BUILT IN THE WORK // NOT THE WORKSHOP
OG/FDE

FORWARD DEPLOYED
ENGINEERING.

Before FDE became a hiring trend, the job was simple: sit beside the operator, trace the handoffs, build the fix.

OPEN THE FIELD LOG

[ THE THESIS ]

Request in. Purchase order out. The ugly bit in between is the actual job.

The strategy lives over here. The operator lives over there. Somewhere in the middle, a workflow is held together by email, tribal knowledge, and a spreadsheet named FINAL_v12_USE_THIS_ONE.xlsx.

That middle is where we work.

[ DECODING THE ACRONYM ]

FORWARD DEPLOYED
MEANS FORWARD DEPLOYED.

F
FORWARD

Close enough to the problem to hear the swearing.

D
DEPLOYED

Same system access. Same bad data. Same Monday deadline.

E
ENGINEER

Leave behind code, a test, an owner, and fewer manual steps.

PART OPERATOR. PART PRODUCT. PART ENGINEER. PART PAIN IN THE ASS.

[ SELECTED FIELD LOG ]

PROOF WE LIKE
THE MESSY PART.

Seven things already sitting in repos: runnable apps, tested workflows, ugly-data workbooks, and the notes explaining why each exists.

01PROCUREMENT INTAKE AGENT

THE FRONT DOOR

A local model figures out what the employee is asking for. Catalog, supplier, policy, and approval lookups keep it from making things up.

REQUESTER CHATCATALOG LOOKUPAPPROVAL ROUTE
02RFQ WORKBENCH

THE QUOTE MACHINE

Take ugly requester spreadsheets through supplier matching, quote comparison, approval, and order drafts. Bad rows stay visible.

BUYER LANEQUOTE MATCHINGAPPROVER GATE
03BUY-NOW SCREENER

THE ANTI-CRM

Score accounts on pain, money, urgency, access, and fit. Weak pursuits get killed before they clog the forecast.

FIVE FILTERSPUBLIC SIGNALSKILL LIST
04ODOO DELIVERY

THE DELIVERY BRAIN

Turn workshop notes into fit-gap calls, owners, acceptance criteria, Jira tickets, and a technical lead who is not guessing.

DISCOVERYFIT-GAPJIRA
05SPEND CUBE

THE MONEY MAP

Map ugly supplier data, show what did not map, rank the categories, and hand the buyer the workbook—not a screenshot of it.

SUPPLIER MAPEXCEPTION FILECATEGORY RANK
06WORKFORCE DESIGN

THE WORK GRAPH

Normalize 89 broken job titles, map each role to the work it actually does, then show which tasks repeat across the org.

89 TITLESTASK REUSESOURCE LINKS
07CHIPOS

THE COMPOUNDER

Turn meeting notes into discovery questions, delivery plays, proposal modules, and the name of the person who promised the follow-up.

MEETING NOTESPROPOSALSWHO OWES WHAT

CLIENT NAMES REDACTED. EVERY CLAIM ABOVE MAPS TO A WORKING REPO.

[ THE OPERATING LOOP ]

LESS “BIG BANG.”
MORE CONTROLLED DETONATION.

01

LAND IN THE MESS

Sit with the operator. Watch the handoffs. Read the ugly spreadsheet.

02

NAME THE REAL PROBLEM

Separate software gaps from policy, ownership, data, and process debt.

03

SHIP THE SMALLEST REAL THING

Make one request travel from start to finish before designing the empire.

04

LET REALITY HIT IT

Hand it to the buyer. Do not help. Write down every place they stop.

05

HARDEN IT OR KILL IT

Fix the failures that repeat. Delete the clever parts nobody needs. Stop funding dead pilots.

[ A QUICK COMPATIBILITY TEST ]

WE SHOULD PROBABLY TALK IF...

  • 01 Your AI roadmap was written without the person who owns the inbox.
  • 02 The process map and the process are distant cousins.
  • 03 A pilot has been “90% done” since last quarter.
  • 04 Everyone knows the workflow is broken. Nobody owns the whole thing.

HAVE A WORKFLOW THAT’S QUIETLY ON FIRE?

GOOD.
BRING THE MESS.

HELLO@OGFDE.COM
CHIP SCHNEIDER // OG FDEBUILT SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE PROCESS MAP AND THE PRODUCTION LOG.© 2026