition to Notion, and I don’t remember how I came across it, I discovered Super, which was a tool where you could build websites on top of Notion pages, turning Notion into a CMS and Super into a website builder. I immediately made a Super site for my personal website.
Fast forward a few more years to late 2022, ChatGPT and the GPT-3 APIs were released and I dove head-first into these tools. With each, I could do software-like things in plain English that I never dreamed I could do before. I experimented with Zapier and OpenAI’s GPT-3 API and built a simple travel itinerary builder bot (yes, the same tool everyone built during that time…). I was amazed that I could generate new content from user inputs all using plain English. I didn’t need code to code!
I wanted to build a simple frontend and backend for this AI itinerary-building tool, and since I had such a good experience with Notion/Super websites with my personal website, I used this combination for the frontend and then Airtable as my backend database. I used Zapier to stitch everything together and used the form-building tool Tally for accepting user submissions. What was great about Tally was that it had an integration with Stripe, which allowed me to accept payments for the AI-generated travel itineraries. It also had the same drag-and-drop editing experience as Notion so it was easy for me to pick up. I wired up Sendgrid to send emails with the AI-generated itinerary to users as the final piece of the product (since I had no understanding of how to render AI-generated text on a webpage at this point).
I did this all within a single week. By the end, I took a step back, looked at what I had done, and was amazed. I did it. For the first time, I built a full stack piece of software, completely on my own. I published the tool on some directories and it got picked up in a couple of AI newsletters (since it was relatively early for AI-driven, frivolous consumer tools to be available), and to my excitement and horror, the next major unlock in my journey happened – people started paying for it. Excitement because I had just made my first dollar on the Internet and horror because the email service sending the itineraries broke almost immediately because of some random Microsoft email sending limit (thanks, Microsoft), so I ended up sending emails manually to everyone who purchased the service. It was a painful and ugly experience, and I even took the service down during some high-traffic days until I could fix the automated email-sending issue, but even with all of that, something inside me clicked at this moment: I could build software products myself and I could make money on the Internet with them ($46 in total in this case, but still, it was something!).
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code (or visually code, e.g. Bubble): 3
Money made off the Internet: $46
Now, I was hooked. From this experience, I designed and built a few courses on how non-programmers could build AI-enabled applications (like my travel itinerary application). To set this up, I learned TypeDream to build the marketing site (it was easier to pick up since my prior Squarespace knowledge); Podia and MightyNetworks for course hosting and community; LemonSqueezy to accept payments; Airtable as my course database; and Zapier to stitch it all together. People started registering for the courses, I got some solid feedback and made a little more money from the Internet with a fully automated product.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code (or visually code, e.g. Bubble): 3
Money made off the Internet: $10K
Shortly after that experience, about 18 months ago, I left the corporate world and decided to go deeper into the solopreneur/no code development space. It’d been something that was always playing at the edges of my career but never at the forefront. And now I wanted to make it the main thing. I applied to several no code development agencies, primarily in the Airtable space, and got my start freelancing as a no code developer. This is where my no code development skillset drastically advanced.
When I was working on client projects, I found there were new tools and problems to solve daily. As a solo freelancer, there wasn’t anyone else to turn to to solve my problems, which meant I had to learn and learn fast. I had to accept work that was slightly ahead of my understanding (but within the realm of feasibility) and trust that I could make up the difference through grit and determination.
My first project was building a content submission and review processing web application for a media agency. This was more complicated than anything I’d built to date but I trusted I could figure it out (a big step for me!). The agency I freelanced for used Airtable as their primary build tool, which was one of the tools I was the most confident in, so I built the backend in Airtable, and then with a cursory search, decided to build the frontend in Softr, which was a tool I had never used before.
This project became a crash course for me in true relational database construction, frontend user interface design, and how frontends worked with backends. Looking back, the Softr/Airtable combination turned out to be a wonderful toolset to learn these fundamentals on first, as they both are 1) heavily visual no code builders and 2) extremely prescriptive in their approach to design. As a no code web application developer neophyte, staring at a blank web page and turning it into a responsive, functioning web application would have been impossible for me then. So I’m grateful for these tools. I got through the project, delivered a solid web application and the client was happy (and I was relieved!).
From there, as I picked up more client work, I strengthened my skills in Airtable, Zapier, and Softr, and also picked up a new set of no code tools including Make and Glide. Make and Glide were analogs to Zapier and Softr, and so picking up these new tools was, dare I say, easy and fun for me – descriptors I definitely would not use for my first foray with Softr/Airtable (not because they aren’t great tools, but because I had to learn modern web application design through these tools). Airtable also launched Interfaces during this time, which became an amazing tool for me for designing internal user interfaces for clients as well. Slowly but surely I was becoming more and more confident in my no code development skills and my ability to solve ambiguous software problems.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code (or visually code, e.g. Bubble): 3
Money made off the Internet: Full-time-ish salary
Fast forward a few more months to now, and I’ve further refined my no code development skills from a variety of consulting projects, I’m still running no code development courses at No Code Camp, and I’m now embarking on learning some more advanced no code development stacks to enable me to build even more robust software, which was my dream from day one of this whole adventure.
So where am I at in my no code learning journey now? I’m learning WeWeb as a frontend no code builder and Supabase as a no code backend builder. I tried diving into Bubble again, and similar to when I tried learning it the first time, something just doesn’t click with me with that tool (although I know it’s incredible for so many builders!). I’m also using ChatGPT regularly to write code for when I need a little more customization for the tools and projects I’m developing – something I never would have felt confident doing before AI copilots.
No Code Development Journey Check-In:
Times attempting to learn to code (or visually code, e.g. Bubble): 4
Money made off the Internet: TBD!
Looking back on this journey, it’s been a winding road; it’s stop-started many many times and I know there’s way more for me to learn, but I’m excited about what I’ve picked up thus far and what is yet to come. Learning new tools has become easier and quicker than ever for me, given I’ve accumulated more fundamental web development knowledge like database design, UI design, APIs, and more. And with AI copilots and no code tools getting even more advanced and easier to use, I’m excited about the future.
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