Forward deployed engineer vs. agency vs. software subscription: how to choose
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You have a problem that eats hours. There are three common ways to get help. Each one is the right answer sometimes, and a waste of money other times.
The three options side by side
| Software subscription | Agency | Forward deployed engineer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it starts | You sign up and set it up yourself | You describe what you want, they quote it | They spend time in your business first |
| Who learns how you work | You, from the help pages | A project manager, from a call | The person building the fix |
| What you get | A tool built for many businesses | A defined project, such as a site or an app | A small fix shaped to your actual work |
| How you pay | Monthly, often per user | A project fee, usually up front | By the hour or a small fixed scope |
| Best when | A product already does what you need | You need something big and well defined | The problem is how your work flows, and no product fits |
| Watch out for | Paying for features nobody uses | Getting what you asked for, not what you needed | Fixes that only the builder understands |
Software first, when it fits
If an existing product does the job, buy it. Square, Toast, Calendly, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp exist because thousands of businesses had the same problem. Their version is cheaper and better tested than anything built just for you.
Where people go wrong is buying software to fix a process problem. A fancier calendar app won't help if nobody updates the calendar. You'll pay every month for a tool that sits there while the real problem carries on.
An agency, when the job is big and clear
An agency is the right call when you can describe the finished thing. A new website, a logo and brand, an app with a lot of users. They have designers, writers, and developers, and they're set up to deliver one defined project.
The risk is that you describe the symptom, not the problem, and they build exactly what you asked for. It might be well made and still not help. Agencies also tend to have minimums that make a small fix not worth their time, which is fair.
A forward deployed engineer, when the problem is the flow of work
This is the right choice when the trouble is in how work moves through your business, and nothing off the shelf matches it. Orders arriving in four places. Schedules built by hand every week. The same questions answered over and over. Information typed into one system, then typed again into another.
The tradeoff is that the fix is shaped to you. That makes it fit well, and it also means somebody has to be able to maintain it. If the builder disappears and nobody wrote anything down, you're stuck. A good one leaves a handoff document and builds with tools you can keep using without them.
Four questions that decide it
- Can you describe the finished thing in two sentences? If yes, and it's big, look at an agency. If it's a standard product, look at software.
- Does a product already exist that does this? Spend 20 minutes searching and reading reviews from businesses like yours. If there's one, try it before paying anyone to build something.
- Is the problem really about how your people do the work? If you can't tell, it probably is. Watching the work is how you find out, and the first week inside a business covers what to look for.
- Who will maintain it in two years? A subscription is maintained by the company. An agency project often needs a maintenance contract. A small fix built from a spreadsheet and a form can be maintained by your own staff.
You can mix them
Plenty of good projects use all three. Say you run a clinic. You keep your scheduling software (subscription), pay an agency for a new website, and have someone spend a few days fixing how referrals get passed between your front desk and your billing person. They're different jobs.
If you're not sure where to start, start by working out which problem to fix first. The right kind of help usually gets obvious once you know the problem.