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# Is There a Difference Between Citizen Developers and Subject Matter Experts?
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/subject-matter-experts-citizen-developers/
- Published: 2022-11-28T16:46:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-08-03T02:41:32.000Z
- Description: In this post, I answer this question.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Future of Work, Low-Code/No-Code, Technology, Citizen Development, Infographic, LCNC book, Audio

The future of software development will look quite a bit different than its past. In a sentence, that's the premise of [*Low-Code/No-Code*](https://www.philsimon.com/books/low-code-no-code/).

Of course, there's quite a bit more happening in the world of software development. So says 40-year industry vet [Richard Campbell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/richjcampbell/?ref=philsimon.com) in his excellent and expansive talk on the subject.

Campbell covers a great deal of ground in his fascinating talk, and I found myself agreeing with him most of the time. (I certainly learned a few things to boot.)

## Enter the Citizen Developer

About 30 minutes in, he addresses the low-code/no-code movement. Interestingly, Campbell doesn't like the term *citizen developer*. He prefers to label these folks as *domain experts*. Tomato, tom-ah-to, right?

Allow me to channel my inner Larry David.

[Eh](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htS2zKhTXvI&ref=philsimon.com).

Yes, many citizen developers:

- Come from functional areas of the business. (More [here](https://www.philsimon.com/blog/lc-nc/characteristics-of-the-modern-citizen-developer/).)
- Have amassed a great deal of knowledge about their domains.

> Until we invent a better term, I’m sticking with citizen developer.

No argument here. Still, it's folly to assume that *every* lawyer, small business owner, marketing director, and other non-developer will start building his or her own apps. Plenty of [subject matter experts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject-matter%5Fexpert?ref=philsimon.com) don't want to get their hands dirty—and that's fine. The low-code/no-code po-po won't come knocking on their door.

What's more, as I discovered while researching the book, an increasing number of citizen developers lack deep domain expertise. (Here is [my pod](https://www.philsimon.com/episode-72-avi-hercenberg-chaya-gutnick/) with two of them.) They just like building apps, improving broken processes, and automating manual tasks.

Since I like charts:

![](https://i.imgur.com/kXyAECi.gif)

🎧

Listen to an audio version of this article on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/6Ordgizvyl5ADWlUhyB4ps?ref=philsimon.com) or [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/short-form-with-phil-simon/id1655239223?ref=philsimon.com).

[Phil Simon: The Case for a Regular Tech AuditI’ll take the benefits of curiosity over the costs of problem-solving.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/icon/cropped-newlogo-197.png)Phil Simon![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/thumbnail/audit-4.png)](https://www.philsimon.com/blog/technology/tech-audit/)

## Simon Says

Until we invent a better term, I'm sticking with citizen developer.