Top 5 Tips for working with SMEs

Politeness and time management are key

05

Respect them & their time

Make it personal to them, but give them enough to know what your talking about.

Provide context

04

Who you are, what you want, what supporting documentation you have, give it all.

Give them ALL the information

03

Determine the best way to contact them

02

Take a few minutes to determine who your SME's are.

Do your research

01

Tips for working with SMEs

top 5

What method works best for them? What method will increase the chances of gaining their help?

Here you can puta highlighted title

10

Make reviews easy

New SME's find it helpful to see the output. Show them what their contribution creates.

Show output

09

If needed, with a SME you have a relationship with.

Book recurring meetings

08

Where possible, complile multiple requests for the same SME into one meeting.

Group requests

07

Record your meetings and send follow up emails

Record Meetings

06

More tips for SME Interractions

Bonus

Agree on timelines / deadlines with the SME when you contact them. Include these agreed upon timelines in follow-up emails.

Respect them & their time

Respect begins with knowing that these are BUSY people. Book any meetings for the shortest time you think is needed. Don't book meetings if an email or teams message will do; unless the SME prefers that.

Give them ample time to respond back to you or review your content. SME's hate it when there is a fire drill, this stresses them out. Be realistic with timelines.

Show them appreciation for their time and for meeting with you. Ensure you show respect for their expertise and for sharing that knowledge with you. A little Thank You goes a long way here.

• If you have identified course(s), have those ready. SME's work better if they can see what you need.

• Provide this information up front! Put it in the email, in the teams message, or start the call with it.

• Know what direction you need to take the conversation in.

When you do contact them, be prepared with all the information that you know/need/are questioning.

Give them ALL the information up front

If there are specific line items or master ID you are asking about, give that to the SME.

Get Specific

Mention the project you are asking about. Some SME's have multiple projects that they work on.

Mention Project

Skip any ID lingo - they are not educators, this will only confuse them.

Skip Lingo

Remember that SME's work with a lot of people. They may even be working with multiple learning professionals.

SME's work with others

Give context.

Where do they sit in the organization? Have they had any interactions with our organization in the past? Have they created training of any kind before?

90%

90% of the first impression to a SME comes from how you introduce yourself and explain what you need from them.

Research helps you approach them with the correct knowledge.

Take a few minutes to determine who your SME's are.

Do they prefer email? Teams messages? Directly booking meetings? If your organziation has worked with them in the past, they may know this already. If they are new to working with your organization, you will need to figure this out.

Each SME will have at least one method they would prefer you contact them on.

Contact the SME as they work best.

+5%

Total

When carrying out a presentation, two objectives must be pursued: conveying information and avoiding yawns. To achieve this, it may be a good practice to create an outline and use words that engrave in the minds of your audience.If you want to provide additional information or develop the content in more detail, you can do so through your oral presentation. We recommend that you train your voice and rehearse: the best improvisation is always the most practiced!

+30%

Creativity

link

+60%

Interactivity

+40%

Animation

Provide context with a subtitle

Include infographics in your creations

Did you know? We retain 42% more information when the content has movement. It may be the most effective resource for capturing your audience’s attention.

• Consider booking a scheduled recurring time with your SME. It doesn't have to be long, even 15 minutes might work.
• This is helpful when you are working on a long term projects and times when you need/want to chunk information.

We avoid being part of the content saturation in the digital world.

Digital beings

We need to interact with each other. We learn collaboratively.

Social beings

Seeing the output of work on the same project (other courses in the portfolio) helps for them to see where their contributions fit into the bigger picture.

Narrative beings

Seeing similar work instills confidence in your ability to make sense of their information

We are visual beings

Their contribution matters

Respecting their time may mean not contacting them for each individual item. Where possible, hold and group your requests together.

Group your requests together

This approach needs you to have decent time management and organziational skills.

Go back and compile meeting notes that you can send in an email afterwards. This keeps everyone on track and helps everyone remember what they said they would do and when.

Send Meeting Notes!Remind everyone of deadlines and work agreed to.

This shows respect for their time.

Recording your meetings allows you to take notes later.