Project Overview

• 1 month project in 2023
• London-based Architecture practice (~30 employees)
• Involved: NoCode system architecture, Airtable architecture, API integrations, dashboards and data viz, task and project management tooling, workflow mapping

Outcome: A full, prototyped system design for transitioning from excel into custom nocode-based tooling

Tools Used

Airtable

Monday.com

Noloco

Project Challenge

This architect's firm were juggling around 40-50 active projects at any one time. Each building being designed takes a lot of project management oversight and operational care, e.g.

• Complying with all building standards, environmental regulations and health & safety professional guidance
• Checking for common issues that have impacted projects in the past
• Keeping on top of planning - submissions, issues, etc
• Managing multiple versions of drawing files
• Communication with the client
• Co-ordinating various external consultant e.g. Acoustician, Rights of Light, Fire etc
• Risks and mitigation

The firm were already using existing industry Saas tools to handle some parts of project delivery but much of the project management was handled on excel files and email.

The firm wanted to move from excel to something that would

• Improve the quality of project delivery
• Save time and reduce complexity for employees
• Provide the practice directors with dashboards showing stats and statuses from across all the projects.
• Open the potential to share project info directly with third parties (clients, external consultants)

They were interested in exploring various NoCode tools including Airtable

Solution

The process taken was:

1. Immersion

• Absorbed myself in the company: its culture, people, way of doing things, business model, types of projects and clients, strategic focus, tech setup etc. Build trust
• Ran workshops to draw out what the challenges were with the existing tech stack, and opportunities with a new one.
• Dive into the existing tech stack
• Dive into how project management was being done, in person
• Gather requirements and priorities

2. Solution exploration and development

• Hands-on testing various nocode tools (noloco, data fetcher), speaking with the companies and exploring their capabilities, costs, etc
• Test API integrations
• Developing various system architecture 'pathways' to go down. Map out pros/cons, costs, technical complexity, capabilities and limitations of various options.
• Prototype different options + test with employees

3. Finalise solution design

• Align on a final system architecture
• Plan out approximate timelines, budget, scope
• Resolve key technical challenges and document

I then supported the firm to see how they would best be able to begin building the new nocode tech stack given internal resources and existing network of freelancers

NB. All screenshots are taken from prototypes using fake data

Airtable Interface

Noloco Interface

Other Images

Airtable Backend

Early document exploring options for combinations of nocode tools

Early document sketching one possible system architecture