Strategies for Working with SMEs
by Marian Schickling
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Strategies for Working with SMEs |
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In an ideal world, your first subject-matter-expert meeting is a roaring success. You've read all the available material about the company and the product or service; your questions are well researched and focused for results; and your subject matter expert (SME, "smee," for short) is knowledgeable, gregarious, and infinitely patient. But, alas, you work in the real world where you can be thrown into a SME meeting at a moment's notice without much preparation. The product or service for which you are creating the training may still be in the development stages with no written documentation available. And as for being armed with precise, engaging questions that elicit insights from the SME, well, you would consider the first meeting a colossal success if you could get through it without revealing how little you actually know. Clearly, the real world offers challenges that are not covered in SME Interaction 101. You have to take your basic understanding of how to work with SMEs and apply a few creative touches to ensure success. The more you know about the subject matter under discussion, the more confident the SME will be in your abilities. But, what if there isn't any background material to study before your meeting? There may be more than you think. Sometimes, clients assume that you would not be interested in seeing information that does not clearly represent the final product or service. Preliminary specifications, incomplete systems documentation, and information from earlier versions of the product or service can fall into this category. Since the product or service is in the process of being created or updated (often in piecemeal fashion), your client may not consider these materials reliable. In truth, they are the mother lode. They may not make much sense at first; but little by little, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, the big picture will emerge. You will discover the acronyms (almost always without their clarifying definitions) and other language of the subject. This language familiarity is the framework on which you can hang the specific SME information. It's amazing how many times a bit of confusing information uncovered before the SME meeting suddenly becomes clear while the SME is talking (one of those wonderful "ah-ha" moments). Another good source of information is the client's internal web site. An evolving product or service usually has some early marketing documents floating around it. These materials, usually very effusive about the benefits of the product or service, may be a tad vague about what the thing actually is or does. Despite this drawback, you will probably find that desperation spurs appreciation. If there are other related projects going on at the same time, talk to the people involved. They may have materials or insights into where you can find what you need. Sometimes, a project has a single set of documents that everyone is expected to share. If you don't ask, you may not even know such material exists. As a last resort, consider talking to someone in the organization who can give you the big picture. Your SME usually has a fixed focus on the particular product or service and probably will not be able to answer questions about the audience for the training, the topics to be covered, or the scope of the objectives. To learn more about these aspects (and get the big picture at the same time), you may need to meet with the direct client. The client's contribution will help you understand where all the SME pieces will fit and will also provide a preliminary focus for the SME discussions. Look for more strategies for working with SMEs in upcoming issues of this newsletter.
2003 - 2004 © Copyright Marian Schickling. Printed with Permission. About
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