Time to market (TTM) is the duration from an idea to a finished product. And the best way to reduce TTM is to speed up the software development process because it is integral to every modern business.
Aside from being integral, the software is the bottleneck as well. It requires significant investment in time, money, and effort. So reducing each of these aspects of software development is a great way to accelerate time to market.
Quicker Time To Market In Software Development
But how do you speed up the time to market with digital product development? - Simple: you can start by using better development tools. For example, you can use low-code platforms.
Because low-code platforms allow you to:
- set up your project quickly
- make it scalable out of the box
- build an entire project using a graphical interface
- keep the ability to add any custom code
- speed up the development by 3-5X
- avoid writing repetitive boilerplate code
- lower barrier to entry for non-technical people
- increase developers' productivity
- reduce the number of bugs by using tested components
- and reduce technical debt by using a scalable architecture
All of this leads to quicker time to market.
But usually, you don't just want the speed. You want stability and scalability as well. And most importantly, you want to keep complete control over your project and your codebase.
Because often, no-code and low-code platforms will offer you the initial speed and shorten the time to market. But once you're on the market, you realize you can never leave. And your project is locked in with these platforms.
This is not the case with 8base.
It is built on top of existing popular technologies developers worldwide are already using (AWS, JS/TS, MySQL, etc.). So if you ever need to move, you can continue developing the project using the most widespread technologies today.
In short, the project and the codebase are entirely under your control.
Time To Market In App Development
Anyone who has ever developed web apps knows the struggles of maintaining a growing frontend project. The project complexity grows in an attempt to make the apps as interactive as possible. And with growing complexity, the chances of more bugs also increase.
To battle this complexity, developers use frameworks like React that help handle a growing app. And for a project to remain scalable, vast amounts of boilerplate code must be introduced.
These frameworks are also tools that are used to increase productivity. And they replaced less productive tools that came before.
The same can be said now for the low-code platforms. They are replacing previous tools because of increased productivity and faster development. And any project that is not using low-code platforms today is losing the market competition game.
And using better tools is the easiest way to win in the market because:
- you don't need any genius insights
- no unfair advantage
- don't need the most innovative developers
- or the most expensive talent
- neither do you need to push the physical limits of your dev team
All you need to do is pick the best tools for the job. And automatically, without even trying, you win against all those using inferior or outdated tools.
And today, the best tools for the job are low-code platforms.
How To Build A Web App Quickly?
App Builder is a low-code tool with all the features we discussed (stability, scalability, portability, etc.). But most importantly, it gives you speed so you can decrease the time to market and get your product out in record time.
Using drag-and-drop functionality, you can quickly build any custom interface you want. And App Builder contains a wide selection of the most frequently used components.
However, you are not limited to using only those components. Because you can easily develop your own custom components as well. So you have maximum speed and maximum flexibility at the same time.
What About The Database?
Your web application can connect to any external database. However, if you don't have a database, then the fastest way to make one is using low-code tools.
8base Backend allows you to quickly set up the database and data tables using only your browser. And the real speed-up comes from the fact that all the essential API endpoints are automatically created for you.
This shows the true power of low-code platforms in helping you write much less boilerplate code that takes up valuable development time. So you and your team can only focus on the most critical parts of your project.
Again, no code is required when building a database. However, you can always add your code whenever you have some ultra-specific customizations in mind. And the database is automatically scalable to support everything from a single user to a million users (and beyond).
So it's hard to think of a tool that will give you better options than this low-code platform: faster development, more control, unlimited customization, scalability, and lower costs.
Faster Time To Market Examples
Here are a couple of examples of many case studies where 8base was able to directly speed up the time to market.
The first example is Livo. A real estate management SaaS that managed to break through into a sector that was resisting emerging technologies for a long time. And one of the most significant contributing factors to that achievement was simplicity and speed.
The second example is LeadVolt. Lead management and CRM solution for the insurance industry. But the most impressive part was that the founders could see the development progress in real-time. This means they could accurately assess how the development team is doing. Which used to be much more challenging for founders who did not know how to code themselves.
This shows that you can start a successful tech company without being a developer. And it is very encouraging news for anyone still on the fence and thinking about the viability of the low-code platforms. The future definitely belongs to them.
