How to conduct the perfect SME interview

​Tips for this essential marketing and copywriting service
 
We’ve heard it pronounced “Smeee.” We’ve heard it pronounced “S-M-E.” Either way, it refers to “subject-matter expert” or SME. As experts, SMEs are often tapped for their wisdom. That’s what this article is all about. 
 
Why would you need to conduct a SME interview in the first place? It depends on the assignment. Here at Copel Communications, we’re often tapped to ghost-write thought-leading articles for business leaders. This is a classic case of “call in the SME.” 
 
Or you might be crafting a strategic situation analysis for your company or another company. You need to know the lay of the land. Consider using a SME when you need to get well-informed opinions about topics such as: 

• The state of the industry (whatever industry that may be). 
• The state of the competition, including new upstart players and other “weak signals at the periphery.” 
• Trends in technology that are affecting that industry. 
• Recent or pending regulation, court cases, or taxes that could impact the industry. 
• Recent media coverage pertaining to that industry and its impact. This could be news and/or pop culture. 
• The future of the industry itself, where it’s heading, and what’s possibly disrupting it. 

 
Note, importantly, that we said “opinions” above. 
 
This is huge. 
 
The whole idea of interviewing a SME is to get opinions, more than facts.
 
Think about that. For “facts,” you could basically go on Wikipedia and seemingly get your questions answered. That’s not worth much, and it’s certainly not unique. The whole advantage of a SME is that this is someone who is toiling at the front lines, at the very bleeding edge of their area of expertise. So naturally they’ll have strong—and well-founded—opinions about all of the topics listed above. 
 
And that’s what you want to get from them. Every opinion they offer, of course, will be couched within the context of the facts that surround it. Such as “This new technology is the hot new darling of Wall Street, and the valuations of companies who manufacture it are going through the roof.” 
 
That’s the fact. 
 
Then comes the opinion: “But as far as I’m concerned, this is all smoke-and-mirrors; it’s another dot-com bust just waiting to happen.” 
 
If you’re not asking “Why?” right now, you need to hone your interviewing skills. 
 
Succeed in advance 
 
Clearly, the example above is made up. But it’s typical. We encounter these types of exchanges all the time. And they’re the best part of the interview. We’ll take ten minutes of opinion for every one minute of facts. Not only that, we love to probe in instances like this. Dig deep. Keep asking “Why?” Get your SME riled up, indignant, and on their high-horse. This stuff is solid gold. 
 
All of the above, of course, assumes that you’re already hip-deep in the interview. So let’s back up a little and help you set it up in the first place. 
 
Conducting a good SME interview is all about preparation. You want to be totally prepared. Some checklist items to consider: 

• Booking. You’ll likely have an intermediary (the SME’s boss/business owner, for example) helping to introduce you. Be as accommodating as you can to the SME’s schedule and needs.

 

• Advance communication. You’ll likely “meet” the SME via email prior to the interview. Thank them in advance for their time. Give them a timeframe for the interview (e.g., 45 minutes) and then stick to it. Give them a rough overview of what you’ll be asking about. Don’t send your questions in advance, if at all possible. This is not a play. This is free-form, with some guide-rails.  

 

• Questions. You want to craft a bunch of questions, such that you can cover in the timeframe allotted. The bullet list of topics, earlier in this article, is a fantastic starting point. But you’ll want to dig deeper. Learn as much as you can about your SME in advance. Read their LinkedIn profile. Read papers or articles they’ve published. Seek out YouTube videos of them to get a feel for their personality and cadence. It’s always better to over-prepare than under-prepare. It could well happen that you put a ton of work into a big list of questions, and the very first one lights up your SME like a Christmas tree, and you spend the rest of the interview frantically writing down fantastic notes. That can happen. At the other end of the spectrum, you might get a taciturn sphinx-meets-Calvin-Coolidge type, in which case you’ll need every single question on your list, and will be grateful to have them all. 

 
The medium for the message
 
Not long ago, we did all SME interviews by phone. Post-pandemic, that’s changed. There’s a lot more video going on. But that doesn’t mean that you need to use video. Let’s consider some of the advantages and disadvantages of each: 

• Phone. This is the easier of the two, for both of you. You can focus on your notes instead of your hair and clothing; ditto for your SME. You’ll need to type fast, although you can record, say, an audio Zoom call... with the SME’s permission. The whole “recording” aspect can get thorny; ask, in advance, for permission to do so, and don’t expect an automatic “Yes.” A downside of the phone/audio interview is that the output is limited: Either your typed notes, and/or a recording of a back-and-forth informal conversation.

 

• Video. This is harder for you both, in terms of looking presentable. The upside is that you can see your subject’s reactions, and they can see yours—helpful when, for example, they’re thinking about an answer to one of your questions. A huge advantage of video is the ability to record it—again, if you get permission in advance. A video-based blog, for example, is killer content for everything from websites to social media. But you need that permission. You’ll need to edit the video, and add titles, music, etc. So that adds time and money. 

 
Key takeaways
 
Depending on the assignment, you might nail the interview in one shot. Sometimes it will go so well, you’ll effectively get two interviews’ worth of information out of a single one. And sometimes the opposite is true: You’ll only get half of what you need. In that case, you’ll need to book a follow-up to complete the assignment. 
 
All of this, incidentally, is work. That’s in addition to having, and employing, “soft skills” such as putting the subject at ease, especially when they’re a highly technical person who might not be terribly social or outgoing. 
 
This is where we come in. We know how to do great SME interviews, because we do them all the time. We also craft the materials—everything from white papers to blog articles to case studies—that result from them, to our clients’ benefit. 
 
Need help with that next SME interview or the deliverable it will inform? Contact us today. We’d be delighted to discuss your needs. 

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