Tech companies of all sizes are challenged to advance their cutting-edge solutions due to a shrinking pool of skilled developers and technical employees. The recruitment of tech savvy individuals is still at the top of the wish list for business leaders. In fact, Gartner research recently revealed that only 20% of current employees have the skills they need now and for the future.
This sizeable skill gap will grow wider from the convergence of increased demand for cyber and data security, for the aggregation of data, apps, and connected devices and services for IoT across every industry. It is a controversial topic and the “anyone can code” strategy is not new. Visual Basic expert and author Bob Reselman cites that simplifying code has been around for decades and warns about the pitfalls of replacing qualified developers with low/no code tools.
Nonetheless, the current coder crunch forces tech providers to find new ways to shift technical resources and recruit creative talent while implementing easy to use tools that can be utilised by product managers and business developers for business modelling, for example. Coding skills are engaged only after a new strategy or business case is green lighted for implementation.
Tech recruitment: How can businesses overcome this challenge?
Low-code does not mean low quality
One area proving to offset the skill gap is the concept-first approach for use case ideation and business modelling supported by easy to use, ‘low-code’ prototyping and development tools.
The co-author, Stephanie M. Cedeño, is a former student of Philip Van Allen, a TU Delft Research Fellow and Professor from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Van Allen has developed a visual authoring toolkit that enables simulation before implementation. The tool provides “a drag-and-drop, visual programming environment that allows a designer to incrementally prototype form before committing to the training and implementation…. and before committing to actual hardware.”
Visual authoring solutions are a way for designers, makers, researchers, and students to participate in innovative business thinking outside of the assumed group of programmers and technologists.
Click here for more information on Van Allen’s research.
Concept first for IoT prototyping
Axel Godoy, the CEO of mozaiq, predicts that due to the rapid expansion in the low-code market, it is likely that the next generation of IoT entrepreneurs, using low-code solutions as their base, will be from a diverse range of backgrounds: “The role creative minds have for business development and the positive effect of working with individuals from diverse backgrounds cannot be underestimated.”
Concept-first solutions help companies to quickly recognise collaboration opportunities for the creation of new B2B and B2C solutions for the IoT industry. With agile tools and agile teams, small and large businesses alike can iteratively evaluate new go to market strategies, speeding IoT ubiquity for businesses and consumers.
Written by Jennifer Canale, Regional Sales Director Northern Europe at mozaiq, and Stephanie M. Cedeño, UX and Design Manager at mozaiq
