Citizen developers is the latest buzzword gleefully ricocheting off the proverbial walls of the tech industry – and in a rapidly evolving landscape, you’d certainly be forgiven for feeling somewhat daunted by the concept. With an ever-increasing glossary of buzzwords and terms associated with technology and software, it can be a lot to get your head around.
This is why we believe that companies like ourselves have a responsibility to be as transparent as possible when it comes to talking about these terms with our customers. By ditching the complex jargon and linking businesses with innovative software in a hassle free, easy to understand way, we are removing the challenges often faced when it comes to making the right software choices for your team.
As it stands, the pace of innovation has created a skills gap. The demand for qualified software developers and coding professionals now far outweighs the current available supply. Organisations across all walks of industry need to adapt to this change, and existing employees are key to making this happen.
To some, it may feel that modern industry requirements are simply demanding more from workers. We choose to look at it somewhat more optimistically than that.
Citizen developers are an opportunity to enhance your team’s existing skillsets and modernise the development process, by streamlining it from start to finish.
Who are my citizen developers?
Your citizen developers are the people within your organisation who are happy to be at the forefront of the mobile app development process. These are the people who are able to support your developers without any prior coding or programming knowledge or experience.
This still sounds complicated, doesn’t it? Let’s phrase it another way…
All great business leaders know that their employees are their greatest assets. Citizen developers are simply an extension of those assets, enabling businesses to harness innovation in a new way.
As businesses move towards ditching paper and working in a more flexible and digital way, citizen developers are able to play a crucial role in enabling companies to comfortably and successfully make that change.
Think about it: almost every employee within any given business owns and uses a smartphone. In 2018 alone, almost 75% of the UK’s population owned a smartphone. This is set to increase by 10% in the next three years.
The existing global workforce is more technologically adept and aware than ever before. The blend of (we apologise for the terms we’re about to use) baby boomers, millennials and up and coming generation z’ers, means that the workforce is a generation of workers halfway to becoming citizen developers without even knowing it.
How can citizen developers help me with my mobile app development needs?
Who better than your employees to help develop the business apps that support and uphold your processes and organisation’s needs?
Employees have an innate understanding of what they themselves expect, need and want from business apps. This means that business developers can start – almost immediately – in identifying problems and solutions from the beginning of the app development process, through to deployment. They’re able to pick things up which otherwise may be missed by a development team, both internal and external.
As a result, citizen developers don’t just bridge the developer skills gap, they also bridge the gap between end users and developers.
Citizen developers lie at the heart of digital transformation
Once upon a time, digital transformation lay in the hands of a company’s technical personnel. As the harbingers of innovation, software teams and IT departments have been responsible for mobile app development projects for over 10 years.
However, as time has drawn on, the traditional mobile app development process has become too slow for modern business needs, and development teams are increasingly struggling to keep up with demand. In some cases, app development projects are out of scope or customer needs have shifted the moment apps are deployed, making the traditional approach to app development a lengthy and costly endeavour.
The role of citizen developers, thus, becomes massively important. Working alongside the existing software development team and process, these citizen developers can contribute to mobile app development and delivery in an effective way. Identifying issues and inefficiencies throughout the app development process, while understanding the end user experience, as well as being on hand to optimise the end product to work as effectively and desired upon deployment, citizen developers have a vital role to play in the future of software development, and the future of work.
Citizen developers in a nutshell
Placing your employees at the forefront of innovation – as well as on the ground floor of mobile app development – has the potential to revolutionise your business processes, as well as how you go about mobile app development. With a no-code platform like Nutshell Apps, your citizen developers can unlock even more opportunities.
Our no-code, drag and drop development environment offers citizen developers the flexibility and speed they need to actively drive innovation desperately needed across all industries. Using simple components, users can drag and drop their way to fully functional, streamlined and complex apps.
Want to know more?
Book a demo to kick start your digital transformation journey by championing citizen developers!