The FDE Playbook for AI Startups with Bob McGrew

TL;DR

The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model, invented at Palantir by Shyam Shankar, places engineers at customer sites to fill the gap between product and customer needs, performing product discovery and building custom solutions that are later generalized into the product.

Key insights

• The FDE model is "doing things that don't scale at scale" – applying high-touch, custom work repeatedly across customer segments.
• Palantir’s success required building a platform (not a product) that could be customized per site, leading to the invention of the Palantir ontology (objects, properties, media, links).
• Two key roles: the Echo team (domain experts who are "rebels" or "heretics" who understand current processes are insufficient) and the Delta team (engineers who prototype quickly, "eating a lot of pai