The FDE Coach blog · new articles every day
Practical guides for engineers who ship AI.
Step-by-step builds with free AI tools, what just shipped in AI and why it matters, and Forward Deployed Engineer playbooks on interviews, pay and client work.
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Forward Deployed
Writing Customer-Facing Technical Docs That Engineers Actually Read
Stop treating customer docs as an afterthought. Learn the FDE playbook for writing technical documentation that engineers trust, skim, and actually use to ship faster.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
On-Site vs Remote FDE Work: Travel Realities, Comp, and Career Impact
Forward Deployed Engineers face unique on-site vs remote tradeoffs involving 50-75% travel, high-stakes customer immersion, and significant comp premiums. This guide breaks down the real workflows, travel cadences, and career decisions.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
How FDEs Turn a Messy Customer Problem into a Shipped Prototype in a Week
A concrete playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers on compressing chaos into code. Learn the triage, scoping, stack selection, and demo tactics to ship a working prototype in 5 days.
7 min read
Forward Deployed
Building Trust with Non-Technical Stakeholders as an FDE
A tactical playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers to earn trust from non-technical stakeholders. Learn to translate technical debt into revenue risk, scope like a consultant, and use visual demos to align engineering with business goals.
7 min read
Forward Deployed
Metrics an FDE Owns: Time-to-Value, Adoption, and Expansion Revenue
Forget vanity metrics. Forward Deployed Engineers are measured by brutal, business-critical outcomes: how fast customers go live, how deeply they adopt, and the revenue that follows. Here's the exact playbook.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
What a Forward Deployed Engineer Actually Does in a Week: A Time Audit
A raw, unvarnished time audit of a Forward Deployed Engineer's week: from debugging customer Kubernetes clusters at 2 AM to whiteboarding LLM architectures with C-suite execs. Real comp data, workflow breakdowns, and why the role is a high-stakes blend of engineering and diplomacy.
9 min read
Forward Deployed
From FDE to Founder: Why the Role Is the Ultimate Startup Prep
Forward Deployed Engineers master customer pain, prototype in weeks, and ship under fire—exactly the skills founders need. Here's the concrete playbook for translating FDE grit into startup success.
8 min read
Forward Deployed
Writing Customer-Facing Technical Docs Engineers Actually Read
Stop writing docs that gather dust. A tactical playbook for Forward Deployed Engineers on structuring, scoping, and shipping customer-facing technical documentation that drives adoption and reduces support tickets.
7 min read
AI News
Jane Street's Incremental: Engineering Self-Adjusting Computations for the Real World
Explore Jane Street's Incremental library, a practical OCaml tool for building self-adjusting systems. Learn how it transforms static code into dynamic, efficient pipelines—a powerful concept for engineers building data-heavy applications.
10 min read
AI News
Buzz by Block: Merging Team Chat, AI Agents, and Git into One Platform
Jack Dorsey's Block launches Buzz, an open-source platform fusing team chat, AI agents, and Git hosting. Here's why it matters for FDEs and engineers, plus how to spin it up today.
9 min read
AI News
Moonshine: A Rust-Based Server for the Moonlight Streaming Protocol
Moonshine reimplements NVIDIA's GameStream protocol in Rust, letting you stream PC games to Moonlight clients without GeForce Experience. A deep dive for engineers on why this matters for latency, safety, and self-hosting.
9 min read
AI News
Qwen-Image-3.0: What 'Deep Knowledge' Means for Text-to-Image Models
Qwen-Image-3.0 introduces 'Deep Knowledge' to text-to-image generation, moving beyond aesthetics to factual accuracy. We break down the architecture, why it matters for building reliable vision pipelines, and how to run it today.
11 min read
AI News
Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber: Running Security-Focused LLMs at Scale
Google just shipped a security-hardened LLM. We dissect Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber for engineers: how it differs from standard models, why it matters for FDEs, and how to run it today.
10 min read
Build Guides
Build a Competitor Monitoring Agent That Alerts on Site Changes Using Playwright
Scrape competitor sites, diff content against a baseline, and get Slack alerts with human-readable summaries—all using Playwright, Groq, and free-tier tools.
10 min read
Build Guides
Build a YouTube-to-Blog Repurposing Agent Using Whisper and a Free LLM
Pipeline to download audio with yt-dlp, transcribe locally with Whisper, and structure a polished blog post via Groq's free LLM tier. Zero-cost content repurposing in ~100 lines.
9 min read
Build Guides
Turn UI Screenshots Into Production Code With a Free Vision LLM
Build a Python pipeline that captures UI screenshots with Playwright and converts them into clean HTML/CSS or React code using a free Hugging Face vision model. Zero-cost, production-ready starting point.
11 min read
Build Guides
Build a GitHub Issue Triager That Auto-Labels and Routes to the Right Owner
Build a zero-cost GitHub Actions bot that uses Groq's fast Llama 3 inference to auto-label, prioritize, and assign new issues. Complete implementation guide with code.
11 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Learning Path: A Practical Roadmap to Break In
Master the forward deployed engineer learning path with this no-fluff roadmap. From systems thinking to prototyping, learn the skills that bridge engineering and customer impact.
11 min read
Guides
Palantir FDSE Intern Interview Guide: Process, Questions & Prep
A tactical breakdown of the Palantir FDSE intern interview process: decomp, coding, and hiring manager rounds, plus exact question types and a week-by-week prep plan.
11 min read
Guides
Product Engineer vs Forward Deployed Engineer: Scope, Skills and Daily Work
Product Engineer vs Forward Deployed Engineer: a deep dive into scope, skills, daily workflows, and compensation. Learn which role fits your startup or career path.
9 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Origin: How Palantir Invented the FDE Role
Trace the forward deployed engineer origin story from Palantir's battlefield roots to AI-native startups. Learn why the FDE model redefines technical sales and deployment.
13 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Program: Build FDE Skills Through Training
Master the forward deployed engineer program with a practical training roadmap. Learn the technical depth, customer empathy, and systems thinking required to ship high-stakes prototypes in days.
9 min read
Guides
Demand for Forward Deployed Engineer: 2025 Career Outlook & Future Trends
Explore the surging demand for Forward Deployed Engineers. We analyze job data, salary trends, required skills, and why FDEs are critical for AI-native startups in 2025.
8 min read
Guides
Forward Deployed Engineer Projects: 5 Real-World Scenarios That Win Deals
Stop building demoware. Dive into 5 real-world forward deployed engineer projects—from zero-day patching to LLM routing—that turn messy enterprise data into revenue.
10 min read
1,162 articles and counting