Subject Matter Experts or SMEs are an essential part of every instructional design project. Yet, you may easily get frustrated working with them due to having little to no control over them. However, it does not have to be that way. Here are five tips I’ve gained through experience, failures and successes on how to better work with SMEs.
What is a Subject Matter Expert?
Say you are working on a safety course to operate heavy machinery and you have zero knowledge and experience in that field. How would you ensure the instructional order of your design is accurate? You can research the thing, but how would you know is right? That’s where you need to collaborate with an expert, someone that is doing that job and has stories to share about it as well. There’s no better learning than that gained through experience and lessons learned through real stories. Check out the following video where I explain the ID and SME relationship as well as answer a few questions sent to me on LinkedIn.
Effective Tips for Working with SMEs
I hope the video was helpful for you but if not, here are the best 5 tips I can give you for working with SMEs regardless of project or situation.
1. Establish Rapport and Clear Roles Upfront
In the process of every project, you should have a project kick off call or meeting. This is your opportunity to have a conversation with your designated SMEs and learn about their backgrounds. Make sure you allot time for each of them to share their professional background and interests. Also, have a quick presentation where you explain your role and what they should expect out of working with you.
2. Determine Their Availability Right Away
After you got to know them a bit, determine their availability right away. Find out who is going on vacay, conferences, maternity leave or anything else that will block your access to them. The last thing you want is to get caught in a project slump because you did not do this work during the first two calls. This is your responsibility, not theirs.
3. Be Patient and Document Everything
Send email meeting notes or however your company communicates after every meeting detailing SME action items with deadlines and next steps. Remember SMEs are most likely going to be workers in your organization and will be busy on their own projects. If there’s a mishap or the project timeline is compromised because of a SME delay, you can always fall back on your notes to explain the delay to your leadership. Are SMEs going to slack? Sure. They are people just like you.
4. Push According to Organizational Dynamics
Sometimes you have to push or pressure SMEs to get what you need and finish the project. How much and often you do this depends on your organizational dynamics. What I mean by this is how revered the SME is in your organization and what influence they have. For example, you won’t be able to push too much on SMEs of high influence because it can negatively reflect on you. So as long as you have Step 3 covered, you will be fine. I have worked in organizations where the SMEs where god-like and that’s a tricky situation.
5. Be on Their Side, Not Against Them
This one is especially important if you are an employee in an org. Why? It’s a bit of politics and interpersonal relations mastery. Chances are you will work again with previous SMEs or there could be opportunities to work with them in another department or even another company. Once you work with SMEs and you have establish a fruitful relationship, they are part of your professional network. So ask yourself this question: What would you like SMEs to say about working with you to their bosses and peers? Being on their side means you are empathetic to their problems and most likely working with you is an extra assignment to their workload. You can still get the work done without compromising project requirements but their impression of you will have a lasting effect in your professional brand.
Wrap Up
There are many tips and strategies to work effectively with SMEs. The key thing to remember is that they are people just like you. If you follow these tips and the ones on the video, you should be well prepared to establish great professional relationships. More importantly, without SMEs, your projects would not be as impactful as they should be.
