The age old saying of “doing more with less” is currently a particularly important piece of advice for startups and enterprises alike.

Venture funding has hit a two-year low, meaning startups now have to focus on making tough decisions about how to use their limited budgets. Companies are also tightening their belts as customers feel the impact of inflation and prepare for an uncertain economy. In addition, we are facing a global talent shortage that is putting further pressure on the already limited pool of software developers.

No-code development tools couldn’t have come at a better time. Democratizing the ability to develop software through visual, drag-and-drop tools, no-code empowers a range of non-developers to begin building software.

For a startup, this could mean that the founder can now build his first minimum viable product (MVP) release himself while powering up the team. For enterprises, teams can build their own apps without relying on IT.

How do you evolve a prototype into an MVP without code? Here are four practical steps you can take:

Embrace a daily delivery approach

Traditional Agile custom development methodologies have gained popularity by breaking larger releases into smaller releases that add features.

Depending on the flavor of Agile being used, how long each release takes to be ready will vary. The Scrum version of Agile typically defines shorter “sprints” of two to three weeks. However, not all builds developed in these sprints may be ready for release to end users, who will have to wait for the next full release to be completed.

No code is different: it enables feature delivery with small, fast, ongoing updates – what we’ll call “everyday delivery.” This builds on concepts from Agile, but doesn’t force you into a strictly defined release time. Instead, with no code, you can quickly and continuously add features to the prototype and develop it to your MVP, releasing features as they’re ready through smaller, incremental updates (perhaps daily).

One way to do this is through the Kanban method, which is ideally suited for no-code development. Kanban embraces a continuous “push” delivery model, where teams release features as they are ready, compared to Scrum, which organizes work into sprints and defined release trains.

Using Kanban and no-code together, you can update the prototype and release updates faster and more frequently, collect feedback from your stakeholders and end users, and respond faster. Kanban is also more easily adopted by non-developers: they can use it on top of existing workflows, systems, and processes without disrupting the existing ones. Finally, Kanban also minimizes the need for development experience and specialist roles (e.g. Scrum master or product owner), making it easier and faster to adopt by non-developers.

Proper scoping and decomposition

The next step is to properly target and parse work items in your MVP release.