As a sales engineer, you need to design and present solutions that meet your customers' needs and expectations. But how can you keep your solution architecture skills current in a fast-changing and competitive market? Here are some tips to help you stay on top of your game and deliver value to your prospects and clients.
One of the best ways to improve your solution architecture skills is to learn from your peers who have more experience, knowledge, or insight into different domains, industries, or technologies. You can join online communities, forums, or groups where sales engineers share their challenges, best practices, and feedback on various solutions. You can also participate in webinars, podcasts, or events where you can hear from experts, thought leaders, or influencers in your field. You can also network with your colleagues, mentors, or partners and ask them for advice, tips, or recommendations.
Here are the things I do to stay relevant and updated in Cloud skills 1. While I work on designing the solution primarily, I also take up deployments at work which helps me refresh my troubleshooting and implementation skills 2. Additionally, I use AWS workshop labs and Azure hands on labs to simulate the real world problems of the services I learn from internet. 3. I train my first circle for new technologies, this helps me know the new features added since the last time I had used those services. 4. Follow the AWS/GCP/Azure product updates to know the newly released features to the existing line of services. 5. Finally, work with the engineering teams closely to understand the issues they face during delivery and the workarounds.
Use validated and proven methodologies. Don't just copy the behaviour of your experienced colleague. They might be doing it all wrong for many, many years. When you have proven methodology, team up with your colleagues. Help each other to improve by doing dry runs or reviewing demo recordings together.
1. Keep a ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’ approach to life. 2. Invest in yourself - ALWAYS!. Those who don’t invest in honing and updating their capabilities are relegated to the career periphery. Learn new tech and explore ways to use them in your engagements, products and solutions 3. Adopt a loop of doing excellent in your current work/engagement and leverage your body of work to ask for more challenging architectural engagements in new, hot and happening technologies.
Stay current with market dynamics and try to stay updated about whichever industry, market that excites you. This will help you know better about the likely use cases and case studies which you can refer for your work and give those examples to your clients and other stakeholders. Staying current with technology trends and trying your hand at newer technology is another way to give yourself more self confidence. If you or your organisation can go for training and certifications then that is a better way gain more scalability helps you stay relevant.
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IT technology or Cyber Security world is moving too fast. It is always good to keep ourself updated what’s new on the market but the most important which we always missed out is how we can have the new solution compliment and not complicate the customer environment as an architect.
Another way to keep your solution architecture skills current is to follow industry trends and developments that affect your customers' needs, pain points, or goals. You can subscribe to newsletters, blogs, or magazines that cover relevant topics, such as emerging technologies, customer behavior, market dynamics, or regulatory changes. You can also use tools like Google Alerts, Feedly, or Twitter to monitor keywords, hashtags, or mentions related to your industry, niche, or solution. You can also attend industry events, conferences, or trade shows where you can learn from industry leaders, analysts, or peers.
Use proven methodologies, like Great Demo! for demo skills. Ask your trainer for practical checklists so you know exactly what to do.
1. **Diversify Information Sources:** - Subscribe to relevant newsletters, blogs, and magazines. - Use tools like Google Alerts and Twitter for real-time monitoring. 2. **Attend Events:** - Participate in industry conferences and trade shows. 3. **Build a Diverse Network:** - Engage in discussions with professionals from diverse backgrounds. - Join online forums and LinkedIn groups for varied perspectives.
Regularly read blogs, articles, and whitepapers from industry experts, technology vendors, and research organizations. Subscribe to newsletters and follow relevant forums to stay informed about the latest trends, best practices, and case studies. Attend solution architecture conferences, webinars, and meetups. These events provide opportunities to network with professionals, learn from experts, and gain insights into emerging technologies and industry trends.Participate in discussions, ask questions, and share your experiences.
A third way to keep your solution architecture skills current is to experiment with new tools, platforms, or frameworks that can help you create, design, or present better solutions. You can explore various options that can enhance your productivity, creativity, or collaboration, such as cloud services, diagramming tools, prototyping tools, or presentation tools. You can also try out different methodologies, approaches, or techniques that can improve your solution architecture process, such as agile, lean, or design thinking. You can also use online courses, tutorials, or certifications to learn new skills, concepts, or best practices.
Use the technology yourself. There is no making up for not actually having used the technology you're speaking to. Build a lab, use the free tiers from the major cloud providers to test scenarios. Use AI tools like ChatGPT to help you understand key concepts, speed up lab development with coding scenarios, etc. You'll then come across as experienced and trustworthy when speaking to prospects who may actually be looking at you as a Subject Matter Expert to help guide them through not only using the product you're repping, but to help them architect a solution with real positive outcomes for them.
Tools often have new releases with new capabilities. Stay up to date and use new features. Be aware that your prospects don't know the newest features. It would help if you guided them when you use them. You’re more tech-savvy than they are.
Hands-on experience is crucial for gaining a deep understanding of how different components work together. Practice building and optimizing solutions by setting up your own lab environment
1. **Embrace Tool Exploration:** - Experiment with new tools, platforms, and frameworks to elevate your solution creation, design, and presentation capabilities. - Explore cloud services, diagramming tools, prototyping tools, and presentation tools for enhanced productivity and collaboration. 2. **Adopt Innovative Methodologies:** - Try out different methodologies like agile, lean, or design thinking to refine your solution architecture process. 3. **Continuous Learning Through Courses:** - Enroll in online courses, tutorials, or certifications to acquire new skills, grasp concepts, and stay updated on best practices for solution architecture.
A fourth way to keep your solution architecture skills current is to seek feedback and improvement from your customers, managers, or peers. You can ask for honest and constructive feedback on your solution design, presentation, or delivery, and identify your strengths, weaknesses, or areas for improvement. You can also use metrics, data, or analytics to measure the impact, value, or performance of your solutions, and learn from your successes, failures, or mistakes. You can also set goals, objectives, or action plans to improve your solution architecture skills and track your progress and results.
Hands-on practice is very valuable to test your knowledge and learn different perspectives. I usually try to get more involved in POCs, projects implementations and operations. It helps me to get feedbacks on the solutions I promote and different views on which technologies can complement the solutions.
1. **Embrace Feedback for Growth:** - Solicit honest and constructive feedback from customers, managers, and peers on your solution design, presentation, or delivery to identify areas for improvement. 2. **Utilize Metrics for Evaluation:** - Leverage metrics, data, or analytics to measure the impact, value, or performance of your solutions, learning from both successes and failures. 3. **Goal-Driven Improvement:** - Set specific goals, objectives, or action plans to enhance your solution architecture skills, and track progress and results for continuous improvement.
A fifth way to keep your solution architecture skills current is to stay curious and motivated about your role, industry, or customers. You can challenge yourself to learn new things, solve new problems, or find new opportunities to deliver value to your customers. You can also celebrate your achievements, rewards, or recognition and use them as motivation to keep growing and improving. You can also find inspiration from your passion, vision, or purpose and use them as drivers to keep innovating and creating better solutions.
Architecture practices don't change overnight, it takes several years to have new architectural patterns and styles. Learning the basics it's a long term investment that will help you in your tech career. A few resources I encourage to evaluate: - O'reilly subscription for getting access to all the most famous resources on software architecture - Follow specialised newsletters like Dear Architects to be exposed on different architectural topics - Join online and in-person conferences like the one organised by O'Reilly, Geekle, QCon or GSAS - Try your learnings with architecture katas if you don't have the possibility to try in your projects
It’s important to keep on top of industry trends. A good skill to have is to preempt where the industry might end up. Being involved with societies or authorities is a good way to do that. Another important skill to have is to understand which trend is a fad and which one is here to stay.
1. **Foster Curiosity and Motivation:** - Challenge yourself to continually learn, solve new problems, and uncover opportunities to provide enhanced value to your customers. 2. **Celebrate Achievements:** - Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements, rewards, or recognition as motivation for ongoing growth and improvement. 3. **Draw Inspiration from Passion:** - Find inspiration in your passion, vision, or purpose, using them as driving forces to foster innovation and create improved solutions.
Having a learners mindset is crucial, learning to ask the right questions comes only after asking questions. With the pace of evolving tools, it is important to unlearn the outdated set of beliefs like limitations and offerings available.
To paint the big picture, business context plays a significant role. At times, the problem statement can get stretched as it flows from business aspects to technical context. Understanding the business expectations and having a top level view enables a solution free of potential redundancies.
Do not miss the business needs from the focus. It is easy to get dragged into the technicalities of the systems, APIs, SLAs, etc. and let the main component out of the equation. We are the bridges between the technical and business worlds therefore we must keep this balance no matter how the environment changes. Sometimes we will be loved from both parts and sometimes we will be hated by both parts ... it is part of the "stay in the middle" game.