What is a forward deployed engineer?

A forward deployed engineer is a software engineer who works directly with your team, inside your business, to build software that fits how you actually work. Instead of handing you a plan or a generic product, they learn your operation up close, then build working tools, test them with your staff and put them into daily use.

The title comes from larger software and AI companies that send engineers out to work alongside their customers instead of keeping them back at head office.

What a forward deployed engineer does

The job is part listening, part building. A forward deployed engineer, often shortened to FDE, spends real time with the people who do the work.

The work usually follows five steps:

• Learning how the business runs. Sitting with staff, following a job from the first call to the final invoice and noting where it gets stuck.
• Finding the real problem. The thing you ask to fix is not always what is slowing you down. Watching the work often shows the difference.
• Building working software. An AI tool, an automation, a small app or a connection between systems you already use.
• Testing it with your team. Trying it on real work, fixing what does not fit and trying again.
• Helping people use it. Showing staff how it works and staying reachable when questions come up.

The goal is working software your team uses day to day.

How an FDE is different

Each option below fits a different situation.

• A consultant studies your business and advises you on what to do. That advice can be very useful. An FDE also studies the business, then builds the solution and stays to help it work.
• An agency usually hands you a spec and a quote, then builds to that spec. That works well when you already know exactly what you need. An FDE often helps you figure out what you need first, and the plan can change as they learn.
• A freelancer is often a great fit for a clear, defined task you can hand over. An FDE spends time in your operation, so the task list comes from watching the work.
• An in-house hire will know your business best over time. For many smaller businesses, though, a full-time engineer is hard to find and hard to keep busy. An FDE gives you that close, hands-on style without a permanent hire.

The biggest difference is where the work happens. An FDE builds close to the people who will use the software, so problems show up early.

What working with an FDE looks like at LMG Labs

At LMG Labs, our forward deployed engineers work in two places: on-site with your team in Alberta, and remotely between visits. On-site time is for learning how the work runs and testing with your staff. Between visits, we keep building.

Our approach has three steps:

• Listen. We start by understanding the problem, on-site with your team.
• Build. We build it and test it together with your team.
• Support. We help your team use it.

We work on one useful thing, then the next. What we aim for is a clear scope, a working solution and people you can call. The people behind LMG Labs are Kristina, Dylan and Nik.

When you need one, and when you don't

You do not always need an FDE. If the process is common, like payroll, invoicing or booking, a good off-the-shelf tool may do the job. Set it up well and move on.

Our post on off-the-shelf vs custom software walks through that choice.

An FDE makes more sense when:

• Your process is unusual, or part of what makes you different.
• Your tools do not talk to each other, and staff fill the gaps by retyping.
• You are not sure what to build yet, and need help finding the real problem.
• You want AI or automation in daily work, but it has to fit how your team already works.
• Nobody on staff has the time or skills to build it and look after it.

If none of these sound familiar, you may not need one. That is a fine answer.

What to do this week

• Pick one process that frustrates your team, and write down each step as it happens today.
• Ask the people who do that work where it slows down or breaks.
• List the software involved, and mark where someone retypes information from one tool into another.
• Check whether a tool you already pay for can handle it with better setup.
• If it cannot, write a short paragraph describing the problem to share with whoever might build a fix.

If you want someone to come and see how the work really happens, talk to us.