Forward Deployed Engineering
Field notes on the Forward Deployed Engineer role — what FDEs do, the skills they need, and how to become one, from someone training and working in the role.
- 13 min read
The Go/No-Go Decision: How Forward Deployed Engineers Decide Whether to Build at All
A go/no-go decision asks whether an AI project should exist at all. Here's the gate forward deployed engineers run before committing to build — and when to say no.
- 16 min read
How Forward Deployed Engineers Stop Scope Creep on AI Projects
Scope creep on AI projects doesn't start when a client asks for more — it starts when you never wrote down what you agreed to build. Here's the contract that stops it.
- 7 min read
The Discovery Call: How Forward Deployed Engineers Find the Real Problem
Most AI projects die in the first conversation, not in the model. How forward deployed engineers run discovery calls that find the real problem.
- 8 min read
Root Cause Analysis for Forward Deployed Engineers: How to Diagnose Before You Build
When production breaks, a forward deployed engineer runs root cause analysis before building a fix: triage the problem, bucket the symptoms, and narrow to the true cause.
- 8 min read
Client Psychology for Forward Deployed Engineers
Most AI deployments fail on people, not models. Client psychology — knowing the human before the problem — is the skill that gets a forward deployed engineer's system shipped.
- 8 min read
How to Scope an AI Agent Before You Build It: A Forward Deployed Engineer's Playbook
Before writing any code, a forward deployed engineer scopes the AI agent: run discovery, rank problems by volume and AI risk, then map the integration.
- 8 min read
When to Use an LLM: How a Forward Deployed Engineer Decides
When should you use an LLM, and when is it overkill? A forward deployed engineer's decision rule, drawn from a real financial-data project that failed first.
- 7 min read
What Separates a Developer from a Forward Deployed Engineer
Most engineers can build what they're told to build. A forward deployed engineer decides what's worth building — and that gap defines the entire role.