Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. My name is Matt Pierce, host of Visual Lounge, and today I want to talk about an experience I'm I'm going through. I'm just started, it hasn't finished, and I wanted to share. So I've been recently asked to be a subject matter expert for a course. Now the details of the course, the topics, all that stuff does not matter. But one of the things that's been on my mind is the role of a subject matter expert. Because normally I have been the ID. And as an instructional designer, you think a lot about working with subject matter experts. We've talked about it on the podcast, I've created courses around it, like how hard it is can it can be to work with a subject matter expert. I've worked with subject matter experts and I've had great experiences and I've had ones that are lackluster. So I wanted to talk from the perspective of an SME today. And if you're an instructional designer, hopefully this will help you think about like, hey, yeah, what does an SME need for me? And if you are also a subject matter expert in different things, maybe it'll get you thinking about like, yeah, how am I positioning myself as a subject matter expert to help the instructional designer or whomever I'm working with. So we're gonna go through a couple of topics and ideas today. Uh, and you know, I'd love to get your feedback. What's your experience as a subject matter expert? What's helped you as an instructional designer? What's helped you to get better at working with subject matter experts? You can always email us at the Visual Lounge at textment.com or comment down below and wherever you're seeing this. Number one, when you ask for my time, I'm just gonna assume it's important. I wanna have a relationship with my instructional designer or whomever that says that when they need something, they really need it and that they're being clear about that. If it's not essential, they'll they'll let me know, like, hey, I don't need this. Because I want to be a good subject matter expert. I want to be the person who provides a lot of details, you know, I want to make sure that I'm providing things that are gonna get used, that but, you know, I also want to make sure it's worth the time. My time is fairly limited these days, and so if it's being asked for, it needs to have a purpose. So, in that, I would suggest instructional designers. Can we be a little bit more specific? Can we tailor the request to the specific things we need? Um, there's some other things we'll talk about that I think will ply into this, like boundaries and understanding kind of how a subject matter expert may be thinking, because honestly, my goal is to give you as much information as possible, and I haven't figured out quite yet what is too much and what isn't enough. And that will come with time as I do this more or as in a particular topic. But for right now, if you're asking for it, just make sure it is really valuable for me. Uh protect me from myself, because I think there'll go two ways, right? One, subject matter expert, probably like myself, will try to do everything. I will try to do everything I can and more, maybe even do a little bit of your job because I have an instructional design background. Or you'll get the other side of that where it's like, hmm, ignore, ignore, ignore. It doesn't seem like this is urgent enough for me to do because there's 20 other competing priorities. So as an instructional designer, make sure you're clarifying a subject matter expert, make sure you're asking as well. It's on you to say, like, yeah, how important is this? When do you need this buy? What's this gonna get used for? Is this really relevant? It's okay to ask the questions. We don't want to be uh rude about it, we don't want to be uh harsh about it, but we do want to protect our time. And I think that's fair. Number two, tell me about the container before you ask the content. I don't necessarily see all the places things are gonna go. I'm not intimately familiar with the design of the course uh structure. I might have some ideas. I've taken courses before, so I want to make sure I understand that. Also, I need to know things like in that course structure, is there a sense of who the learner is? Like where are they at? And and that might be something that we're having a conversation about. We might have to divine and div Divine. We're not gonna divine anything. It's not, this is not prophecy. We're gonna have to decide that together. However, it might be that I've got 12 other things to do, and I might not always remember, or maybe I don't understand the audience as well as you do, or maybe you've done more work on that, or maybe I think I do, and I but I think, oh, everyone's like me, and that's just not true. No one is like me, and therefore I need to make sure I'm making appropriate adjustments when uh you're gonna ask me for something. There might be also instructional constraints because I might go on this idea like, oh, what if? What if we could do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this cool stuff, and like, yeah, you know, fireworks, pyrotechnics. And you're like, no, instructionally, we have these constraints. These are things that we need to do. We have a certain quality level, we have a certain kind of process that has to go through. There's certain things that we don't want to invite our learners to do or be involved in because we know it's not effective, or maybe we can't even begin to measure. So you want to make sure you help me as a subject matter expert understand those things. The other thing is there might be other boundaries that need to come up, things that you know you don't need from me in that course, things that you might consider irrelevant, or you'd be like, I need this core information, I don't need the tips. Because maybe there's things that I've learned, the heuristics over time, that I want to share because like this is valuable information. It's I've I've spent years to learn, and then all of a sudden you're like, no, we're foundational here, or we're at this level. Those things why maybe helpful, not part of the course as itself. Maybe it's uh an add-on, maybe it's part of on-the-job training, or maybe it's something else, but it doesn't belong. So we want, as subject matter experts, put up good guardrails for us. Like, we want to be successful, but what we need is those boundaries, and we need to know like what is this funneling into in shape and form so that we can do that better. Number three, if you've been a subject matter expert for a long time, it is possible that you are very deep into the work. That's why you're a subject matter expert. You've learned over time the things that you need to know and understand to be successful in a role. And the danger in that is, is you have forgotten what it's like to not be that expert. There are things that are intuitive now or just naturally acting that you do that a new person or someone coming in to learn this may not ever know unless you tell them. But you've paid the price to get there. So what I do need as a subject matter expert is that you help me narrow in and focus on those things. Help me remember those things, help me remember what it's like to be brand new in this role or just approaching this content without maybe the depth of experience of 20 years. And so I think what that can do for you is as an instructional designer or creator of a course or whatever content you're creating, it can help eliminate some of the extra like verbal, just I'm going on and on. But also I think it gets me to stop to think about like what's really most important and hopefully not missing something critical along the way. Because in some instances, in jobs that I've worked out with a subject matter expert missed a step, it wasn't just like, oh no, you didn't miss you missed a step. Oh well, we'll catch it later. It was like that whole process falls apart. It could even be dangerous. Like if you're teaching someone how to fix a machine and you forget a lockout tag out step, whoo, that's bad news, right? So we just want to make sure that you're focusing your subject matter expert, me, on the basics, the core things, what's most essential. And not letting me get off on the rabbit hole, tangent hole. I think one really great way subject matter experts can work with, ask them to record kind of their thoughts and ask some questions, get that recorded. However, when they are going off on those things that you don't need, don't waste their time. Remember number one, let's go back to that and say, don't waste my time by asking me questions or letting me go down rabbit holes that don't need to be go down. That's it. That's number three. Number four, I don't know what I don't know. I'm giving you the things that I think, and if it's wrong, feedback early and directionally is super important. Accuracy, good. I'm guessing you're relying on me for accuracy, but let me as a subject matter expert know if, like, hey, this isn't exactly what we're looking for. We're looking for more of this or that, um, or hey, that's really good and really detailed. What would that look like at a 10,000 foot level versus a hundred-foot level? And so I think it's okay to correct. It's okay to ask someone to maybe explain or go further. Um, you know, I I think it's okay to say, hey, that's really great information. This is too advanced. Or, hey, that's really great information. It feels like that might go later. Or, you know what, that's a great story. I think I appreciate you sharing that with me. And I see where how it ties together, but I I don't know that that's gonna make the course because of X, Y, and Z. Right. I think you have to, you have to be uh bold in that, you have to build a relationship with your SME. Um, you know, and no one likes to be told that's not gonna be worth anything. Why are you saying that? You know, so be mindful of what you do and giving that feedback. But I, as a subject matter expert, I don't know what I don't know. And your job is there to help me to create the best, give you the best content that you can use. And now sometimes there is a time when you're like, yep, spill it all and we will sort through it, get rid of the chaff as we go. Um, and those are useful. I've sat in those sessions, learned a ton, but you might, as an instructional designer, might need me, subject matter expert, to also guide some of that to say, like, yeah, that's oh yeah, I guess I see that's not really relevant. So again, pointed questions really help help me give you what you need. Number five. Push back on me when my expertise actually hurts the learner. Now, this is something I, you know, cases when it doesn't make sense that, like, oh, anything you say is like probably just useful information, probably just too much, but you're gonna bore the learner. But there are definitely times when things could hurt the learner. It could hurt learning, in fact. And so I think just being really mindful of what a learner needs, um, you know that, I may not. You have uh andagogy, pedagogy, your your design thinking, whatever it might be to guide as a subject matter expert, more than likely I don't have that. Um, or I need to be reminded that, hey, this is the process that we use in our organization. Or here's the things why we wouldn't want to include that, right? Like, because that is going to get them on the wrong idea. Um and so you just want to be really careful about making sure that we're not getting, as a subject matter expert, into nuances or edge cases or pulling out things that just distract from the core learning. And that's where learning objectives come back in, like setting those up and saying, hey, this is what we need to learn. Is it supporting those things? If it's not supporting those things, doesn't mean it's bad, just means it maybe belongs someplace else. And the things that are in this course need to help strengthen one, two, or three learning objectives. Less is more in my book, but that's a thing that you need to consider is like, hey, this is actually gonna lead us down the wrong path. So push back. If you don't feel like you have a relationship with your subject matter expert, spend some time with them. It's the best thing you can do. Ask them questions, get to know them, understand their breadth of experience. People genuinely like talking about themselves, and so find a way to ask about them. Hey, what got you into this field? What was the first time you experienced this? Why is it that you do X, Y, and Z? What about it has uh been most successful or most thrilling for your career? You know, get to know them a little bit. Uh uh grease the skids, as they say, it will make a big difference. And you can't just do it once. You gotta get to know them throughout the process. And now, obviously, you don't want to spend a lot of time, because frankly, kind of like a factory, just moving things through things. And so I think you want to just be mindful of doing that. All right, number six. Let me react to something instead of starting for nothing. You might have an idea where this course should go as a subject matter expert. I might have an idea where it should go, but sometimes it's like I I don't know. I don't have any ideas. Like, I might feel like I'm inadequate, I might feel like I don't have expertise or knowledge. Why are you asking me? I'm busy, oh, one more thing on my plate. But if you can give me something to react to, that's a really good thing to start with. Because then I can be like, oh, I don't think that's right. Or what yeah, I actually really like that path. Now, there's a risk there, right? Someone can be like, yeah, just do whatever. I like that, just keep moving. And it could be the wrong thing. But for the most part, subject matter experts are going to take it seriously and say, oh, actually what we need to do is try to fix or this idea, this isn't quite right. Like, so if you can give a subject matter expert something to react to in the process, now that might be further down. You might not be in the information gathering stage, right? That's kind of where I'm at right now. And my opportunity, um, it might be further down, and you're saying, like, hey, this, hey, what about this? How does this resonate with you? You gave me all this idea, I turned it into magic and gold. Ah, what do you think? And then having that ability to react to something is way easier than uh just coming up with from nothing, right? It's you can't create something from nothing. Subject matter experts are they're like everybody else, and we just need to know, like, hey, where where are we even thinking starting? The experience I'm having right now is I am seeing some of that through other courses. So I get to see, like, okay, I see what they're doing here, I see what they're doing here, and that is interesting, it can be helpful, it definitely gives me at least a better vision of where I need to go, versus just saying, okay, I guess I gotta figure out everything, even though that's you know, instructional designers can actually build the course. Last but not least, number seven. So one of the things I think is really important, and I'm not there in this opportunity I have yet, but I I do want to know is like where did my input land? What comes out of that? I think it's really important that we're closing the gap on hey, you did X, Y, and Z provided this, but now here's what it's turned into. I think the relationship between the ID or whomever and the subject matter experts need to be that it's a continuing thing. It's obviously sometimes you're like, hey, just get the information from them or done, but make sure they know they provided good information. Help them to see how what they did translated into something of value to create the thing that you wanted to create. Without that feedback, it's hard for that subject matter expert to get better. It's hard for them to understand, like, yeah, this had value, to feel uh feelings of goodwill, if you will, towards the person that is uh creating the course or the next instructional designer or whomever is coming along. Because they're like, well, I did that and I didn't know, I don't even know what happened to it. That is a terrible feeling. I don't know what happened to it is a terrible feeling. And so what you want to do is make sure we're looping back, make sure we're following up. Now, in all these steps, in all these processes, a couple things I'll just say. One, I think we obviously have to use a little bit of face-to-face time, synchronous meetings, connection are always helpful. Like, hey, I can see you, you can see me, we're both human, we both have likes and dislikes, and we have things that we want to do. I'm gonna ask as ID, I'm gonna ask you, subject matter expert, some questions, get to know you. Hopefully you reciprocate, but not important. Then I think we, of course, we're gonna have uh other communication tools, right? You're gonna have project plans, you're gonna have maybe uh a project management tool to help keep things on track and helping them to understand, like, hey, these are deadlines, deliverables, here's the path that we need to go down. But one thing you might consider in all this is also what's the role that video can play? I think, you know, look, Visual Lounge Podcast, we're gonna talk about video, so let's talk about it for just a minute. Video can be essential because it can do some things. It can you can show things and you can say things, and even if you can't be synchronous, you can be asynchronous, which allows you to convey what's going on. One, your subject matter expert, you could record them. Get them to share some things, maybe ask them to give verbal feedback on something via video versus writing it out. It might be faster for them. You're gonna get some of the the uns uh unwritten things, the nonverbals that you can't get otherwise. Like, oh, hmm. What reaction do they have when they when they read something? As an instructional designer, maybe you're providing updates, just quick short video updates like, hey, thanks for your your content that you contributed. Here's three things that we're using that for, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, maybe it's just a quick status update on the overall project, where we're at in the flow, and maybe it's a reminder, like, hey, uh, Matt, I'm just uh checking in with you, letting you know that um I do need that project next week. It's really important that we keep on our timeline. I know you're really busy, but there's three things that we just really need you to focus on, blah, blah, blah. And like, it's a personal invitation. Now, could you do that in email? Yep. Could you do that on Slack? Yep. I think by adding the video, that's when you're saying this is real, this is serious, it adds a little bit of weight, and that video doesn't have to be longer than 30 seconds. I know it's easy to get on a video and start talking and talking and talking and talking. We don't want you to do that. Keep it short, keep it focused, keep it simple. Now your SME might be like, oh, video, I hate videos. And if they do, okay. But let them know that there will be times that you will use video and it will be for purposeful reasons, and then do that. But I think there's a whole system of things that you can create using video that can convey, in addition to the some of the strength that comes with those other kind of tools and processes that add to and that make connections that keep it real. Um, particularly in a large organization, if you're, you know, and subject matter experts are probably working with tons of people, uh, and you're just one ID in the sea of all the other people they have to interact with. This is not a high priority for them. It's a high priority for you. That video can just help you stand out a little bit. So, well, hopefully this has been helpful. I'm excited to go through this process as a subject matter expert myself, to be contributing information, to be figuring out how to help some eventual learners to grow and develop their skills and understanding, and to be partnered with an instructional designer that's not me to see how they work and think through this process. I'm I'm very excited. And hopefully we'll do a follow-up episode later this year to talk about that process, maybe invite the instructional designers on. We can go through the workflows or whatever. But just with that said, I think with any project you're working on, just keep in mind we're people. We're human. People like humans, people like to be helpful. And for the most part, people are coming from a good place. And as you who, as an instructional designer, work with them, come from a good place. Subject matter expert working with others, instructional designers, come from a good place. And don't be afraid to talk about what's not working. Don't be afraid to share exactly what you need. I think we're so worried about it that it it causes challenges in in the workflow. And the best subject matter experts I worked with, they were just really willing and giving, but they valued what I gave direction to because they had a lot of information in their head and they really didn't know what I needed. And until I could articulate that, it was a lot of wasted time. I learned a lot. But no one else did because it was just information I received. So with that said, I hope you're always looking at ways to improve, looking at ways to introduce images and videos into your workflow. Just as we wrap up, I will say if you have not checked out the Camtasia suite of products, Snagit is now included with the Essentials plan on up, which is so freaking cool that you get Snagit and Camtasia together when you buy an individual license. You also can get the Pro Plan that includes so many cool tools: Audiate and Camtasia, and Snagit, and Screencast, and the Asset Library, and you get Camtasia Online as part of the whole package. That's it's already free. So if you're not using any of them, go try that out. Camtasia.com. It's so fantastic, and it really can make your life as an instructional designer, as a subject matter expert, whatever role you're working in, much easier as you work through this product. So check them out. Love to have you download them, try them for free. A lot of them you can just use for free. Some of them do have uh limited trial times, but it's a way to level up, right? Get some skills, build some more videos, work with your subject matter experts better. It's all gonna be great. With that said, whatever you're doing, however you're looking at your kind of role, career, opportunities, I hope you're taking time to level up every single day. Thanks.