Solutions Engineers: Social Geeks
It’s a Tuesday morning, bright and early, and I’m opening up my calendar, wondering what the day has in store for me. What kind of conversations will I have? What new ideas will I encounter? Where will my role as a Solutions Engineer take me today? 👀
I’ve always described Solutions Engineers as ‘Social Geeks’. We love all things tech, and we love talking about them. If you happen to listen in on some of the casual talks I have with my team, we are often in a heated discussion about the latest developments in the industry. A portion of my day is spent researching and learning more about these topics, whether as a part of my work or mere curiosity. Not just reading about it — we also love directly helping others simplify their lives through tech. That’s one of the reasons being a Solutions Engineer fits me so well.
My calendar beckons with a wide range of interesting calls in store.
A deep dive discussion with an enterprise client’s Data Engineering team to begin with,
An introductory call with the Marketing manager of another client sometime around noon,
And a solution pitch to the CXOs of an up-and-coming startup to finish off!
I head into the first call, all set to understand the customer’s problems. Turns out, they are looking to replace their in-house set-up with a full-fledged plug-and-play solution. This leads to a discussion on their current set-up, their challenges and optimizations, and where Hevo might come in. I’ll be honest — I come across a few terminologies that I’d never heard before, and I’m glad to encounter them!
I walk them through our platform and the features that solve the challenges they face, which include reliability, scalability, security, and manageability. Turns out, our platform is exactly what they’re looking for! We conclude this call on a positive note.
Before my next meeting, I have a small catch-up with my teammates, just to see what we are working on and to share notes. I find out that Redshift now supports the streaming of data through Kinesis streams. That’s great news!
It’s time for the next call now. This time, rather than a data engineer, I am talking to a marketing manager, so I have to make sure to tailor the discussion to suit their viewpoint and needs. They mention that it is taking too much time for them to generate insights from their marketing and customer data, and wish to find a way to do this efficiently.
I take some time to understand the overall goal for their data operations to ensure that we find the best solution for them.
You see, in the modern data stack, it’s always a solution rather than a product that solves your challenges. A product is only limited to its features, while a solution creates coherence among the individual elements and is designed for the long run.
Finally, I enter the last meeting for the day. Again, this is completely different from the other two I’ve had today. This up-and-coming startup is at the beginning of its data journey and is yet to set up a data stack. This would involve applications, databases, data warehouses, and an analytics tool, for starters. This conversation turns out to be eventful indeed, as it goes much beyond what Hevo does. Not only do I get to explore how to solve challenges through our solution but also get to discuss the overall architecture, sharing my opinions on the ecosystem and what would work best for this company. The ability to speak on a level playing field with an esteemed CXO is a unique feeling — even more so when they value your opinion!
As an SE, I am constantly interacting with teams from both sides of the aisle — engineering and business. I talk to the Product team from time to time, keeping myself updated on the platform as well as our roadmap or other plans. I just had an interesting discussion with our Customer Success team on how to understand the feedback coming from our clients. There is a constant loop with the Support team to see how efficiently we can solve the clients’ blockers.
And of course, our better halves — the Sales team that we are constantly in touch with to understand how we can efficiently engage our prospects.
All this leads to quite an eventful day, and I close my laptop in the evening with a satisfied sigh. There’s a saying by Peter Drucker– “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
The more you learn and prepare, the better equipped you are. The more you question your knowledge, the more you polish yourself. My journey as a Solutions Engineer has helped me expand and finetune my knowledge in a myriad of ways.
