By Jerry Grohovsky, Copyright 2017. JPG & Associates, Inc.

In the world of technical communication, successful project development often depends on the support of Subject Matter Experts (or SMEs). These individuals are generally employed by the client in other specialized roles, such as engineers, software developers, project managers, marketing communication professionals, quality control specialists, and so on. They are employed by the client company to provide support to the client product initiatives relating to each of their particular professionals skills sets—typically 8 hours per day, 5 days per week.

With that said, one of the first initial steps that a technical writer takes in the project planning phase is to identify specific SMEs within the client company who he or she can call upon to provide content support. This involvement can take many forms, such as: a) providing existing documentation engineering and marketing documentation, b) providing answers to specific technical questions, c) reviewing content drafts for accuracy, readability, d) reviewing content for relevancy to safety and legal guides, e) providing logistical input that will help the writer remove obstacles, minimize the impact of peripheral activities, and provide valuable input to smooth out wrinkles in the overall project management process.

Even though SME involvement is critical to the success of a tech. comm. project, gaining access to SMEs can have it’s challenges. SMEs own their own projects, with their own deadlines. Therefore, the writer is competing with their time and priorities. Also, occasionally there can be personality friction, ownership barriers (perceived or real), and even egos to work around.

The project development component of working with SMEs is one of most common and important roles that a technical communicator will assume during a career. Ironically, there are no text books or formal courses that teach the soft skills that are needed for this interaction. Most technical communicators learn how to work with SMEs via the “world of hard knocks” and OJT.

Particularly for newer, less experienced technical communication professionals , SME interaction can be a struggle—often ending with feelings of frustration and helplessness. Without successful SME involvement, a timely, complete, and accurate conclusion to a project can be jeopardized.

Here are 12 tips that will help you the technical communicator to be successful in working with subject matter experts (SMEs):

  1. Introduce yourself and get to know SMEs on a personal level, as well as professional-level.
  2. Identify your role in a project, and your objectives.
  3. Communicate to them that their role as a SME is important to the success of the project.
  4. Persuade SMEs to collaborate with you on a theme of “ownership” and “mutual pride”. Convince them to “have a stake” in the project.
  5. Invite SMEs to participate in project meetings, and involvement in technical review cycles.
  6. Gain their respect. Often SMEs are either skeptical of writers, where they have built up erroneous or misleading perceptions of what technical communicators do. Or, they don’t understand their roles within the organization.
  7. Be respectful of their time and availability. However, don’t hesitate to be persistent if their responsiveness is lacking, too minimal, or inconsistent.
  8. Be organized, efficient, and creative in mining expert knowledge. Prepare your questions (in clusters) in advance of meetings. SME relationships can go south quickly by pinging them with frequent emails and phone calls that cover one or two questions or topics.
  9. Don’t rely on SMEs to do all the heavy lifting. Rely upon them to “fill in the blanks” and answer the most difficult of technical questions, and to help you “connect the dots” where you simply don’t have the expert knowledge to do so.
  10. Determine what methods of communication work best for a specific SME. Take note of preferred communication methods (email, phone, person-to-person). At the same time, determine what methods of communication work best for a given topic or subject matter. Face-to-meetings are often necessary and more effective than by phone or email. Video recordings of extensive meetings, presentations, or technical demonstrations are a great way to capture the important technical details.
  11. In instances where you are experiencing resistance or less than optimal cooperation, you may want to use an endorsement from upper levels of management that identifies your project as one of “high importance” and visibility”. Use this theme to your advantage when necessary to invoke cooperation.
  12. Always show appreciation for their time, knowledge, and professionalism.

In Summary

Working with Subject Matter Experts is one of the most important skills that a technical communicators will develop over the span of a career. If the professional writer interacts with SMEs on a level of mutual respect, consideration, professionalism, and gratitude, then a successful project collaboration will be achieved. One might say that working with SMEs is an “professional art form” that gets better and better with experience—and age—like a fine bottle of wine!