Forward Deployment Academy - Kick Off
Forward deployment is a business craft wearing an engineering costume. Now that AI writes the code, the person who wins is the one who understands the client — the designer, the operator, the analyst who can finally build it themselves. John Ang makes the case, live: what the role really is, and who it’s really for.
John Ang, CEO of Hasky Technologies, is an actual builder — he runs an AI-native company and has led non-engineer teams that shipped production software to 20+ SMEs. Real clients, real handovers, still running. On Friday he shows how it’s done.
About this session
SQ Collective Academy and Hasky Technologies ran a 2 day Forward Deployment Boot-camp in August: 78 applications, 25 builders, two full days.
Register for interest for bootcamp here: https://academy.sq-collective.com/forward-deploy
Forward deployment is a craft. It takes constant practice. Two days is only the beginning. That is why this weekly programme exists for people building that practice. Every Friday, 10:00 to 12:00. One hat. One idea. One practitioner.
That is why we created this weekly programme for aspiring FDEs — every Friday, 10:00 to 12:00, one hat, one idea, one practitioner.
Instructor: John Ang, CEO of Hasky Technologies.
John builds for a living — Hasky’s own products, and production systems for 20+ SMEs delivered mostly by people with no conventional engineering background. He opens the series with the whole job: the five hats, how they fit together, and what it actually looks like to operate as a forward deployed engineer in the real world.
Most people wear one or two of the five hats. The forward deployed engineer wears all five. AI is what makes that possible for one person — and it is why this skill is in demand right now.
What you’ll learn: 4 of the 5 hats were never technical
• The five hats, end to end — how a real business problem becomes software people rely on, told through John's own engagements, not theory
• What separates a prototype from a product — the real problem, the one slice, the data boundary, the deploy, the handover: the things that turn "it works for me" into "a client pays for it"
• How AI-native companies actually operate — the workflows, the tooling and the judgment calls behind delivering as an FDE today
• Your questions, answered — open Q&A with practitioners doing this work now. Bring the prototype you're stuck on, or the problem you want to solve
Masterclass format: a talk, then open Q&A. You leave with ideas you can apply on Monday, a clear map of the five hats and where you stand on each, and the questions to ask before your next build.
Who is it for?
Operators, consultants, product managers, analysts, designers, engineers and freelancers who want to take a real business problem all the way to software people rely on — with AI handling the heavy lifting. Some of you have built a prototype and hit its ceiling. Some haven't started. Whether you're an engineer or not, whichever hat you already wear, the other four are why you're here. This is what the next generation of builders looks like, and it's the skill companies are hiring for right now.
Session Details
Tickets at S$60.
Complimentary for FDE Academy subscription members.
FDE Academy membership: S$150/month
In-person sessions every Friday — Every Friday, 10:00–12:00 at SQ Collective. A practitioner from one of the five hats of forward deployment shares what they learned. Then they open the floor for AMA. (Worth S$320/month)
Self-paced online course — Access to a Haskytech-designed IDE that guides you through structured learning based on real-world cases. About 16 hours over six weeks. You learn the five jobs of a forward deployed engineer by building. (Worth S$500)
Digital tutor — Ask the FDE tutor on WhatsApp. Trained on Haskytech's implementation experience. (Worth S$300/month)
Unlimited token use — Complimentary tokens for reasoning and image generation through the Hasky workspace. (Worth S$1,000/month)
Unlimited community support