Why I believe in the Forward Deployed Engineer role
Do you need a Forward Deployed Engineer? Combine your people's understanding of the business with specialised AI experience, and build together.
𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫? 𝑎 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑙, 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑔𝑦 👇
Your AI pilot works. Getting it into everyday operations is another matter. And even if someone delivers the implementation, will your organisation know how to keep improving it?
Some see FDEs as essential. Others see another trend, or a new name for work that has existed for decades.
Nobody knows your business better than your own people: how the work really gets done, which exceptions matter and what needs to change. But AI brings its own demands. Your technology team may still be building the experience to apply it reliably, while the business needs transformation to move faster. 𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑘 𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔𝑘 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑐 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐.
Bringing in a partner to deliver a project does not automatically solve that either. You can end up with new technology without becoming a more capable organisation.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐈 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧: combine your people's understanding of the business with specialised AI experience, and build together. Develop technological capability while transforming the business, through the same work.
The offer matters, though. Getting a vendor's platform adopted, operating a solution for you and helping your people take ownership are different commitments. The same title can cover all three.
For me, success means a working system and an internal team better able to evaluate, operate and evolve it. 𝑇𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑚𝑢𝑐 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝑤𝑎𝑡 𝑡𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑑.
Swipe through for a closer look. 👇