Developer to Consultant

How can a software developer make the transition from selling their labor(writing a code) to selling their expertise?

Examples of Developers Turned Consultants

Reuven Lerner. Link
- Positioning statement: Teaching Python and Data Science around the world
- Service offerings: courses, corporate training
- Expertise: Data science
Tracy Lee
- Service offerings: traning
- Product offerings: swag, courses
- Expertise: frontend
Eve Pocello & Alex Banks
- Company: Moonway
- Product offerings: books
- Service offerings: workshops
Frank Rietta
- Company: Rietta
- Expertise: Security, Dev/Ops
- Service offerings: ALL OF THEM
  - Business Analysis
  - Security Audits
  - Agile Training
  - Scrum Training
  - Staffing Consulting
  - Maintenance and Monitoring

Flavors of Technical Consulting

Account Manager- coordinate everyone else involved with the account
Solutions Architect - Similar to sales people, they are showing customers "the art of the possible" and working with customers to show what can be done. May or may not be hands on.
Engagement Managers - similar to scrum masters or project masters
Technical Consultants - actually working with customers and developing solutions
Technical Account Managers - provides ongoing support. Constantly on call.
Fractional CTO - fill the CTO role for a company that doesn't have the resources to hire a full-time one.

Source: this comment on Reddit, based on Amazon positions

Example Service Offerings

Corporate Training
- Example: https://lerner.co.il/courses/ - In this example they have a specific course material they walk people through.
Workshops
Audits

Example Areas of Expertise

technologies
- AWS
problem areas
- accessibility
- security
- HIPAA
- scalability

Notes

Idea from the Tom Critchlow discord: use an existing book / framework to try and bootstrap a consulting practice. For example, scrum / agile practices. Quote from the channel:
- One opportunity that's been mildly helpful for me to do more strategic work is to leverage existing strategy books+frameworks in your domain that you can then apply for your 'client' (be it an actual client or an internal one).
- By reading & considering a decent business book* somewhat deeply you:
  - Will be 95% ahead of the game where most people have heard the meme but have no idea what the substance is.
  - Have a bunch of thinking done for you -- no need to start from scratch.
  - Can leverage the authority & credibility of the authors behind the book... and cover your ass somewhat if it fails.
  - Can look at existing case studies where [whatever framework] worked/failed and use that community knowledge.
  - Bootstrap your way to your own DIY framework: https://tomcritchlow.com/2019/06/27/frameworks/ :)
  - Use the strategy + implementation as a one-off, test-the-waters project, rather a whole career-level commitment.

Old thread from Adam Wathan about productized services and value-based pricing. Source: "Value based pricing is absolutely the best approach for work that can be productized, but custom software development is not that type of work."

Interesting thread on "software as solutions": McKinsey has started buying software and selling solutions to clients, instead of pure strategy. I suppose selling solutions is higher leverage than selling strategy? Maybe the real play is this: solution > strategy > labor. Thread Link

Found that the Entrepreneurial coder podcast looks like a great resource for learning about independent work and developers-to-consultants types. It appears the most common bridge is training products, and then training services.

Open Questions

How important is large company experience when it comes to consulting? The Yak Collective seems to think its important enough to include on their brief member directory page. Is it a 'requirement?'
How can developers work in higher-context and share the problem with stakeholders?
Who has made the developers to consultants leap, and who has a business like I want? What can I learn from them?