Solution architecture - what big tech is getting wrong.

Or why digital architecture should mimic best practices in physical architecture.

Great built environments -- from concert halls, cozy homes, and park boulevards -- start with the humans, animals, and nature that integrate with them. For thousands of years, the practice of architects and construction working hand-in-hand has evolved, but the basics are known: architects start with the site, the needs of who's inhabiting that, program, start shaping form, blueprint THEN hand off to be built by construction.

You would never start with technical systems like HVAC, plumbing, or framing before understanding the form they need to be constructed.

Then WHY THE &!*% is the practice of Solution Architecture starting with databases, APIs, and Python? Why is the career path starting technical -- particularly with software engineers -- then moving into a more client-facing role? The JDs of AWS and Stripe asking for all the coding skills?

It's all backward. Architecting solutions in the digital space is about deeply understanding the users and their problems and beginning to create forms of these. And then either through hand-off to engineering to code or using no/low code or AI to go as far down the stack as possible. It's more designer than engineering (though the lines between these folks are also getting grey), and it's more product manager than QA tester.

You may be saying to yourself, "Wait, John, you're not a Solution Architect then; you're a [insert grey area buzzword of the week here]." And while Solution Architect is just a hat I wear and a role that I often take on, I'm confident in calling what I practice "Solution Architecture." Rather than continue defining the practice, let me tell you two stories of what being an SA can feel like that's more user/design-centric -- what I'd call more "true" to the craft of architecture.

1. Selling solutions, from prototype to deployment gripe at Pinterest.
2. End-to-end CX: questioning a core company value with "Bentos," a packaging project.