Conducting an SME Interview

Why this skill is an asset: A technical writer needs to document information for others to use. The writer learns the information through subject matter expert (SME) interviews and designs and teaches the information so others can understand and apply to their own purposes. For example: ABC Cupcakes wants their production employees to learn a new recipe for cake-pops (cake on a lollipop stick). However, the employees only know how to make cupcakes. An ABC technical writer will then talk to a cake-pop SME and document how to make a cake-pop for others to learn. For the purpose of this example, the SME will be the cake-pop inventor.

Goals of an SME Interview

Primary Goal: Find out how something works. This is accomplished by
getting information from a subject matter expert that others will know how to use. People know how to use information when: They know the context in which it is valued They learn the information by connecting it with what they already know Example questions to ask a SME: 1. Why is ABC Cupcakes switching to cake pops? 2. What part of cake-pop production will each employee be responsible for learning? 3. What equipment is used to make a cake-pop? 4. What is a cake-pop? 5. What are the steps to making a cake-pop? 6. What are the signs that indicate a step has successfully been completed? 7. How is making cake-pops different than making cupcakes? 8. How is making cake-pops similar to making cupcakes? 9. What can we use from creating cupcakes to make cake-pop production easier to learn and remember? How the example questions illustrate the primary goal: Questions 1-6: Each of these questions establishes the context of the system of information. Context is important because it provides the reason why an action should be accomplished. It creates the environment that influences a persons actions.

It helps people understand how their actions will affect others. Context is how people understand where they fit within a system/community. Questions 7-9: When people are trying to learn a new context of information, they will often run into terminology they are unfamiliar with. They might also have a problem understanding the processs details. Learning new information can be difficult to remember or memorize. Questions 7-9 help make new information easier to understand by relating it to information the production employees already know. The answers to Questions 7-9 are the links that bring cupcake and cake-pop making together. Creating cupcake and cake-pop are separate nodes that are unrelated at first glance. By finding out what these nodes have in common, the production employees will have a better time understanding how to make a cake-pop.

Secondary Goal: Conduct an interview that enriches the relationship

between the interviewer and the SME. Be the type of person with whom others want to share information. Example questions to ask an SME: 1. Is it more mentally challenging for you to make cake-pops than cupcakes? 2. How did you come up with the idea to make cake-pops? 3. When making cake-pops, how can the production employees decrease the inconvenience they cause others in the company? 4. Where you tired of cupcakes? 5. How did you apply frosting on the cake-pop without getting messy? How the example questions illustrate the secondary goal: A successful SME interview enriches the relationship between an interviewer and the SME when the interview turns into an engaging conversation. A technical writer turns an interview into a conversation by asking open-ended questions about the SMEs experience. It shows the SME that the technical writer values the SME as a person and not a machine with answers. A conversation is a dialogue in which two people receive new and beneficial information. An interview means only one person is receiving information. Conversations help the technical writer because the SME is now voluntarily disclosing information. The interview is no longer limited by the technical writers pre-written questions. The conversation benefits the SME because they are getting feedback on their work, as well as appreciation. It also gives them an opportunity to have their concerns heard and acted upon.

Real Life Application of an SME Interview: Primary Goal

Context in which the interview took place:
I interviewed Dr. Angela Hwang, an accounting professor at Eastern Michigan University for my ENGL 427 class at EMU. The goal of the assignment was to conduct an SME interview, find out how an SME shared information with others outside of their knowledge community, and analyze how I got an SME to give me the information I needed. My goal was to find out how Dr. Hwang how she taught accounting to others who knew less than her.

How I established the context in which Dr. Hwangs work is valued:

I established the definition of accounting and why people value it. Then I established how Dr. Hwang is involved in the accounting community. She educates others on financial reporting, which helps others in a community make educated decisions on which businesses to invest, partner with, or sell. Janis: What is accounting? Hwang: Accounting can be very broad: financial reporting, managerial reporting, accounting information system, taxation and auditing. I specialize in financial reporting. Janis: What makes financial reporting stand out? Hwang: The purpose of financial reporting is to establish communication by publishing financial statements to be used by external users- people who dont work for the company or have direct access to the company; therefore, how would the company compile the information in a fair and objective way. Janis: What is financial reportings purpose? Hwang: To communicate what is going on in a businesss underlying situation through a set of accounting principles. Financial reporting is important to investors because they need to know how to allocate resources. For example, which stocks I want to buy, want to sell. Its important to suppliers because they base how much they give on financial reports. For example, will they give me their share of the bargain like they promised? Janis: Are the external user considered knowledgeable of accounting? Hwang: We are trying to communicate with educated users. They need to have a basic understanding of how accounting works. They need to know the underlying assumptions and limitations to understand the financial statements. We published extensive footnote disclosures to explain what is going on. Footnotes and financial reporting are very important parts of

annual reports, which is how publically traded companies communicate to the IRS, SEC and potential investors. Janis: What are the assumptions the educated users share? Hwang: Financial statements can only capture monetary units. But if information is very important, but it cant be captured in numbers, it must be disclosed in footnotes. Janis: Have you ever had to deal with a disparity in knowledge level? Where you had to talk to someone outside of your community about something that is very inside of your community? Hwang: Accounting can be very technical. It is more than just counting the beans. So in my first class, I introduced to them the purposes of accounting and I had them sample the end products of accounting. If you are serious about accounting, you have to invest the time. Janis: Is it different when you talk to outsiders about accounting than it is to talk to insiders? Hwang: Accounting involves very technical issues. If the outsider is not informed about particular accounting standards, it is difficult to establish a meaningful conversation. It depends on the purpose of the conversation.

Learning new information from a basis of learned information:

Dr. Hwang mentored her graduate assistant (Meiqin) on real-world applications of financial reporting by having Meiqin survey the financial reports of European Union pharmaceutical companies. This is because Meiqin had previous experience working as a researcher in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Janis: When your current graduate assistant first wanted you to sponsor her project, and you said no, I dont have the time to train you, how do you train a new grad student? Hwang: Meiqin already had basic accounting knowledge. While I was working at Visteon, I identified European companies that used U.S. GAAP prior to this IFRS, and immediately I saw the opportunity to learn from those companies. But I needed to know about the accounting practices used by those companies. That would be a good idea for students to read financial statements and understand the financial disclosures, and survey the practices made by those firms. So that was a perfect complement to what Meiqin had learned. She had knowledge that was not taught in the classroom and that would become a very important skill, should the US convert to IFRS. She enjoyed the accounting process, and given her previous experience in the

pharmaceutical industry, I said, Wow, I got to match something she knows the best with what she has learned. So I asked her to survey the IFRS accounting practices in the pharmaceutical companies. Janis: Is that how you helped her help you? Hwang: Exactly. As a result, she finished her thesis, and Im using her thesis as the framework for how I develop the projects for my new international accounting course. So now, my students will be studying nine different industries and after each group gives a presentation, the entire class will get to learn nine industries. During the presentations, I am going to invite a recruiter to examine our students IFRS literacy and maybe hire our students.

Real Life Application of an SME Interview: Secondary Goal

Context in which the interview took place:
I interviewed Diane DeCillis, owner of the Lido Gallery in Birmingham, MI, about an exhibit addressing how media pressures young girls to work to be sexy in the eyes of men. I was writing a feature article on the exhibit for Birminghams Patch.com, an online news website.

How I enriched the relationship between me and the SME:

I was able to get DeCillis to share more relevant information with me by taking a genuine interest in her as an individual and not a news resource. Janis: Did you feel pressure like that when you were growing up? DeCillis: I felt a different kind of pressure because I did not grow up with MySpace or Facebook. It was more internal. This seems more external. I didnt have an audience for my pressure the way some girls do now. I grew up in the 1970s and the womens civil rights movement was underway. My pressure was centered on family or career, and being happy.

How it benefitted my article:

After I asked her about the pressures she faced growing up, the tone of the interview changed. She ceased to see me as a professional stranger interviewing her. She began to see me as a person she was having a conversation with about art. She was visibly less nervous and more relaxed about the interview. When my interview was almost over, she asked if I wanted to see French posters from the 1940s that were for the upcoming exhibit. She led me to the backroom of the gallery and took some posters out. She explained how they were created, for what companies, and how the environment in which

they were created (WWI, WWII, etc.) affected the artists choice of color and image to communicate a message to its audience.