Pauline Brunet, leader of the global Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team at Cursor, shares insights on building and scaling the FDE function within an AI coding platform company. She emphasizes the importance of understanding both the customer’s digital maturity and the product’s customization level to determine where FDE fits best. Brunet explains that FDE is most effective when working with customers who are either highly mature with customizable products or less mature customers needing embedded transformation support. She distinguishes FDE from traditional professional services or staff augmentation, highlighting that FDE should focus on driving meaningful business outcomes rather than basic product training or bug fixes.
The role of a forward deployed engineer is multifaceted, requiring deep technical expertise combined with high emotional intelligence. FDEs work closely with various stakeholders across customer organizations, from executives to developers, to lead discovery, identify use cases, and drive digital transformation. They must stay current with technological advancements and act as a bridge between customers and internal product and engineering teams, providing valuable feedback to influence product roadmaps. Brunet stresses that FDEs are agents of change who accompany customers through their transformation journey, ensuring technology adoption and success.
At Cursor, the FDE team is composed of highly experienced, technical professionals who collaborate closely with customers on strategic, project-based initiatives. These projects focus on delivering measurable ROI, such as deploying cloud agents and automations that improve operational efficiency. The team pushes the boundaries of the platform by exploring use cases beyond software development, including HR, finance, and supply chain applications. Brunet advises against using FDEs as mere staff augmentation and highlights the importance of working alongside dedicated customer teams to co-develop solutions.
Brunet shares best practices for running an effective FDE function, including starting with a clear mission statement, hiring the right talent, and maintaining a flexible team structure that can evolve with customer needs and product developments. She encourages experimentation and learning from failures, listening closely to customer feedback, and partnering with system integrators and consultants to scale impact. Importantly, she advocates for being honest about the product’s capabilities and saying no when a use case is not a good fit, which builds trust and credibility with customers.
Finally, Brunet outlines practical tips for managing FDE projects: clearly defining the problem and success criteria upfront, keeping scope directional to allow for pivots, involving customers throughout the process, and rigorously measuring ROI in terms of revenue increase, cost reduction, or risk mitigation. She underscores the need to leave behind thorough documentation and artifacts to support ongoing success. Her closing advice is to build a strong culture that attracts and retains top talent, enabling the FDE team to deliver impactful, transformative solutions for customers.
