What does a Great Solutions Architect do?
Anshu Sharma
Co-founder & CEO Skyflow, securing the modern AI data stack with data privacy vault
You must have seen the title of solutions engineer or solutions architect. A lot of people think that it's the same as a sales engineer. While a sales engineer can play the role of a solutions architect, it's a very different skill.
A solutions architect sees the problem from the eyes of the customer.
Rather than asking - how do I solve all your problems with my product, a great solutions architect seeks to understand the architecture a customer has today, figures out what the future goto architecture looks like, and then identifies precisely how your product can fit in the "customer's go-to architecture."
This requires technical empathy: an ability to see from the customer CTO's perspective. You get to play CTO/architect for customers and if you do a great job, they trust your guidance.
When you see a great solutions architect engage with a customer, it's really amazing - they finish each other's ... whiteboards.
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P.S. I am looking for our very 1st Solutions Architect at Skyflow. Email me at [email protected] or message me here.
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3 年Great message, Anshu! Ace SAs also intuitively understand the difference between meeting customers' requirements and exceeding their expectations; not an easy feat!
Creator/Curious and Official Member at Forbes Real Estate Council
4 年Most of the time, solutions manifest by reaching the deepest understanding of the problem from an actual user point of view. If you give a rock (a piece of marvel) to Michael Angelo he is going to sculpt David out of it by carefully removing the excesses and work on it tirelessly. Nature has never created a problem without a solution, it's just that we don't see it yet due to our limited mindset and social/genetic conditioning.
GTM | Serving the APJ Ecosystem | ??
4 年Absolutely right Anshu Sharma. Its an role of "Value Architect"
AI Strategist
4 年So obvious, yet it constantly has to be restated. Before architecting a "solution", you have to actually understand the problem
Sr. Executive: Sr. Mgmt. Advisory, AI/GenAI Initiatives, Cloud-Based Transformations, IoT, Big Data, Advanced CAE
4 年Love the statement: "...they finish each other's ... whiteboards"