We are launching a SaaS report dedicated to the whole SaaS market. It is a useful pill of knowledge for the non-technical founders who are struggling with many challenges, especially the technological ones. In the report, we cover the specific problems/dilemmas such as: - Is it worth making SaaS start-up if you are a non-technical founder? - What are the biggest challenges to a non-technical founder? - MVP as the most popular way to deliver product time to market - Useful tips on how to build a SaaS product in 6 simple steps Check out the report and make sure to eliminate common mistakes that can hurt your business. Are you a non-technical founder? Don’t worry! In the short tutorial, you will learn how to successfully build a SaaS product with no programming skills.

1. Highest quality code in your SaaS
project.
Why should you care about it
as a (non-technical) founder?

2. Table of contents
Is it worth making SaaS startups if you are non-technical?
What are the biggest challenges to a non-technical founder?
MVP as the most popular way to deliver product to the market.
Our useful tips on how to build a SaaS product in 6 simple steps
About Codest
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3. Is it worth making SaaS startups if you are non-technical?
Welcome!
This is quite a common dilemma for all those who dream of their SaaS, but do not know whether their lack of technical
skills will thwart their plans. Well, don't worry! In the past, many SaaS-based startups have sprung up, whose founders
were non-technical and successful.
No worries. In this short tutorial, you will read how to successfully build a SaaS product with no programming skills. We
will show you step by step how a SaaS building process should look like and how to develop an agile approach to this
topic as a non-technical founder.
It is all about planning the whole process well. Non-technical founders may have an extremely strong business mindset.
The biggest challenge, however, is to transfer the idea into a business. And that means coding, of course.

4. What are the biggest challenges to a non-technical founder?
Building an in-house team or hiring external consultants
Choosing the proper technology
Keeping the entire software development process in check
SaaS development is a challenging process. You can't build a software business if you can't make software yourself.
Therefore, we can list the three most significant challenges that you must meet as a non-technical founder:
As you can see, everything has to do with building software. For this, you need a team, knowledge, competencies and
experience. You have two paths to choose from: either build an in-house team or find external
software development partners.
Which solution will be more effective? This depends on many factors, such as time pressure and budget. You must
remember that building an in-house team will require an extensive time commitment and usually involves higher
expenses. Until recently, it was the most popular way of building a team, but recently, it has been losing importance with
the growth of the popular model of outsourcing services.

5. Average Global Software Development Rates:
It is simply more profitable for companies to find a trustworthy software development partner who will take care of com-
prehensive product development. Being a non-technical founder, you would certainly have a problem choosing the right
technology to match your product's specifics and make other important decisions related to the software development
process. All this is the responsibility of the software development company.
Position
Developer
Project Manager
UI/UX Designer
United States
$ 150-190 $ 50-90 $ 35-60
$ 30-60
$ 30-55
$ 60-100
$ 50-70
$ 60-80
$ 80-100
$ 50-70
$ 120-160
$ 100-120
Western Europe Central and Eastern Europe Scandinavian

6. MVP as the most popular way to deliver product time
to market
Advantages of going with MVP:
Ok, so what is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) exactly?
It is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product develop-
ment. In other words, it is a product built as quickly as possible with enough basic functionalities. This approach
allows the implementation of a product on the market so that the customer can test it, gather feedback, and conti-
nuously improve it. The MVP provides cost-effectiveness and time savings.
Thanks to your MVP, you will confront your ideas with reality. You will be able to find out if customers want
to use your product. You will gain knowledge about its strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to
develop your product and make the right decisions in the future.
I bet that your product has potential in various areas that you haven't even considered. Sometimes, it is
good for a third party to look at it from a different perspective and share credible feedback with you. Also,
when it comes to obtaining financing, the matter is simple if you use this approach – create an MVP, present
a product to the market, collect data, prove to the investor that people want to use it. In this way, you will
have reliable information that can convince the investor to fund the project.
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7. Maybe you should consider getting in touch with your future users and even potential investors.
It is a straightforward process. They see a product prototype that allows them to estimate their value and
decide whether they will be willing to use it or possibly invest in it. In turn, you will not lose funds
unnecessarily by developing functionality that might not make sense at all.
Unfortunately, sometimes, it will happen. You may believe that your product is excellent, but the users say
otherwise. You must consider the possibility of withdrawing the product from the market or completely
re-designing it. Thanks to your MVP, you will acquire such knowledge as soon as possible, which will save
you time and money.
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Cutting development costs. The MVP approach is simply cost-effective. You don't waste money
unnecessarily on something that later turns out to be useless. And if you build a product from scratch, you
know how big a development budget you need. All savings are, therefore, important.
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Thanks to a MVP, you can easily add more functionalities over time. If you manage the development process
well, I'm sure that the development team will be able to improve your product with new features in
a relatively short time.
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This last fact has already been mentioned in several other points, but it is worth emphasizing once again.
Collecting data on customer behavior and their needs is very important for the development of your product.
Each MVP allows you to learn about your target group, make the right decisions and constantly stimulate
product development.
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8. Is it for me?
Yes, the MVP approach works well while building a SaaS product. We have no doubt that going with a MVP, you incre-
ase your chances of final success. At Codest, we have successfully implemented many projects of this type and we
can confirm - it works!

9. Start with defining a problem that your Saas can solve. Your
product should solve the specific problem of your buyer
persona which will guarantee that you will find your customers.
Of course, you have to define this group. Answer the question of
who your customers are, identify their preferences and behaviours
and the size of the group. Based on this data, you will be able to
determine the business potential of your SaaS product.
Focus on the value, as well. Ideally, there should be no
competing product on the market. Of course, in this case, you also
have a chance of success, provided that you bring to the market a
new, innovative solution. It is all about the product's value.
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Our useful tips on how to build a SaaS product
in 6 simple steps.
Validate your business idea
User Experience (UX) is one of the most crucial parts of
building your SaaS. Why?
Here are the most important features of a good UX:
- aesthetics – an attractive appearance will increase conver-
sion and have a positive impact on the purchasing decisions of
your potential customers.
- usability - it is logical that you want your SaaS to provide
value to the customer, solve their problems and encourage
them to use it
- intuitiveness - this is another factor that will increase
conversion. The sooner customers are able to find the
information they are interested in, the better they will evaluate
your product, which will increase the chance that they will start
the purchasing process
2 Find an experienced Product
Designer

10. Behance and Dribbble are a good place to start. There, you will find hundreds of
interesting and inspiring projects. Of course, it is ideal if the UX designer will be
part of an entire software development team, which will facilitate further
cooperation.
This is a document that describes all product requirements. You create it so that
others understand why specific functionalities are built, what tasks they have to
fulfil and what they should look like. This document is a source of knowledge for
the designers and software development team. With this, they will be able to
reflect your vision and build the product in accordance with your expectations.
Product Design Overview Use Case story
User stories
Attractive colors
The visual hierarchy of elements
Proper selection of the font and its size
Attractive graphics and other graphics
Animations
Orderly content layout
Hook Model worksheet
Pain points and solutionsProduct Features and their priorities
3 Create product requirements
You already know what your product should look
like, what features it should have and what value it
should deliver to the market (you know your goals).
Now, you should involve an experienced UI designer
in the whole process. He will take care of designing
an attractive and catchy design for users.
The most challenging part of the whole process will
be to combine all these features into one whole.
However, this is the task of the UI designer. Hire a
professional and then you can be confident of the
end result.
4 Find a UI designerWhere to find a good UX designer?
Here are some examples of elements that should be
included in the „product requirements”:
What features does a good
UI design reflect?

11. Building software from scratch is a demanding task, but for an experienced team,
it shouldn't be a big problem. It is crucial that your product is taken care of by
developers who have experience in similar projects.
This process is very important because you have to choose the right technology
and type of cooperation. You can build an in-house team or outsource software
services. The first option, especially when you are at the stage of obtaining
financing, can turn out to be very costly and time-consuming.
Therefore, I recommend finding an external software development partner.
Where to look for a team of developers? The most popular site is the Clutch
portal. There, you will find customer reviews, detailed descriptions of projects and
you will be able to confirm whether the software house with which you want to
start cooperation with is really a trustworthy partner.
5 Finding a software development team
When you launch the product into the market, you
will certainly get valuable feedback from it. Some
features will need to be improved or skipped: this is
also the responsibility of your software
development team. Your SaaS will be constantly
developed and maintained. This is also the time to
start sales and marketing activities.
6 Constant development and
maintaining

12. https://codesthq.com/
About Codest
Codest is a software development company specialized in Ruby, JavaScript and UX/UI design. We are passionate
developers and product designers. Codest creates comprehensive software from a simple idea to the final product.
Our team consists of talented developers and UX/UI designers with solid experience and strong skills in prototyping
and delivering web applications using Ruby, Rails, microservices architecture, REST API, GraphQL, WebSockets,
JavaScript, Vue.js, Node, React, React Native, Redis, ELK Stack, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, nginx,
and Amazon Web Services: EC2, S3, and CloudFront technology. Codest builds software for SaaS, e-commerce,
marketplace, fintech and proptech industries.
Codest builds software among others for e-commerce, marketplace, fintech, proptech and SaaS industries.
Please write to us on: contact@codesthq.com

13. https://calendly.com/codest/consulting
Any questions?
Kamil Ferens
HEAD OF GROWTH AT CODEST
E-mail: business@codesthq.com
Set a free consulting meeting here