Why FDE became necessary for AI products

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What if the fastest path to product-market fit isn't building more features—it's deploying engineers to solve customer problems?

Diego Ballona, Senior Director of Engineering at Intercom, runs Forward Deployed Engineering—a team that helped scale Fin from 5 design partners to 7,000 customers, hitting a 67% resolution rate in 18 months. But FDE isn't professional services rebranded. It's product managers, engineers, and data scientists working directly with customers to accelerate outcomes and turn real friction into features everyone can use.

Diego breaks down the exact team structure that makes this work, why outcome-based pricing changes go-to-market strategy, and how to know if FDE is right for your business. If you're scaling an AI product or rethinking how engineering and CS collaborate, this conversation delivers the blueprint.

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Timestamps

0:00 - Preview & Introduction

3:00 - Diego's origin story at Intercom and how FDE emerged organically

5:35 - Intercom's scale: 7,000 Fin customers, 67% average resolution rate across all segments

7:25 - From 5 design partners to proving the FDE model

9:12 - Building the business case and getting leadership buy-in

12:05 - FDE team structure

18:55 - How FDE turns customer insights into product features

23:15 - Ownership boundaries: CSMs vs. FDE teams

25:25 - Outcome-based pricing and why it aligns incentives perfectly

27:00 - Diego's golden nugget: Stay open-minded

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What You’ll Learn

* How Intercom scaled from 5 design partners to 7,000 Fin customers in 18 months using Forward Deployed Engineering

* Why the FDE team structure requires three specific roles working together

* How outcome-based pricing changes everything about go-to-market incentives, comp plans, and team alignment

* Why FDE engineers need different skills from product engineers

* How to know if FDE is right for your business (and why it might not be)

* The ownership boundaries between FDE teams and CSMs that make cross-functional collaboration actually work

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Where to Find Diego:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dballona/

Intercom: https://www.intercom.com

Fin AI Agent: https://www.intercom.com/fin

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Where to Find Josh:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschachter/

Unchurned Substack: https://unchurned.substack.com/