Many trainers, marketers, or instructional designers find it frustrating to work with subject matter experts (SMEs). But that doesn’t have to be the case.
In this post, we’ll walk you through how to level up your relationships with the subject matter experts inside your organization so you can work more effectively.
What is a subject matter expert (SME)?
It can be someone on your team, another colleague outside your department, or even someone outside your company entirely.
These are the people you look to in order to create highly relevant content when you’re not the expert. They help provide valuable context and technical knowledge that make your training videos and other content more beneficial to your viewers.
Why are subject matter experts important?
When it comes to creating training or tutorial content, your SME can make all the difference. Imagine creating a video on how to work within a software program when you only know a few of the features. Sure, you could highlight some good information, but your video wouldn’t be complete. That’s not good content.
Your SME fills in your knowledge gaps and ensures that everything you show and share is accurate and complete. They can provide valuable context and technical knowledge that make your videos more beneficial to your viewers.
Think of them as your own private knowledge bank.
That said, not everyone thinks like a content creator. So, while SMEs might have all the knowledge needed to create great content, they’re not necessarily the appropriate choice for actually creating the content.
How to work with subject matter experts
When it comes to developing a great curriculum for the employees in your organization or your customers, finding the right SME and building up that relationship can mean the difference between a smooth, efficient process and a never-ending loop of complexity.
As workplace educators, our job is to help people succeed in the workplace or with our products.
But our SME has a different role.
Their role is to have complete knowledge of the topic. And their knowledge helps the organization perform at level best.
Now enters the big question:
How do you work effectively with subject matter experts?
First, try to imagine how the SMEs think about the world around them and their role within the organization.
Take a moment to stop and remember their perspective will be inherently different from your own. Your goals are different, your perspective of the business needs will be different and your approach to solving those problems will be different.
Keeping these in mind throughout the process will you build a better relationship and create better content in the end.
Here are six tips to help you build your relationship and work effectively with your SME.
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1. Use active listening
Developing your active listening skills will help you in all areas in your life and not only working effectively with SMEs. If your SME appears to be difficult in your first meeting, this is likely due to their passion for the topic. They may try to steer the conversation in a completely different direction than you need it to go.
But if this is your first time working together, try to break the ice and discover common ground.
- Share success stories
- Discuss difficult projects
- Reflect on what they are telling you and why
Remember, active listening means focusing on the words and showing verbal and nonverbal signs of listening. Pay attention to what is not being said as well as the content of the words.
And being in tune with their feelings will help you better understand your SME’s perspective.
2. Avoid assumptions
As with any working relationship, avoiding assumptions will get you closer to your goal. And get you there faster.
Our gut reactions tend to believe SME’s will share our overall perspective. We assume the SME will agree because you both have the best interests of the organization in mind.
However, studies on a cognitive bias called the “false consensus effect” indicate we significantly overestimate the extent to which others agree with our opinions.
As a result, we are actually closer to conflict when we assume agreement with the SME. This ends up contributing greatly to the “us versus them” mentality.
The key is to ask a few solid follow-up questions:
- “I think I heard you say…”
- “Help me understand why this is important?”
These will get you both closer to your goal.
3. Remove communication barriers
For open and honest communication to work, first remove communication barriers.
Figure out your communication preferences and compromise on something that works well for both of you.
You can’t underestimate the importance of mirroring someone’s communication style. A great beginning is in understanding your SME’s mental state. Is your SME happy, excited, frustrated, or stressed out about working on the project? How you interpret that will adjust your communication style accordingly.
As you communicate with each other, don’t listen only to what the other person is saying. Listen to the emotions underneath the words. SMEs are understandably passionate about their subject. Acknowledge their passion and work together to clarify goals.
4. Have healthy disagreements
Conflicts can be healthy! Don’t let the first serious disagreement lead to the end of the partnership.
Instead, learn strategies for healthy conflict resolution.
Talk about both the facts and how you feel about them. Be open to understanding why your SME feels strongly about certain content, images, or processes.
It’s easy to self-sabotage the relationship by trying to put yourself in a position of power, however, be as generous as you can be in interpreting the other person’s actions. Be open to changing your mind if you discover you made a mistake and apologize quickly.
5. Be willing to compromise
Sometimes we have to compromise to get the hard work done. In this case, think about compromise in this way:
“Individual commitment to a group effort to reach an agreed goal.”
Compromise doesn’t have to be a win-lose scenario.
When you and your SME collaborate, you both integrate ideas and energies so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Balance getting your needs met with meeting the needs of the SME.
Remember, Your SME has worked hard to achieve the level of knowledge they have. When you respect this you will get you further than focusing on being right.
6. Set proper expectations
There is nothing wrong with setting some ground rules for working together. Setting the expectations with your SME will ensure everyone is on the same page at the same time.
Know your project may not be the SME’s main priority. Here are some quick easy to establish clear guidelines for communication and collaboration.
- Create a collaboration area to minimize meetings and to respect the SME’s time.
- Use tools like Asana, Google Docs, or other project management tools to share information.
- Give everyone is clear on deadlines and review cycles.
- Get the SME’s buy-in and write a schedule with agreed review dates.
- Record your meetings and share the video out afterward.
- Create a shared notes document to avoid misunderstandings.
At the end of the day, you and the SME both want the same thing: to help people in the organization perform at the highest levels.
Because people are people, this takes some negotiation and ground rules to meet those goals.
Use these six tips to help guide your project journey and you’ll see higher success rates with your content and SMEs who want to collaborate and work on projects with you.
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Common SME pitfalls and how to avoid them
Sometimes, all the planning, preparing, goal-setting, and listening in the world isn’t enough to get things going in the right direction. But, that doesn’t mean your video project is doomed! Here are a few common issues that can arise when working with SMEs and how you might avoid them.
1Your SME is a “talker”
The best SMEs are great communicators. They understand what you need and have relevant answers to your questions. They can elaborate and give pertinent details, and make good, succinct points that are easy to follow.
On the other hand, there are the “talkers.” We all know someone like this. They have a LOT to say, and not all of it (or even much of it) is relevant to the topic or task at hand. They go off on tangents and forget what they were originally trying to say, or seemingly have no regard for their time or yours. It’s not ill-intended! They’re probably even a great person. But they’re definitely not helping you finish your video
Your best defense against a talker is to come prepared with a list of very specific questions. Remember the closed-ended questions we highlighted earlier? They can be a great way to keep someone focused and you in control of the conversation.
Another way to keep someone on topic is to submit questions to them before a meeting and have them respond via email or on a collaborative document. That way you ensure you get your most relevant questions answered up front. Then, any face-to-face meetings can be more follow-up and clarification oriented.
Your SME is not a talker
On the other hand, some SMEs have all kinds of knowledge, but seem loathe to actually share it with anyone.
There may be a variety of reasons for this. Some people are just more introverted than others and may not feel comfortable speaking with someone they’re not super-familiar with. Other people are — let’s face it — just plain old anti-social.
Whatever the reason, getting information from someone like this doesn’t have to be like pulling teeth.
Thinking about journalists again, most good reporters know that getting more information from someone who seems unwilling to cooperate can be as simple as staying silent. Even non-talkers get more uncomfortable the longer an awkward silence goes on. At some point, they may get so uncomfortable that they just start talking to fill the silence. Then you can use your questions to get at the real knowledge.
Also, like with the talkers, you might have more luck by sending a list of questions and asking for answers before any face-to-face meetings. Even bullet points would help. Make sure your questions are pointed and get to the heart of what you need to know to make sure they can answer them without too much effort.
As a last resort, if your SME just isn’t giving you the information you need, work with your boss or another colleague to identify someone else in your organization who might be a better fit. Keep this in mind the next time you have need of an SME so that you don’t have the same problem again.
Too much knowledge
Sometimes a SME has so much expertise it can be hard to find the most relevant information for the task at hand. They have so much to share that it can strain the scope of your current video and threatens to balloon the viewing time beyond what’s reasonable.
In cases like this, setting goals and expectations and having a shared understanding of the project scope at the outset helps keep things focused and on target.
Make sure your SME understands the purpose of this particular piece of video content and why it’s important. Be upfront with what you need and why you need it. An outline of your video can be helpful in maintaining focus, as well.
On the other hand, don’t be afraid to listen to your SME when they have a valid reason for providing more information than was requested. Maybe your original video scope won’t accurately or completely answer the problem at hand. Perhaps there is different or additional content that will make more sense to present.
Listen to their perspective and be prepared to change if there’s good reason to. Keep in mind that changing project scope may need permission from a supervisor or the person who requested the project.
Your SME wants to create the content
While this is more common with written content, for video creators, there will be times when your SME just wants to take the reins and create some of the content themselves. While they likely won’t want to actually make your video, they may want to write the script, work on the storyboard, or take over on another aspect of the pre-video planning.
Handle this on a case-by-case basis. If you have a good working relationship with your SME and you’re confident in their content abilities, this can actually work out well. As the SMEs, they can go a long way in creating — at the very least — a good place to start.
On the other hand, if you’re new to working with this SME, or you’re not confident that this kind of “help” will actually be helpful, it’s better to push back. There are a number of ways to do that without hurting feelings.
For example, thank them for the suggestion, but let them know that you’re relishing the opportunity to really learn from them, so it will be more helpful for you to get the information and boil it down to the most salient points.
Or, remind them of the expectations and roles you set at the beginning of the project.
Finally, you can compromise and ask them to put together an outline to help shape the content.
No matter what, make sure they understand you appreciate all their effort and you’re happy to be working with them.
10 tips to create great content with your subject matter expert
1. Simply the language
Your SME probably knows all kinds of technical terms, acronyms, and jargon that — unless they’re experts themselves — may be unfamiliar to your users or customers. Be sure to create your content to a level makes it easier to understand.
2. Start from the beginning
Remember, before someone starts using that nifty new software feature, they have to log in. Did you include all of the steps, even if they seem obvious to you or your SME?
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help
Clarify what you don’t understand. Your SME will be more than willing to help you out if you explain what you need and how they can help.
4. Take it slow
While you don’t want to waste your SME’s time, be sure to take the time you need to truly understand what you have to explain in your video to avoid unnecessary follow-ups.
5. Explore the “what-ifs”
What happens if the customer clicks this button? What would happen if this system failed? What would a customer do if this happened?
6. Explore the “whys”
Why does this happen? Why would a customer need to do this? Why is this a best practice?
7. Ask follow-up questions
Why is that? Can you tell me more about how this happens?
8. Ask the SME if they have anything to add
You never know what insights they may provide!
9. Let them give you their background story
While it may not be pertinent to the discussion at hand, it helps build rapport by showing you care about more than just what they can give you. And, you never know, you may end up learning something more useful than you thought!
10. Come prepared, but don’t be afraid to deviate from your plan
Create a list of questions you need to be answered, but follow relevant answers down paths you may not have foreseen. You can gain valuable insights both for you and — ultimately — your video viewers.
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