Working Smarter with No Code

Meet Nina Taylor, a SmartSuite Certified Consultant 🎖who is on a mission to change lives by getting individuals and teams to work smarter.

Introduce yourself. 

I’m Nina, I live in a really beautiful part of Scotland with my partner, and 15 and 12 year old boys and our little dog.

Personally and professionally my focus is on changing people’s lives by helping to implement solutions that help people work more efficiently and smarter - putting tech to work in order to free us humans to focus on what we are best at - connecting, creating and collaborating.

How did you get into no-code? 

I started a VA business after a really long break from the world of office-based working - ALOT had changed - I started to hear about all these incredible tools like Zapier and Airtable.  This was fascinating to me and I started to learn about automation and the world of no-code from online resources and by joining learning communities as well as devouring books on productivity and I then started building solutions for myself and my clients.

What’s your opinion on the no-code movement?

It’s really exciting and a really supportive community.  With so many tools available and so much knowledge sharing going on, it’s really like a big positive, supportive playground of exploration and creativity.

What are your favourite benefits of using no-code and why?

There is quite a low bar to entry.   I love that it is open to everyone and the tools and help available mean that one-man bands, businesses large and small, charities and individuals now have the ability to quickly and easily build their own customised databases, applications, tools and solutions for absolutely anything.  In my previous roles, a custom-built database would always form a core part of every business I worked in - I still find it amazing that with no-code tools I have the power at my fingertips to quickly and easily build a fully-functional database and tailor it to whatever business or charity I’m working with needs to achieve and create automated solutions that save people’s time and save money.

What are the benefits of no-code for the wider community?

It’s easier than ever to create bespoke solutions to any and every problem at a very low cost. 

It’s all about freeing up time and creativity so we can do more good things.

How did you find SmartSuite?

Through the no-code community - I came across a video by one of the key Youtube channels in the space - GAP Consulting - talking about a few of the features that made Smartsuite different and I immediately sat up and took notice and went to investigate.  After playing around, I felt like I found “the one” and I have heard similar stories from others who moved from other tools to Smartsuite. 

How has SmartSuite helped you?

I have built and used a database/CRM in my current role working with a tech company.  It’s been so easy to implement and as a daily user, I actually don’t know what I would do without it in helping me manage my projects and workload.  It has been very cleverly designed and the more I get to know it as a user the more I understand the thinking behind its design and the better I’m able to implement new elements for different projects, tasks or workflows.

What’s your favourite no-code project you have worked on? 

Partly because it was my first - it was the project I worked on for a Mental Health Training company (that I still support) and I built a system to help manage and automate the bookings process.  I found it so exciting to create the system and see it working and also to know that the end result was freeing the business owner to do more of the really important work she does.  That came home to me when she passed on a message sent to her by a former trainee that had used the knowledge they had gained from her training to literally save someone’s life who was suicidal.  The acknowledgement from her that my part in helping her to do that work was vital really brought it home that this was about more than just the effect on individual users - the knock-on and ripple effects can be more far-reaching and important than we can imagine.  That was quite humbling.

What do you expect will happen with the no-code movement?

No-code development and solutions will increasingly become a part of people’s everyday lives and more and more people will start building with no-code and with the rise of AI language models this will be accelerated and enhanced. 

My hope with these developments is a revolution that will see humans not being displaced but FREED - released from the burden of all sorts of tasks that have taken them away from our true purpose - creativity- we’re often just too busy to truly focus on this aspect of our lives and I think that can now change.

I sincerely hope that this latest revolution will be the most positive leap forward for humankind in its history.

If you have a no code solution you would like to share or if you want to get involved in our next hack, get in touch!