This review is from a product/founder perspective

NoCode Guides seems to be jumping in headfirst to the NoCode space and attempting to position itself as a marketplace leader. It’s no secret that #nocode is oh-so-hot right now. In fact, according to Forrester's 2021 predictions for software development, 75% of all application development will use low/no-code platforms this year, up from 44% in 2020. If that’s the case, then there will be a significant influx of questions stacking up on StackOverflow that sound like “How in the hell do I add custom styling to this Bubble app?”. 

NoCode Guides allows users to ask specific individuals questions about a specific topic by scheduling a video or voice call, rather than just shouting into the ether and hoping that some benevolent visitor decides to actually answer your question rather than the usual which is “this is a duplicate question; check the docs”. With NoCode Guides, you’re able to find a mentor, propose 3 times that work for you, and purchase a bucket of minutes (as low as 25 minutes). Badda Bing. Badda Boom. A simple solution for potentially complex problems. Love it.

I scheduled my call with Eli, a Bubble Mentor for 9/24/2021 at 3:30 pm and was able to sit down with him virtually for a quick chat. He had some good things to say about the platform but one thing that went unsaid was how surprisingly good the video and audio quality were. Honestly, I wasn't expecting it to be that great but it had 0 hiccups. Hopefully, that doesn't change when/if the platform gains some traction.

With that said, here is my feedback.

What we like:

• Mentors are broken down by their area of focus; it makes it really easy. If/when NCG gets thousands of Mentors then they’ll have to do a little facelift and add some enhanced capabilities but it works for now.
• Pay by the minute, buy a bucket of minutes, and get refunded what you don't use. This is great. You may not need an hour call so being able to set a hard stop is an awesome feature. From a user perspective, I love the refund. 
• It *seems* to be a safer, less judgmental space for beginners to NoCode/LowCode learning. At least we hope it is. 
• Mentors can choose their own rates

What we don't like:

• Applying to a mentor seems like it’s just a form. Hopefully, the founders vet applicants to ensure they are actually able to help users. Having more information about this approval process would go a long way. I’m not the best dev or the most experienced Bubble user but if I spend the money on setting up a call because I think it will answer my question and it doesn’t then I’d be livid
• Site refers to mentors/experts interchangeably. NCG may want to standardize the verbiage.
• Paying by the minute. Yes, I liked this feature from a user perspective but not so much from a business perspective. NCG may want to consider having a minimum bucket of minutes that can’t be refunded.
• The How It Works and FAQ page could use a little design love. Walls of texts are really easy to skim over which means people aren't actually reading your content.
• I proposed 3 meeting times to the mentor in my local timezone but when the meeting was scheduled, I received the invite in UTC time…which turned my 3:30 pm CT call into an 8:30 pm CT call. The dashboard however confirmed the 3:30 pm time slot. Just adds a bit of confusion for the user.

This next piece of feedback isn’t positive or negative but I would recommend finding a way to generate more content. For example, as of now, there is only 1 question with no answers from Mentors. NCG may want to consider incentivizing Mentors to actively participate in answering questions posted by users. This could be monetary compensation or similar to how other forums do it where the more questions you answer, the higher your “score” gets. Users will then be able to search/filter by Mentor skills. Just food for thought. 

All in all, I think NoCode Guides is positioning itself in a new market that could be rather large. We can compare it to the rise of programming boot camps. 7-8 years ago, there were only a select few reputable programming boot camps mainly around The Bay. Now there are hundreds across the US with new ones popping up. NoCode Guides may want to consider how they can position themselves as a leader in this space, and get early access to new versions of NoCode solutions so they can build lesson plans and courses of their own.

NoCode Guides gets a score of 71%

• Originality: 7
• Product Market Fit: 7
• Message Clarity: 7
• Total Addressable Market: 7
• UI: 6
• Ease of Use: 8
• Execution: 8