Design Thinking + Low Code = Innovation Nirvana
Achieving Innovation Nirvana
Most of you, I imagine, are familiar with the term low-code. This technology came onto the scene about six years ago, when I was working at Forrester. My former colleague John Rymer and I were researching platforms that allowed non-developers to build fairly sophisticated applications. We coined the term “low-code” to describe the concept. At the same time we were researching low-code, I was also beginning to research design thinking.
Over the past six years, I’ve found that low-code and design thinking complement each other. In fact, I believe combining design thinking with low-code puts you in the best position to achieve innovation nirvana. These two practices were meant to go together. When you combine them, they allow you to deliver on innovation outcomes very quickly. So, I recommend you add low-code practices and tools to your design thinking toolkit.
When working with clients, we use low-code to co-create low-fidelity prototype applications at the end of each design sprint. We build over a day, or even a couple of hours. Whatever we co-create, the team can continue to build on. But they can also easily throw the low-fidelity prototype away. That way, they don’t feel they’ve invested so much time into a single idea that it becomes mandatory to move forward with it.
We also work with clients to use low-code as a sandbox for playing with new ideas. Then we use that same platform to deploy a chosen idea out so users can get a feel for it. It’s a valuable tool that keeps you from feeling stuck when it comes to translating your ideas to applications and getting rapid feedback. It's so important to be able to have a way to take that leap after a great ideation session where your team came up with explosive ideas you want to move on right away while there's momentum from your stakeholders.
In particular, our design thinking team uses the low-code platform from Pega because it can scale out rapidly if an idea has success. For example, sometimes we see a team start with an idea which builds momentum quickly, but then is ready to start engaging and needs to be scaled out. If they’re not using the right low-code platform, it can slow down that scale, because they have to switch platforms or change over to hand-coding. Finding a platform with the functionality you need is critical.
Regardless of the platform you choose, today’s pace of innovation is pushing more teams to adopt low-code as part of their design thinking toolkits. Why? Because this approach makes teams at least three times more effective with ideation.
My recommendation: Start today. Don't wait. Combine design thinking with low-code to achieve innovation nirvana -- to quickly generate ideas and easily translate them into workable prototypes you can use to get feedback from your users.
Want To Master Low-Code Innovation?
If you want to master combining low-code with design thinking, check out our Co-Innovation Programs. We go much deeper on how to leverage low-code in the program. In addition to guidance from me around low-code and other practices you can use to become a better innovation leader, you’ll also get to connect with peers who are working toward the same innovation outcomes as you. We’re gearing up for the next session, so if you haven’t reserved your seat yet, contact us today! We have a good group of innovation leaders coming through this session. You could be one of them.
We offer a complimentary one-on-one innovation strategy coaching session as part of the application process. So before you even make a decision, bring your challenges and questions about mastering design thinking, low-code, and innovation. When you fill out your application, our Program Coordinator will reach out to you to set up a time for the coaching session.
Happy innovating!
