Why Does Your Business Need Citizen Developers: Tips on How to Introduce Them to Your Team

Owner and founder of PmPartners, has over 5 years of experience in enterprise automation

Maxim Prokhorov
Number of posts: 16
Owner and founder of PmPartners, has over 5 years of experience in enterprise automation
FB account: https://www.facebook.com/prokhorrov

If you are a business owner, you have definitely thought about expanding your team with specialists who can quickly and efficiently solve urgent tasks. These specialists are called citizen developers who use advanced technologies and can quickly adapt to changes in today's market.

Citizen developers don't have specialized education in software development, but they use it to solve everyday tasks in their work. They can create applications, tools, and processes that help them be more efficient and productive.

For your business to be flexible and adaptive to modern changes, hiring citizen developers is a must. Next, Maxym Prokhorov - Co-founder & CEO of PLATMA - will take a deeper look at citizen development tendencies, its benefits, and tips on how to implement citizen developers in your team.

Benefits of using citizen developers

Citizen developers can bring many benefits to businesses, including:

Accelerated application development

Citizen developers can quickly build applications using ready-made tools and templates. This significantly reduces the time required to develop new features and products.

Reduced costs

Citizen developers do not require special education or programming experience, which leads to lower application development costs.

Improved data quality

Citizen developers can create tools for collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data. This allows the team to make more informed decisions.

Increased efficiency

Citizen developers can build applications and tools that automate routine tasks and free up time for more important tasks. This helps teams to be more efficient and productive.

Enhanced employee engagement

Citizen development can be an interesting and rewarding experience for other employees. This helps to increase their engagement, motivation, and overall job satisfaction.

Tips for introducing citizen developers to your team

Have you decided to implement citizen developers? Here are some tips I've prepared especially for you to make the process easier.

First, start small. Don't try to implement citizen development across the entire company at once. Start with a small pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach.

Second, provide access to the right tools and resources. Citizen developers need tools and resources to be effective.

Next, organize training and support. Citizen developers need the training to be able to use software development tools and technologies. Provide training for employees so that they can use low/no-code platforms for future work.

Finally, ensure a culture of innovation: encourage employees to come up with ideas and implement them.

Global examples of cooperation with citizen developers

Many different companies are already using citizen developers to solve their problems. Nike, for example, uses citizen development to create tools that allow employees to track their productivity.

GE uses citizen development to create applications that help engineers manage complex machines.

And with the help of citizen developers, Walmart creates tools that make it easier for employees to process orders.

Conclusions

Citizen developers are a growing trend that will only intensify in the coming years. This is due to several factors, in particular:

Digitalization which is spreading and requires the creation of new applications and solutions.
The popularity of low/no-code platforms which makes developers' products more accessible to a wider audience.
Lack of qualified developers: citizen developers fill this gap in the workforce.

With the right implementation of citizen development in your team, they can become a valuable component of the business. Citizen developers can help teams be more efficient, flexible, and productive. And with this powerful tool, businesses can remain competitive and successful in the digital landscape.