Forward deployed engineers as CSMs: It's a trap
Why turning customer success managers into pseudo-engineers risks pulling them away from revenue, strategy, and customer outcomes
Just when customer success and specifically customer success managers were getting closer to revenue, a new concept is cropping up that may throw a wrench into all of this: The forward-deployed engineer.
The idea of a forward-deployed engineer (FDE) has existed for a long time. As an example, I managed a team of FDEs way back in 2016. These were highly skilled individuals who partnered with CSMs to implement customized technical solutions for clients. In my case, they were adding scripts to websites to pull in ecommerce catalogs.
With the advent of gen AI, the belief is that technology and specifically coding will be much easier and will allow anyone to increase their technical know-how. This is, of course, dead accurate. To extend this to customer success, the belief is that CSMs should go beyond their current efforts and implement technical solutions.
Here is how VC OG, Toamsz Tunguz, described this:
“The ability for customer success managers of the future to vibe code new platforms to deliver success on a basic platform is real . And it will be a requisite for these teams in an age where customer expectations of delivering value are shorter than ever.”1
Fellow VC and friend John Gleeson added:
“If you’re a CSM looking to transition into a Forward-Deployed CSM role, the first step is expanding beyond relationship management into technical problem-solving. Start by building fluency with your product’s configuration tools, APIs, and integrations — even if you’re not expected to own them today. Get comfortable navigating internal admin environments, pulling usage data, and working alongside solutions engineers.”2
Forward deployed engineers or CSMs would encompass the following:
Jump in early with the customer - sometimes in pre-sales
Understanding business challenges
Leverage technical or domain expertise
Driving adoption and achieving value
Focusing on outcomes rather than just activities
Companies such as Palantir, Sierra and OpenAI are mentioned as companies that are leveraging this model.
As someone who built their CSM career on their technical skills, I firmly believe that CSMs need to uplevel their AI skills in this new age. No question. Everyone should be proficient in AI - especially prompt engineering.
But my first reaction to this is “What the hell? Has customer success’s reputation taken such a hit that we have to come up with a new name already? Don’t we aspire to be more ‘forward deployed’ (or proactive)? Haven’t we already made strides to focus on outcomes?”. I guess not. We may be in bigger trouble than I thought!
Why customer success should be worried about being forward deployed engineers
As I said, I’ve managed forward deployed engineers. They are very technical but when you get into building and solutioning, you move further away from revenue and the bigger picture. I see forward deployed engineers as something more similar to services or even support. That is definitely less of a strategic role within the organization. Is that where customer success and specifically customer success managers are going? The question is: Why is this happening and why now?
The battle for ownership of revenue: Sales vs Customer success
I just find it really interesting as to why CS is being pushed away from revenue. Perhaps one reason is that sales sees customer success infringing on its territory, just as it seems an increasing amount of revenue is being generated by existing customers.3 Coincidence? Maybe.
The bottom line is that CS leaders need to really consider what they are really trying to achieve. For example, in OpenAI’s case, they need to help their customers to link up their systems to achieve more value. CSMs should have the technical prowess to provide advice for their customers but should they be the ones actually creating the webhooks and troubleshooting poorly created AI prompts? Getting into the weeds of solutions takes CSMs away from taking the time to understand their customers’ outcomes.
Will AI continue to drive efficiencies? Of course. Will the CSM role continue to evolve? Of course. I would just caution leaders before they jump headlong into these ideas.
How we’re tackling the needs of enabling our customers to be AI experts
As an AI native company, we’re at the forefront of this movement. While we haven’t changed the name of our CSMs yet, we’re definitely hiring more technically inclined CSMs - those who have used very complex software and are experimenting with advanced AI technology.
We’ve also developed a new role on our services team called the “customer automation engineer”. This could be considered a forward-deployed engineer. This person will work in conjunction with an implementation manager or CSM on complex prompt engineering and integrations. They will work more behind the scenes but do much of the heavy lifting. In addition, we want to bill for their services.
Is this the right approach? Time will tell. We’re still early in our journey, but we’re confident in the way we’re moving. We want our CSM team to own renewals for the most part, uncover expansion opportunities, and even run many of the expansion/upsell conversations.
There is never a proper approach to any of this, but it’s important to take a step back and ask ourselves why this is happening right now, and does it make sense to distance CSMs from customer revenue? In some cases, especially in the enterprise, it makes complete sense. In other cases, where CS teams have struggled, it also makes sense. Just make sure you are introducing change for the right reasons and think through what the future impact may be on your team, the organization, and especially your customers.
What are your thoughts?
PS: I have no bias at all. :) My book, The Strategic Customer Success Manager, is available on Amazon.
“The Sales Strategy Conquering the AI Market,” Toamsz Tunguz, July 18, 2025, https://tomtunguz.com/fde-cs/
“The Rise of the Forward Deployed CSM,” John Gleeson, June 23, 2025, https://successvp.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-the-forward-deployed
Expansion ARR now contributes a median ~40% of total net-new ARR, up ~5 pts vs. 2023. For companies >$50M ARR it’s >50%, and for >$100M ARR the median is ~67% according to Benchmarkit: https://www.benchmarkit.ai/2025benchmarks
Adding technical skills and requirements is simply heaping more tasks to CSMs without truly removing any of the other tasks, as fundamental or as antiquated as they might be. And STILL expected to drive revenue, single-handedly prevent churn by over-compensating for company-wide deficits, silos and lack of customer success strategy. YUK.