In many product teams, a quiet tug-of-war exists: developers focus on building robust systems, while product managers and stakeholders push for speed and validated outcomes. Somewhere in the middle, we often forget that impact doesn’t always come from complexity.

This article is a personal story about how a simple low-code solution shifted my thinking after a decade in software development—and why I now believe low-code should be part of every team’s toolkit, from discovery to delivery.

When a Simple Automation Made a Real Difference

In July , I interned at CCMC, a multi-communal community center in Cyprus. My colleague Orestis mentioned that the WordPress blog for MYCY Radio rarely had new content. All the radio producers were posting show updates on Facebook, but none of them made it to the blog.

As a developer, I knew this was bad to SEO and long-term visibility, but I also understood why it was easier for the team on Facebook. So, I set up a basic IFTTT integration that cross-posted Facebook content to WordPress. It took me just a few minutes.

To me, it didn’t feel like much. But to Orestis, it solved a frustrating, ongoing issue—and he made sure the whole team knew.

That moment stuck with me. At the time, value came from writing code, diving into infrastructure, and solving technically complex problems. But Orestis reminded me that the people you’re helping define the value, not the tools you use.

Fast Forward: A Decade in Software Engineering

Ten years later, my hands have gotten dirty: Angular, Laravel, Symfony, Go, Kubernetes, Docker, testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines—you name it. I’ve built things that felt complex, ambitious, and “senior.”

And yet, many of these projects—despite their technical merit—never launched or were shut down after months of work due to shifting priorities or unclear business value. Effort doesn’t always equal impact.

During this time, low-code tools like Zapier, Pipedream, and Google Application Integration were quietly evolving. I saw people around me using them—sometimes to automate small tasks and sometimes just out of curiosity. But I never seriously considered them for professional use.

When Low-Code Became Real Again

That changed recently when my girlfriend attended an online course on n8n, an open-source workflow automation tool. She came back excited, and I decided to give it a try.

In just two days, I built a functional prototype for a side project with:

Two days. There are no servers to deploy. There is no backend to maintain. If I’d built it with traditional code, even with my experience, it would’ve taken at least a month of full-time work.

And it worked. I had something to test, to show, to learn from. It’s not just a pitch deck—a real, usable tool.

The Trade-offs Are Real—But So Is the Value

Of course, low-code tools come with limitations:

  • No version control
  • No formal testing frameworks
  • Harder to scale in complex team environments

But every tool has trade-offs. What low-code offers in return is speed, agility, and a lower barrier to experimentation. It’s ideal for:

  • Prototyping new features
  • Validating assumptions before committing to full sprints
  • Getting internal stakeholder buy-in through working demos
  • Testing real user behavior in production with minimal effort

Once validated, a low-code prototype can act as the living spec for developers. You can then scale it with serverless functions, microservices, or traditional systems, confident that you’re building something that people want.

Conclusion: A Shared Language for Speed and Value

To developers: low-code won’t replace your skills. It complements them. Your experience helps guide when and how to scale things the right way.

To product managers and stakeholders: you don’t always need to wait weeks for a dev sprint to test an idea. With the right tools, you can build and validate in just a few days.

To everyone involved in shipping products: low-code is no longer just a shortcut—it’s a strategy. It’s a bridge between ideas and outcomes, between what we think users want and what they do.

In a world where speed matters and uncertainty is high, the faster we can learn, the better. Low-code helps us do just that.