Tips for Working With Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

If you are a learning technologist or learning designer, you will probably be working on projects where the subject matter is unfamiliar to you. To learn about the subject in order to produce a design you will need to consult people who know the subject inside out - the subject mater expert (SME).

This post looks at how you can work with an SME effectively.

What is an SME?

Celebrity Chef, Knighted Emeritus Professor, Army Instructor, IT Manager, UFOlogist, Booker Prize Winner, Clinical Practice Manager and a Pharmacologist. What do they have in common? Not much you’d think, but they have all been subject matter experts (aka SMEs) on learning projects I’ve produced in the last few years.

We know that SMEs are a keystone in learning projects, so how is it possible to work with them to get usable content on time and in scope?

Some Tips

The first thing to understand is that your contact isn’t called an SME in their place of work - that’s not a job title, it’s a role. Your SME will have other things to do - their job. They may or may not see helping you as part of their job and you’ll have to deal with this whatever happens. Many people, of course, are only too wiling to help, some might even be over helpful and that brings its own challenges.

So, what can you do to ensure you get their time, commitment and content?

1 - Meet Your SME

Meet your SME and find out how much they know about your project and fill them in if they don’t know very much. This seems obvious, but their understanding of the project may be different from yours. Explain and iron out any misunderstandings. Keep management in the loop as scope may not have been described (or costed) accurately and some risk management may need to be applied. This meeting need not take long, but it is crucially important to the success of your project.

Let your SME know how much time you’ll need from them as they may not have been informed about the level of commitment required. Don’t underestimate the time needed for review cycles and fact checking - projects can go seriously awry if the content is wrong or is inaccurately rendered. Imagine what would happen if you told apprentice electricians in the UK that the brown wire means earth and the green/yellow was live. That nearly happened to me 20 years ago I am ashamed to say.

2 - Find Out How Much They Know About E-learning

Find out how much your SME knows about e-learning - it could be a lot more than you expect, it may be nothing, or it may be informed or uninformed negativity. Once you know levels of understanding, you can adapt your approach accordingly. Deal with the sceptics as soon as you possible. Do not dismiss their concerns. Counter their objections with calm, informed, polite but firm professionalism.

3 - Lose the Jargon

Don’t talk about learning theory in any great depth as most people don’t know or want to know about it - they want a piece of learning that will do something such as reducing the number of accidents in the workplace or increasing sales of cameras. They are paying you to change something, so concentrate on that and talk about the project in those terms - the resulting change and how your design will bring it about. Of course, you need to be sensible - if you are working with lecturers in an education faculty you might need to demonstrate that you know your constructivism from your behaviourism!

4 - Organise a Workshop

Kick off the project with a Workshop with all key stakeholders. Confirm that you are all clear and agreed on the key goals and scope of the job. Describe your proposed solution. Ask if they are happy that this is still within their perceived scope. If it’s not, let your project manager know as soon as possible. Show examples of the kinds of things that can be done for this kind of project and budget. This can get difficult as many people can’t resist putting everything bar the kitchen sink into a production and others might want overkill - asking for a full scope simulation when the budget can only stretch to a part task sim. Take notes during the meeting and issue them as Minutes with actions.

5 Write Things Down

When meeting your SME to get the content, take notes, use sketching techniques, if you have an interactive whiteboard write notes on that and save them. Record your conversations with SMEs (ask first though) and transcribe after. If you have been fact gathering then send the notes in for checking/sign off.

6 - Get Sign-Off

Many designers are frustrated by the length of time it takes to get sign-off from SMEs. Lengthy sign-offs can result the project losing momentum and the timescales slipping, but often the delivery deadline does not slip in parallel with it. Be assertive and politely pester your SME and the project stakeholders - if you don’t make your point early on and get it logged in the project risk log, then it will be you who makes up the time as the deadline looms. Ask any designer what comes last and too late - it’s nearly always the content.

There are many more things you can do. These are just a few. If you want more, then please contact me. Happy designing.

Rob Alton