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Duration 14 hours
Course Outline
The Scope of FDE Leadership
- Focusing on outcomes rather than resource utilization
- Balancing the tension between delivery and product strategy
- Establishing mandate, reporting structures, and executive sponsorship
Designing and Staffing Pods
- Defining pod configurations, sizing, and levels of autonomy
- Crafting the right skill mix across engineering, data, and domain expertise
- Managing rotation and ensuring continuity across engagements
Hiring and Evaluating FDEs
- Identifying key indicators of deployment aptitude
- Structuring interviews and practical work samples
- Facilitating onboarding directly into active engagements
Engagement Economics
- Managing scoping, effort estimates, and profit margins
- Choosing between time and materials versus outcome-based pricing
- Optimizing portfolio mix and mitigating concentration risk
Developing the Internal FDE Playbook
- Formalizing stages, quality gates, and deliverables
- Setting clear definitions of done and quality standards
- Maintaining and evolving the playbook over time
Vendor FDEs vs. Internal Capabilities
- Identifying where external vendor teams create the most value
- Structuring contracts to ensure effective knowledge transfer
- Building lasting internal capabilities that extend beyond the contract
Reusable Accelerators and Blueprints
- Utilizing reference architectures and starter repositories
- Leveraging pre-approved security and integration patterns
- Governing shared assets effectively
Adoption and Outcome Governance
- Tracking adoption metrics and reporting to executives
- Empowering steering groups with genuine decision authority
- Implementing strategies to intervene in stalled engagements
Risk, Escalation, and Failure Patterns
- Understanding failure modes specific to different engagement stages
- Defining escalation paths and stop rules
- Conducting post-engagement reviews that drive practice improvement
Cultivating the Practice
- Creating career pathways for forward deployed engineers
- Establishing standards, community engagement, and knowledge sharing
- Mapping out a twelve-month capability roadmap
Requirements
- Experience managing engineers or technical delivery teams
- Involvement in customer-facing engagements
- Exposure to commercial decisions such as scoping and pricing
- No coding skills are required, though technical fluency is beneficial
Target Audience
- Engineering managers leading forward deployed teams
- Delivery directors and practice leads
- Heads of applied AI or solutions engineering
- Transformation leaders building internal deployment capabilities
