What the F%#& Is a Solutions Architect?

There are few job titles as mysterious, misunderstood, and incorrectly used as “Solutions Architect.”

I’ve been one. I’ve survived being one. I’ve worked with people who think we:

• Just draw boxes
• Can “fix the demo” 10 minutes before the call
• Are technical support, but make it enterprise

The truth?
We are the glue between the possible and the sale.

A great Solutions Architect doesn’t just know tech — they:

• Translate business problems into architecture that won’t fall apart at scale
• Help sales teams not overpromise (or at least under-deliver less)
• Keep customers from rage-quitting before onboarding ends
• See the deal from first pitch to production... and sometimes way beyond

We are: 🧠 Technical enough to speak dev
🧑‍💼 Business-aware enough to keep sales from lying
💥 Calm enough to explain to a CISO that yes, everything is encrypted now

And 9 times out of 10, we’re doing all of this:

• Before coffee
• After something broke
• While a product manager says “it’s easy to add this, right?”

So no, we’re not just diagram artists.
We’re translators. Fixers. Pre-sales therapists.
We help customers trust your product before they buy it — and help your team not die once they do.

Next time someone asks what a Solutions Architect really does, send them this post… and maybe a coffee.

☕ Architect This. Powered by caffeine, chaos, and 20 years of infrastructure mistakes I’ve already made so you don’t have to.

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🧨 Next week on Architect This: 5 Things Founders Get Wrong About Sales Engineers.
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