The services trap is the failure mode of forward-deployed work. Symptoms: performance measured on utilisation or billable hours, nothing built at customers ever reaching the product, and engagements incentivised to continue rather than to conclude well. The underlying trade — accepting lower margin in exchange for deployment depth and defensibility — is deliberate and can be healthy; the trap is when the product feedback loop disappears.
Worked example: the sharpest interview question for detecting it is “show me something an FDE built last quarter that is now in the product” — a specific answer is the strongest positive signal available, and vagueness is the tell. Gotcha: it is hard to notice from the inside because the weeks stay busy and the customers stay happy.