There’s a huge push today to open computer science education and expose more people to programming, something I think is amazing and I wish it was more of an initiative when I was in school. We’re going to see many more people who are code literate in the future, and that’s exciting.

But a concept I hear a lot (actually mostly from people that work outside of tech) is that you’re going to need to know how to program to stay competitive in your job field in the future. I believe that’s fundamentally false, one of the goals of tech is to make accessible things that previously were not. That includes making tasks that originally needed a programmer now accessible for anyone to do. If there are specific, repeatable tasks that you require a programmer to do, the answer is not “I need to learn how to program”, that’s an over-complicated solution to a simple problem. Instead, it’s a place where programmers can come in and simplify things.

Some of the functions that have become more accessible relatively recently (note: I have not used all of these):

Data Scraping – Tools like Kimono Labs and Import.io have made it easy to turn web pages into usable data without needing code (assuming the page structures are sound).

API usage – A tool I’ve been very impressed with recently is Blockspring, which lets you plug into APIs and pull data directly from them (rather than needing complex SQL queries). While I’ve never used it myself, I’ve heard from others that APISpark is a great way for non-developers to make their own APIs for others to use. And I was shown this site as a way to convert JSON files into CSVs for the average excel user: http://konklone.io/json/

Automation – Companies like IFTTT and Zapier have made it easy to create “recipes” so that you can automate things. If you can speak out the sentence of what you’re trying to do, you can do it with these tools.

Building Apps/Web Pages – Squarespace, WordPress, and Weebly are some great tools that let people build websites quickly (WordPress now powers a quarter of the web!). Appsbar, Infinite Monkeys, and AppMachine are websites that help you make a mobile app.

Data Visualization – Silk and Tableau are great tools for making slick data visualizations, while Prezi and Venngage can help make presentations and infographics to make your points pop.

These functions continue to get easier over time. I remember building web pages using Dreamweaver, the best solution out there in 2001 if you didn’t know how to program. Even then, it took me a few days to learn how to use it, and then hours to build websites. Today, I built my blog in just under an hour and a half thanks to WordPress and open-sourced plug-ins.

Businesses of tomorrow can be built by understanding the needs of non-developers by trying to make their workflows easier. Each time someone non-technical goes to a programmer for help, an opportunity exists. Any time a process takes hours to learn before executing, efficiency isn’t being met. It’s important to listen to what non-technical people have trouble with, because you never know if the solution to that problem is the next gamechanger in workflow.

Are there any particular tools you use and like? Feel free to reach out to me on twitter @nikillinit