The FDE hype is real. So is the confusion

Last week, 10 founders and operators joined a Zoom call to discuss forward deployed engineers.

Here’s what we learned from each other.

The big question we didn’t actually fully agree on

Shyam from Boomerang opened with what everyone was thinking: "Can someone explain what an FDE actually is?"

The answer was something along:

"It's about ownership. A Salesforce architect executes a statement of work. An FDE makes sure the customer doesn't churn and buys more".

Jay from Casper Studio simplified it further: "Does the definition even matter? Just hire people who can code and talk to customers. Call them whatever makes them feel good".

How to hire these majestic FDE unicorns

"A Harvard CS grad who did improv, is funny, dynamic, single, and can travel 48 weeks a year" is not easy to hire, but we found better fishing holes:

• Customer support reps handling complex tickets
• Sales engineers tired of sandboxes
• Technical BDRs who actually understand the product
• Failed founders who still need revenue

What an FDE deployment looks like

One of our participants closed a Japanese multinational. Their brief to the FDE was "book a ticket to Tokyo. Take the corporate card. Get them live.

Lots of problems were unearthed (and solved) by the FDE, like "our OCR doesn't work for Japanese characters written vertically", the US team ran 24-hour support while the FDE fought fires on-site.

Turns out half the job was drinking with the client team every night. Technical skills only got you halfway.

Preventing FDE scope-creep

When I asked about scope creep, James flipped it on me:

"If you're worried about scope creep, don't hire FDEs. Scope creep IS the job. You're getting paid to learn from great customers."

The key is be ruthless about which customers get this treatment. Meaning, the strategic ones that shape your roadmap and not your small $20K accounts.

What we took away

As with every roundtable we run, I asked for specific takeaways:

• "Not all customers deserve FDEs. Only the ones you can learn from."
• "PM skills matter more than coding when building new features."
• "Look for talent in CS and BizOps, not just engineering."
• "Sales engineers are underrated FDE candidates."

Simple, tactical next steps!

FDEs aren’t a unique challenge

Every founder thought their FDE challenges were unique. They weren't.

We're all fighting the same battle - proving value for something that's never existed before, in a language buyers don't understand.

The FDE model isn't a deployment strategy. It's an admission that our products aren't ready and our customers don't know what they want.

The only way forward is embedding smart people who figure it out in real-time.

And maybe that's okay