Beyond code: Increasing value delivery beyond syntax

Lately, the term “forward deployed engineer” has gained traction in the software and business circles.

Simplistically, a forward deployed engineer (FDE) is a software engineer who works closely with the business side of a company to understand the needs of the customers and to deliver value through software solutions.

It “calls” on sofware engineers to look beyond the code editors and take time to understand (albeit, more intimately) the business problems they are trying to solve with the code they ship to production.

Given the current state of the industry where everyone can “write code”, the tides have changed.

The value metrics for software engineers are no longer just about how many features are in production, but also the impact of those features on the business and the customers.

For example:

Say, you are working at a health tech startup and your role is to build a feature that allows patients to book appointments with doctors.

“Traditionally”, all you would care about is wait for scope from the PM, designs from the designer, getting the feature to work, and maybe, if you are a good engineer, you would also care about the code quality and the architecture of the solution.

In the current times, a lot more is expected of you.

You are expected to understand, for example,

• the pain points of the patients when it comes to booking appointments,
• the estimated impact on business metrics such as conversion rates, and,
• the regulatory environment around health tech products,
• collaborate with other business units such as product, design, marketing, sales, customer support, etc. to ensure that the feature is not only technically sound but also meets the needs of the customers and the business.

To simply put it, FDEs are at the intersection of code, product and business. They are expected to be able to navigate the technical, product and business landscapes to deliver value to the customers and the company.

To survive the brutal job and business market, evolution is a necessity. Redefining our roles and impact is a step in the right direction.

To do that, we need to:

• develop an eye for business problems and opportunities,
• improve our communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams,
• stay hungry and curious about the domains we are operating in to better understand the nuances and complexities of the problems we are trying to solve, and most importantly,
• talk to customers and users we’re building for.