Training

How to Develop FDEs | Training and Evaluation Through Which Engineers Learn Field Skills

The final article in our FDE practice series is about developing FDEs. Coding is in the curriculum; asking, watching, being there, structuring, filming, and handing a dictionary to a machine are written down nowhere. Our engineers took external interview training before going on site and built their field skills through daily routines: working in pairs, the unease column, Friday groups, dictionary versions. Drawing on the books Palantir handed new hires, a16z's eight-week fellowship, and Nonaka's socialization, this article covers what training can teach, what only the field teaches, and an evaluation design based on patterns returned and declining on-site hours rather than billable utilization.