Random Observation/Comment #643: I never thought I’d find my ideal role, but I’m clearly a Solutions Architect at heart.
Why this list?
Sometimes people ask me “what do you do?” and it’s not always that easy to pin point. As a Solutions Architect (SA), I do a blend of sales and solutions engineering. Sometimes I’m out selling and other times I’m delivering advisory engagements. The skill set requires both (a) the ability to understand the platform options and product features for a particular business industry, and (b) being client-facing and polished in presentations. We have a wide range of talents which helps close sales deals and pass the final test from other architects buying solutions.
Within ConsenSys, this is where we fit into the sales and delivery process:
- Provide Sales resource the necessary technical support and advisory
- Provide subject matter expertise for a particular industry
- Collect client feedback for products
- Collect industry feedback for platforms
- Jointly create platform comparisons
- Jointly create competitive analysis for products
- Understand the growth and status of the ecosystem and market
- Help shape product strategy based on client feedback
- Foster client relationships with technical contacts of the organization
- Write high level requirements on components required for a solution use case
- Draw architecture diagrams for system interactions and design components
- Draw high level feature mapping based on the use case
- Conduct gap analysis between products and new features
- High level due diligence on process, technology, and products
- Conduct demos of products
- Answer detailed technical questions on the product’s architecture
- Collect Non-functional requirements for a product’s deployment
- Present to partners and affiliates on the value of a product
- Create new industry case studies of successful product implementations
- Analyze reusable design patterns across industries
- Update and maintain a solutions toolbox for other SAs
- Contribute useful news/readingof latest systems to other SAs
- Interact with SMEs to learn more about the industry
- Interact with Engineers to learn more about the product
- Interact with BD to understand the sales opportunities
- Help with project scoping and high level effort sizing
- Help with advisory proposal building and approximate timelines
- Conduct workshops to better understand business pain points and technical implementation
- Hand-off documentation and requirements to the project delivery team
- Attend and present at conferences to stay updated on the market, meet with other industry leaders, and grow opportunities
~See Lemons Love Being an SA
