EP029: Do You Actually Need Forward Deployed Engineers?

Forward deployed engineers are the new hotness—but Palantir's model was built for eight-figure deals with zero competition. Jay and Jeff break down what your team actually needs instead, from onboarding agents that cut a week off time-to-value to cataloging work your CS team shouldn't be doing. KEY TAKEAWAYS Think critically before copying Palantir: Their FDEs are deep AI engineers on eight-figure deals with no real competition—not relabeled CSMs or sales engineers. Match the motion to the deal size: Eight-figure deals can afford dedicated FDEs. Everyone else should use engineering capacity to build tooling that scales. Deploy engineers against onboarding first: Jeff's solutions engineer sits in CS, aiming to cut five days off onboarding—and reach revenue faster. Optimize for time to first result: Architect onboarding around the first core outcome instead of throwing the whole platform at customers. Async agents can replace the validation call: A Slack agent validates contract and configuration details before kickoff, so the first meeting starts from momentum. Map the process before adding AI: A Google Sheet and Figma board came first. Once mapped, it's obvious where AI fits. The job today isn't the job in twelve months: Both hosts now say this in interviews—hire people who want to build the plane while flying it. Give the team an outlet to flag work that shouldn't exist: Turn "I shouldn't be doing this" into a cataloged, prioritizable ticket—then solve one thing per quarter. CHAPTERS 00:00 - Charleston heat and offsite season 01:09 - The forward deployed engineer hype, revisited 02:08 - Why Palantir's FDE model doesn't map to your business 05:20 - Getting ingrained in the customer's business 07:12 - Cutting a week off onboarding with a deployed solutions engineer 12:39 - Time to first result over throwing everything at customers 13:34 - The onboarding agent and AI-first delivery at Balboa 16:17 - Google Sheets, Figma boards, and mapping before automating 20:00 - Blending AI into the service blueprint 21:10 - "The job today isn't the job in twelve months" 25:27 - Vision setting, rally cries, and the Kennedy moon speech 29:00 - The Wayne McCulloch open-document vision exercise 30:06 - Cataloging work your team shouldn't be doing 36:56 - Working Genius, activators, and galvanizers 38:12 - Community, Vistage, and relaunching Uncommon About the Show: Chief Customer Officer Podcast is a show about real strategies for customer-led growth in the AI era—from leaders actually executing, not just talking about it. Your Hosts: Jay Nathan – CEO of Balboa Solutions and Co-Founder of ChiefCustomerOfficer.io Jeff Breunsbach – Head of Customer Success at Junction and Co-Founder of ChiefCustomerOfficer.io