42% of tech startups fail because they build products nobody needs. 70% of digital transformations fail to meet objectives. And 37% of employees actively resist new technology—even when it works. The technology isn”t the problem. The gap is.
There’s a chasm between the people who build systems and the people who run them. Consultants stand on one side with their recommendations. Developers stand on the other with their code. And operators? They’re stuck in the middle, trying to make it all work on Monday morning. Palantir figured this out. They invented a role called “Forward Deployed Engineers”—senior engineers embedded directly with customers, building in production, iterating in real-time. No handoff. No gap. That’s the model.
TL;DR: Most technology fails in the gap between builders and operators. Consultants advise but don”t build. Developers build but don”t operate. Forward deployed engineers close the gap—embedded with your team, building in production, staying until it works. That”s how you bridge the implementation chasm.
The Three-Sided Problem
Here’s how technology projects work:
| Role | What They Do | Where They Fail |
|---|---|---|
| Consultants | Assess, recommend, advise | Leave before implementation |
| Developers | Build features, write code | Don”t understand operations |
| Operators | Run the business daily | Left to make it all work |
Each group optimises for their own success metrics. Consultants optimise for recommendations. Developers optimise for technical elegance. Operators optimise for getting through the day. The result? Systems that look great in demos but fail in production. Features nobody asked for. Integrations that break every Tuesday.
I’ve seen this pattern dozens of times. A company hires consultants who produce a beautiful transformation roadmap. Then they hire developers who build exactly what the specs say. Then operators spend the next year working around the system because nobody asked them what they actually needed. Sound familiar?
Why the Gap Exists
The gap isn’t malicious. It’s structural.
Consultants don’t face consequences. They’re paid for recommendations, not results. By the time the implementation fails, they’ve moved on to the next engagement. Their incentive is to be right, not to make it work.
Developers don’t see operations. They build from specs, not from sitting next to the person who’ll use the system. Research shows developers focus on computational efficiency and architectural patterns. Users focus on getting their job done. Different languages. Different worlds.
Nobody owns the middle. The implementation phase—where strategy becomes system, where code becomes workflow—is everyone’s responsibility and nobody’s job. That’s where projects die.
The technology adoption curve has a name for this: “the chasm.” It’s the gap between early adopters and the early majority. Most products get stuck there. Most implementations do too. What if someone owned that gap?
Forward Deployed: The Palantir Model
Palantir built a $50 billion company on a simple insight: send engineers to the problem, not specs to engineers.
They call them Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs). Here”s how it works:
| Traditional Model | Forward Deployed Model |
|---|---|
| Requirements — Specs — Development — Handoff | Embedded — Build — Iterate — Production |
| Engineer sees user once (kickoff) | Engineer sits with user daily |
| Feedback cycles: weeks/months | Feedback cycles: hours/days |
| Success = code complete | Success = problem solved |
| Ownership ends at delivery | Ownership ends when it works |
The SVPG describes it well: “The core of the FDE model is that you send empowered engineers directly to spend intense time embedded with customers, with the express purpose of learning the problem and solution space, so they can discover a solution that will achieve the necessary outcome.”
That last part matters: achieve the necessary outcome. Not deliver the spec. Not complete the project. Achieve the outcome. This is why FDEs are in demand now. AI implementation, systems integration, workflow automation—these require understanding the operation, not just the technology. You can”t spec that from a conference room.
What This Means for Mid-Market
Palantir built this model for governments and Fortune 500s. But the principle applies anywhere: Close the gap between building and operating.
You don’t need Palantir’s budget. You need someone who understands the technology deeply enough to build it, understands the operation deeply enough to make it work, and stays embedded until it runs without them.
That’s not a consultant. That’s not a dev shop. That’s a senior delivery partner with operator experience. The combination is rare. Most technical people don’t want to sit in operations. Most operators don’t have technical depth. The ones who have both? They close the implementation chasm.
First Thing Tomorrow
Stop splitting the work into advice, build, and operate.
1. Audit your current projects. Who owns implementation? If it’s “the project team” or “everyone,” it’s nobody. Name one person accountable for the outcome—not the deliverable, the outcome.
2. Kill the handoff. If your model is consultants — specs — developers — operators, you have three gaps to fail in. Collapse them. Whoever builds it should sit with whoever runs it.
3. Hire for consequences. When evaluating partners, ask: “What happens if this doesn’t work in production?” If their answer involves change orders and phase two, keep looking.
4. Demand embedded, not external. The best implementations come from people who are in your operations, not presenting to them. If they won’t embed, they won”t understand.
The gap between advice and execution is where $2.3 trillion in digital transformation spend goes to die every year. Close the gap.
The Bottom Line
There’s a chasm between the people who build technology and the people who run it. Consultants don’t cross it—they’re paid for advice, not outcomes. Dev shops don’t cross it—they’re paid for code, not operations. The gap stays open. Forward deployed is different. Embedded. Iterating in production. Staying until it works.
That’s how you close the implementation chasm.
Need someone who closes the gap? Senior delivery. Embedded execution. Systems that work. Start a conversation.
Sources
- The Pragmatic Engineer: Forward Deployed Engineers — Why FDEs are in demand
- SVPG: Forward Deployed Engineers — The model explained
- Palantir: A Day in the Life of an FDSE — How it works in practice
- Bridging Developer-User Gap — 42% startup failure stat
- Digital Transformation Failure Rate 2025 — 70% failure, $2.3T wasted
- Technology Adoption Curve — The chasm concept