Finding the time

February 8, 2020

For me, a critical ingredient in building and launching anything is time. I work a full-time job at Zapier and am married with a son with plans to have more children. I've somehow kept my childhood rockstar dream alive playing drums in a band. Here's our Spotify page in case you're interested. I live on the east side of Nashville which means I only take my coffee slow and black.

I have to find the time (because it's hiding) to learn, build, and launch products.

Yet, the beauty of no-code tools is that they take way less time to learn than a coding language. You get to see the output much quicker.

Sometimes this happens quicker than you'd imagine.

I bet you use Google Sheets for something. Do you have some Google Sheets lying around?

Go to glideapps.com, sign up (takes 1 minute), and then click "New app" and choose one of your Google Sheets.

That's it. You have an app.

Glide is the tip of the iceberg. It's the most simple of the no-code tools. Go a bit further beneath the surface and you'll find Adalo and Bubble. But, let's not go there quite yet.

What I've done is start with Glide to create practical, useful apps for friends and groups I'm in. I created a rotating contact schedule app for a church community group, a groomsmen app for a future brother-in-law, and a birthday party potluck app for a friend.

The learning has been incredible. But it's not what you think. The learning was less about the tool, Glide, and more about usability and experience.

Here are a few of the takeaways:

  • If you have to explain how to use an app, it'll never get used.
  • The most important details have to be the first thing people see when opening an app.
  • Pictures are (still) worth a 1,000 words.

Glide is a perfect starting place. I challenge you to make a simple, practical app for someone this week. See if they actually use it. If they don't, why not? Or make an app for yourself. Do you actually use it?

You'll learn a ton about apps from a user perspective by getting something simple out there. You'll set yourself up to dive into more robust no-code tools down the road.

Until next time,

Bryce

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